ABBOTSBURY STUDIO
Painting, colour and drawing Studio Courses and Holiday Courses / Weekly Workshop Groups and Classes ......... in Abbotsbury, at the heart of the beautiful West Dorset coast
Intensive work in a relaxed atmosphere
Studio courses and workshop classes are centered on nurturing and developing each individual's 'processes of practical work'.
John Meaker offers analytical and observational disciplines as well as technical skills, appropriate to each individual's vision and ways of making marks. Knowledge of colour, experiment, mixing and colour combinations are high up the list of priorities.
Artists/students are invited to work in the medium of their choice, whether a familiar medium or a new medium.
The Gallery at Abbotsbury Studio exhibits the work of artists and students.
Twentieth century drawing and painting have been carried from figuration through to abstraction without distortion or reduction by such artists as Mondrian, Soutine, Giacometti, Bomberg, Auerbach and de Kooning. They introduce, through imaginative projection, geometry and gesture, the transmutation of forms and figures into a field of flux. Combining detached analysis and emotionally charged gestural energy, true to the flatness of the canvas, while spatial relationships are held in utmost respect. Among other artists, they show us how we can effect negotiations with transitional states and enjoy the interchangeability of physical form with pure energy.
In the realm of ideas we live in a delightful condition of upheaval and revolution, of transition and opportunity. It looks to many as if the rule book has been thrown away and chaos reigns. However the principles and disciplines involved in the dynamics of drawing, the colours and material of painting are like laws of physics - behind the mechanism, working alchemical magic.
Studio Courses
or for our regular Weekly Workshop Classes, click here
Please book, and pay in advance when booking.
(for booking details, see the box in the right column)Painting & Drawing Workshops
Location - Abbotsbury Studio
X Abbotsbury Studio
Rodden Row, Abbotsbury, Dorset, DT3 4JLtel: 01305-871867
email:
web: www.abbotsburystudio.co.uk
Abbotsbury Studio, a former hall, is centrally situated in Abbotsbury village - spacious, with a high ceiling, large windows and good lighting. The village itself is unique and in a glorious and various landscape at the heart of Dorset's 'World Heritage Site' coast.
Each day starts at 10am.
Expression & Identity.
Painting and drawing portraits.
December 14th-16th 3 day weekend 10am - 4.30pm
£135
Studying traditions of natural colours spiced with modern ideas of colour and light. Portrait model each day.
Colour Actions Workshop
An introduction to, or reminder of, dealing with colour in painting.
January 25th-27th 3 day weekend 10.00 am - 4.30 pm
£135
Colour in action; colour mixing, complementary colours, warm & cool, Harmonies, neutrals, earth colours, grisaille under painting. Colour exercises based on Abstract Expressionist processes, as well as still life groups used to encourage observation of colour and enhance building colour repertoire.
From Degas to de Kooning
Gestural statement & response in drawing and painterly mark making.
February 8th-10th 3 day weekend 10.00 am - 4.30 pm
£135
Mornings with action Life Model, short poses; afternoons without model. A workshop encouraging and getting to grips with gesture drawing and various mark making, big brushes, rag marks, collage, etc.
Using glimpses of human attitude, posture and movement. Focusing on Degas gestural assimilation of volumes developing into Abstract Expressionist techniques, especially Willem de Kooning of "Attic" and "Excavation" period (1949- 1950).
Cezanne's Touch.
February 22nd-24th 3 day weekend 10,00 am - 4.30 pm
£135
It is perhaps too easy for us to overlook Cezanne probably because he got saddled with the reputation as being the source of modernism and his caricature tarnishes with modernism's maturity. However there are keys and guides for painters in Cezanne's practices and processes, which invigorate the painter's search and invest in the painter's vision.
Cezanne demonstrates volumes and formal qualities in painting. His composition is of special interest; he said - he "wanted to do Pousin again , from nature" and "to make of Impressionism something solid and durable". Cezanne was concerned to realise form through colour and also to show that colour and tonal values must be demonstrated as one thing, he had clear and useful ideas and persevered in his pursuit of them.
Composition Dynamics and Nature
For painters and drawers: contraposta relationships in nature.
March 14th-16th 3 day weekend 10.00 am - 4.30 pm
£135
In a dialogue with nature we cross the bridge, and make the link between, traditional figurative vision and a modernist vision invested with abstraction, geometry and gesture.
Focusing on processes and techniques used in the work of David Bomberg and Ivon Hitchens.
Life and Portrait Painting
First impressions of posture, attiude and expression. Skin colour - technique and tradition.
April 4th-6th 3 day weekend 10,00 am - 4.30 pm
£135
Water colours in Landscape and Studio.
May 2nd-4th 3 day weekend 10am - 4.30pm
£135
More info coming. ....Gesture, chance and experiment, washes and line; in that order. Use of transitional states and approaches to watercolour technique wet in wet, taking off as well as putting on.
Light & Shade on the Dorset coast
A course set in the middle weekend of "Dorset Arts Weeks".
May 30th-June 1st 3-day weekend 10.00 am - 4.30 pm
£135
At the seaside & the studio, with focus on ephemeral effects of weather and light passing over land forms and water.
Watercolour Weekend
Making the most of our glorious local landscapes.
June 27th-29th 3 day weekend 10.00 am - 4.30 pm
£135
If the weather is not sympathetic we will retreat to our excellent studio with great industry making sorties to sketch at local beauty spots.
Summer Studio 2008
Location - Abbotsbury Studio
X Abbotsbury Studio
Rodden Row, Abbotsbury, Dorset, DT3 4JLtel: 01305-871867
email:
web: www.abbotsburystudio.co.uk
Abbotsbury Studio, a former hall, is centrally situated in Abbotsbury village - spacious, with a high ceiling, large windows and good lighting. The village itself is unique and in a glorious and various landscape at the heart of Dorset's 'World Heritage Site' coast.
Each day starts at 10am. There will be an introductory talk wih projected pictures on day one.
Land and Sea dynamics, Summer Studio.
Price and date to be confirmed.
July 21st-25th 5-day week 10.00 am - 4.30 pm
£225
A working week focusing on colour and composition in the glorious Abbotsbury landscapes and surrounding seascapes as well as working in the studio. Life model on a rainy day.
Weekly Workshop Classes
or for our Studio Courses, click here
You can pay on the day for any class -
£20 for a full day or £12 for a half day
(Full time & 'A' level students: £12 full day, £7 half day)
Newcomers please phone first, otherwise drop in and pay on the day!
(there are limited numbers however, so booking is advisable - for booking details, see the box in the right column)Saturday Morning Life Classes
0 weeks - September 13th to December 13th
Location - Abbotsbury Studio
X Abbotsbury Studio
Rodden Row, Abbotsbury, Dorset, DT3 4JLtel: 01305-871867
email:
web: www.abbotsburystudio.co.uk
Abbotsbury Studio, a former hall, is centrally situated in Abbotsbury village - spacious, with a high ceiling, large windows and good lighting. The village itself is unique and in a glorious and various landscape at the heart of Dorset's 'World Heritage Site' coast.
I had planned to discontinue Saturday Morning Life Classes during the Summer Term however several people have asked for their continuance. I would reconsider if enough committed people contact me. J M
Thursday Evening Life Classes
at Bridport Arts Centre. £8 session. "A" level & full time students £5.
11 weeks - April 10th to June 26th
Location - Bridport Arts Centre
Dates - every Thursday excluding March 27th and April 3rd. Including April 10. 17. 24. May 1. 8. 15. 22. 29. June 5. 12. 19. 26
Summer Term - Wednesdays & Thursdays
All welcome... artists, students, beginners.
14 weeks - April 9th to July 10th
Location - Abbotsbury Studio
X Abbotsbury Studio
Rodden Row, Abbotsbury, Dorset, DT3 4JLtel: 01305-871867
email:
web: www.abbotsburystudio.co.uk
Abbotsbury Studio, a former hall, is centrally situated in Abbotsbury village - spacious, with a high ceiling, large windows and good lighting. The village itself is unique and in a glorious and various landscape at the heart of Dorset's 'World Heritage Site' coast.
14 full days: £240, or 14 half days: £150
(Full time & 'A' level students: £150 for full days, £80 for half days)
Pay on the day: £20 for the day. £12 half a day.
Summer Colour Studio Group
Concentrating on landscapes this term. Pay on the day: £20 the day. £12 half a day.14 Wednesdays
Apr 9th, Apr 16th, Apr 23rd, Apr 30th, May 7th, May 14th, May 21st, Jun 4th, Jun 11th, Jun 18th, Jun 25th, Jul 2nd, Jul 9th
A general painting class for all comers with challenges for artists, students & beginners. Emphasizing each individual's practical work. Making the most of our local glorious landscapes on fine days. For colour studies in picturesque or abstract landscape compositions. For gloomy weather - still lifes - interesting objects, fruit and flowers always in the studio. Personal projects - abstract or figurative.
Life Painting and Drawing (Summer Term)
Pay on the day: £20 the day. £12 half day.14 Thursdays
Apr 10th, Apr 17th, Apr 24th, May 1st, May 8th, May 15th, May 22nd, Jun 5th, Jun 12th, Jun 19th, Jun 26th, Jul 3rd, Jul 10th
We start the day with short poses for one hour; usually these short poses are for about 10 minutes each, followed by perhaps six 2 minute poses. All these short poses in the first session are more likely to have some twists and stretches. After a coffee break we set up one long pose to last for the rest of the day. Although the long pose is necessarily less demanding on the model we are always careful to make sure it is interesting from all points of view. So considering the model's welfare we still aim for the long pose to have some subtle classical "contra-position" or dynamic offset.
The tutor
John Meaker
is a prolific artist continuously drawing and working in several different painting mediums with figures, abstraction and landscape.
He has 25 years experience as teacher & mentor facilitating progress and change to the work of students & artists of all ages and stages, from beginners to accomplished artists.
He studied at Goldsmiths College and The Royal Academy Schools and in his own work reconciles their contradictory traditions:
- on one side: awareness of modernity of form, comparative to the history of Art, while enjoying the art of ideas and abstraction;
- on the other side: drawing skills, observational disciplines, concern with natural form, colour and light, traditional figurative painting, colour traditions and techniques.
Amongst some uniquely sensitive artists including Peter Greenham and Norman Blamey, J M was fortunate to have tutors who were themselves taught by Sickert, Tonks, Coldstream, Uglow and Bomberg; all British artists, expert in colour relationships, who play key roles in the major strands of 20th century drawing and painting.
For more than 25 years J M has tutored residential courses in painting and drawing at Missenden Abbey, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire; this year he will be there at the residential Summer School for three weeks.
Workshops at Abbotsbury Studio are at home to a wide variety of forms and styles of art, classical & modern, all dynamic.
Click here to see images of students' & artists' work made at Abbotsbury Studio.
Click here to see images of John Meaker's work.
Booking information
To take part in one or more of the courses, please click here to print out the form, fill it in and then send, enclosing a cheque for the total course fee(s) to:
John Meaker
White Hall Farm
Leigh, Sherborne, Dorset, DT9 6JG.
Enquiries welcome.
Once booking has been confirmed, fees cannot be transferred or refunded. It is advisable to insure against losses of fees due to illness or other mishap.
For local accommodation we can advise, or see the Abbotsbury Village website.
Contact details
JM - 01935-872461
mobile - 07816-850107
studio - 01305-871867
email:
Abbotsbury Studio
Rodden Row
Abbotsbury
Dorset
DT3 4JL
tel: 01305-871867 mobile: 07816-850107 email:
web design & search engine optimisation © andrew green associates
text © John Meaker