The ESOP Newsletter July to September 2018

2017-18 & 2018-19

We have had a wonderful academic year.  Every time I walked into the studios I was struck by the creative energy, hard work and commitment shown by the students towards their work. The year culminated in two fantastic exhibitions The ESOP 23.4° and Paint Matters, which we held at the beautiful contemporary space The Art Pavilion in Mile End Park. Congratulations to all the students and tutors involved. You did yourselves proud!

A special thanks goes out to our board, supporters, well-wishers and the curious wanderers who came to see the shows. We recognise the special contribution  and support that the London Buddhist Art Centre has given us over the years – you’ve had our back through fair-weather and stormy seas.
We look forward to the start of the new academic year in October and we are delighted to announce our venue remains Eastbourne House in Bethnal Green (Click for Google Map) where we have been for the last fourteen years.

This new academic year we are introducing new yearlong courses along side what we had previously. David Mach RA joins us, he take over The Bigger Picture from Bob and Roberta Smith RA. We have a good number of visiting artists to be announced as we go on and as usual we will keep you informed. For more news on what scheduled scrawl down to 2018-19 and new venue.

Andrew Wamae 
Director
The Essential School of Painting

The ESOP 23.4° – 21st June to 26th June 2018

Following a fascinating and challenging year where students and tutors delved into questions of creativity, methodology and what it takes to be an artist they were able to present for exhibition a body of work made this year. Students from The Bigger Picture with Bob and Roberta Smith RA course exhibited with students from Drawing Outside the Box: A Contemporary Drawing Year. with Jessica Voorsanger and tutors. The title of the exhibition The ESOP 23.4° End of Year Exhibition references the Earth’s axial tilt; which is responsible for the changing seasons on earth¹. Painting and Drawing are human activities that provide a similar counterpoint to human creativity and history. This exhibition held the work of 20 of our students whose work is vastly different from one another… from figurative narrative to abstract and installation, using all kinds of media from oil on canvas to textiles and metalwork. In 2D and 3D; some were highly delicate pieces, another was made to be obliterated and the act of destruction itself being a part of the artwork. Some were stand alone works, others were interactive pieces calling for audience participation. Some work was intimate and personal, another artwork was collaborative with participants as far afield as Tahiti and San Francisco sending in postcard contributions exploring notions of paradise.

Below is a sample of what transpired on the opening night on the 21st of June 2018.

The ESOP 23.4° End of Year Show 2018 from The Essential School of Painting on Vimeo.

Tiki Bar by Michelle Owoo, The ESOP 23.4° End of Year Show 2018 from The Essential School of Painting on Vimeo.

Paint Matters –  29th June to 3rd July 2018

Paint Matters was the second of our two end of year student exhibitions and was described as “wonderful and full of verve, variety and authenticity”. The works of 30 artists were exhibited from three courses The Painting Year, Painting Personal Projects and Painting People and Portraits.

Artwork ranged from large paintings both figurative and abstract to smaller works including portraiture, small sculptures and a great drawing and dance performance piece by Luka Vardiashvilli on the opening night. Artists expressed both the personal and the universal, the variety of individual interpretation and painting approaches was great to behold and is a credit to the energy and creativity of the students and the student centred teaching at TheESOP. There is no house style or clones here other than find your passion!

2018-19 Venue & Courses

This academic year we have a wonderful array of year-long and weekend classes these include our post-grad course The Bigger Picture with our new artist-tutor the phenomenal David Mach RA, The Foundation Painting Year and The Painting Year with Dan Coombs and Guy Allott, the ever popular Personal Projects with our Artistic Director Alison Harper and Drawing Outside the Box: A Contemporary Drawing Year with Jessica Voorsanger, Bob Matthews and Liane Lang all available and with registration and bookings going on; below are the course outlines. Another new year long course The Re-imagined Figure; contemporary approaches to the figure and story-telling in painting with tutors Alison Harper and others tbc will be running on Mondays from the first week of term. Details out soon. There will also be our weekend and short courses throughout the year, more info coming.

The Foundation Painting Year: Materials, Methods and Ideas with Dan Coombs RCA and Guy Allott RCA

Mondays 1st Oct 2018 to 24th June 2019 – 10am to 5pm

The Foundation Painting Year taught by Guy Allott RCA and Dan Coombs RCA is a practical course which aims to fill in all the gaps you never knew you had, in your understanding and practise of the age old activity of manipulating colour on a surface called painting. We will be immersed in all aspects of painting, learning about and practising  different approaches to materials, methods and ideas. 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. In fact, where ideas meet materials unexpected things happen. Just as it is unlikely for a fish to imagine walking, it is difficult for us to use thought or words alone to become powerful visual artists. Until exploration and making takes place within a visual medium the range and possibilities of materials remain silent to the thinker as they contemplate their idea within a different stream >>>read more>>>

Painting Personal Projects with Alison Harper

Tuesdays 2nd Oct 2018 to 25th June 2019 – 10am to 5pm

Painting Personal Projects gives students an opportunity to work with our Artistic Director Alison Harper as they develop their own work, receiving guidance and mentoring in a supportive community of artists. The course is intended to increase confidence, creativity and a sense of direction; helping to provide strategies for establishing and growing a body of work. Alison and the invited tutors aim to help each student to clarify and develop their short and long term goals. This highly demanded course is now on it’s 4th year. You will be expected to provide your own material though we do provide basic art materials; depending on the project that you are involved in if the need arises you will be given a list of some specialist materials to buy to accomplish your project. >>>read more>>>

The Painting Year with Dan Coombs RCA and Guy Allott RCA

Tuesdays Oct 2nd 2018 to June 25th 2019

The Painting Year is a practical course for those looking to advance their practise, developing their skills and content – guided by two experienced and celebrated painters Dan Coombs RCA and Guy Allott  RCA. The course aims to provide painters with a community and mentoring whilst actively engaging with painting language, opening doors to untried possibilities. Inject your practise with inspiration, try new approaches and materials such as resin and encaustic. This course is suitable for Intermediate to advanced participants – what does this mean? The course is designed for those with some prior experience of painting. You may be self-taught or you may even have been to art school. With painting these distinctions no longer hold. Many artists who have been to art school in recent years would like to paint but were not given the technical and/or intellectual support to do so and would therefore turn to other mediums. However once taken by the desire to paint it is hard to shake off. If you are in this category either The Foundation Painting Year above or The Painting Year will provide you with what you need, to learn about, practise and develop your painting >>>Read more >>>

The Bigger Picture with David Mach RA

Wednesdays Oct 3rd 2018 to June 26th 2019 – 10am to 5pm

“Whether you’re a painter, a sculptor, a print-maker, whatever your branch of creativity YOU are in an army of idea-mongers inspiring, generating and re-generating ideas for towns and cities, for businesses, for galleries and museums, for hospitals, for health for physical and spiritual well being. There is no length your creativity cannot, will not go to to reach all of those parts. You must already have the skills to be part of that army. You can’t learn them on a course but can enhance them. You can boost them you can supercharge them and that’s what this course proposes to do, over the three terms….we will pour over ideas, we’ll share them, we will find new technologies, we will hone skills, beat out initiatives on anvils and explore the world we will invade with our ideas and push the boundaries of that world further with our art. On this course, these are the things we will pursue.” David Mach RA   >>> read more>>>

Painting People: The Figure and Portrait with Allan Ramsay, Alison Harper, Dr. Sandy Moffat OBE RSA and Rosemary Beaton

Thursday Oct 4th 2018 to June 27th 2019

This course aims to explore the elements of portraiture and figure painting and drawing in both systematic and creative ways. The course will be taught by Alison Harper and Allan Ramsay GSA and visiting artists Dr. Sandy Moffat OBE RSA and  Rosemary Beaton GSA.  All are prize winning portrait painters who have exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery and/or the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Allan Ramsay and Rosemary Beaton are first prize winners of the National Portrait Gallery competition. Three of the four tutors have their work permanently in the National Portrait collections.

Working from a choice of two models the first term will explore drawing and how to create structure and volume in the head and body then learning about mixing flesh tones and composition. Term two we will practise composing a longer portrait in oils or acrylic moving to experimenting with different approaches from sources other than life such as music and photography. For this section there will be the option to work from observation of the live model if preferred. In term three we will look at the relationship between artist and sitter consolidating our work for an end of year show. >>>Read more>>>

DRAWING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX:

A Contemporary Drawing & Mixed Media Year with Jessica Voorsanger, Bob Matthews and Liane Lang

Fridays Oct 5th 2018 to June 28th 2019 – 10am to 5pm

This mixed media drawing course will explore drawing as a starting point and allowing it to lead the participants into different media, working from both a personal and critical perspective. The course will initially be working with exercises and projects focusing on drawing in the first term. These will be short exercises exploring technique, skill and creativity which will lead the participants into a developing longer personally selected thematic (and materially based) durational projects. There will be gallery visits, group projects and visiting speakers. Prepare yourself for full immersive days incorporating experimentation, playfulness, technique and discussion. This course will be taught by the artists: Jessica Voorsanger, Bob Matthews and Liane Lang. They are all professional artists with international standing. >>> Read more>>>

EXHIBITION WEEKS

We will once again hold two separate exhibitions and for those of you who would like to diarise this the dates are the 1st to 15^th July 2019. The venue will be The Art Pavilion Mile End Park.

If you have any questions (or suggestions) write to us using the form below.

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¹ 23.4° Earth's axis remains tilted in the same direction with reference to the background stars throughout a year (regardless of where it is in its orbit). This means that one pole (and the associated hemisphere of Earth) will be directed away from the Sun at one side of the orbit, and half an orbit later (half a year later) this pole will be directed towards the Sun.

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