Paint Matters 2018 End of Year Exhibition

Paint Matters is the second of the two end of year exhibitions we are holding for the students of the Essential School of Painting. Paint Matters is the student show for three of our yearlong courses.

The Painting Year – Artists – Max Alexander • Francis Basham • Fatima Bhagerian • Mila Dech • Jindra France • Lucy Marston • Gwen Ovshinsky • Elizabeth Hilliard Selka • Taiseer Shelhi • Luka Vardiashvilli

Painting Personal Projects – Artists – Francis Basham • Nuala Flynn • Stephen Garvey • John Heywood-Waddington • Georgia Lepper • Amanda Morrison • Liz Richardson • Wendy Rolt • Julia Woodhouse

Painting People: the Figure and Portrait – Artists – Simon Austin • Pearl Brown • Mila Dech • Peter Dixon • Heather Dyer • Maggie Hale • Mau Harrison • Kay Patterson • Liz Richardson • Alison Rivett • Jo Sellam • Juliet Whale • Lisa Wilson

This is a practical course in which students have been immersed in all aspects of painting, learning about and practising approaches to different materials, methods and ideas. The course is taught by Dan Coombs and Guy Allott, practising painters and experienced teachers. Learning about painting materials and techniques has been left by the wayside in many art schools, relegated to the inferior status of skills or craft, when, in fact, where ideas meet materials unexpected things happen. Just as it is unlikely for a fish to imagine walking, it is impossible for us to use thought or words alone to become powerful visual artists. In this course students have explored painting territories they never knew existed, evolving ideas and approaches for themselves culminating in new bodies of work.

This course is developed and taught by Alison Harper, the Artistic Director and founder of TheESOP. The programme is intended to give participants personal mentoring to increase confidence, creativity, a sense of direction and to provide strategies for developing a body of work, enabling the artists to clarify short and long term goals. As in most of TheESOP’s courses student numbers are limited to 12 ensuring plenty of tutor contact time. This programme gave participants an opportunity to develop their own work in a supportive community of artists.

In this year long course students have explored the elements of portraiture and figure painting and drawing in both systematic and creative ways. The course is taught by Allan Ramsay and Alison Harper, with guest tutors  Sandy Moffat OBE RSA and Rosemary Beaton. All four tutors are prize winning portrait painters and three have their work permanently in the National Portrait collections. Rosemary Beaton and Allan Ramsay are both first prize winners of the JP Portrait award (precursor to the BP Portrait award). Students have developed their observational painting and drawing skills and also ability to play and improvise with figurative painting.