In May I went on a Drawing Holiday to Berlin with Drawing Escapes , led by the wonderful and experienced Tutor Martyn Blundell. Martyn has a wealth of experience in leading drawing workshops from his career in lecturing at many different Universities including Central St Martins and Nottingham Trent.
Drawing on holiday in a new environment was an exciting and challenging experience. I was more sensitive and open to new sights, sensations and sounds that translated into my drawing with a heightened curiosity to the human form. Inspired by the architecture of Berlin I was interested in line and form within my drawing. I was introduced to new approaches to looking and drawing that has translated into my artistic practice with how I respond to capturing light.
I discovered new Artworks at the Magic Bean Gallery from Artist Seungmo Park. His work is engaged with the evanescent properties of seeing and sensing, and the transitory nature of perception.
I was very moved visiting Berlin, with its rich and poignant history. The arresting sculpture that marks where the Berlin Wall stood, and the coffin like concrete of the memorial to the murdered Jews. The simplicity and rawness of the material gives voice to the harrowing echoes of the past.

Just a selection of these lovely ticket drawings made by Shannon Ward after she returned from the Berlin trip last year. I've always liked drawings of information graphics, computer screens etc.. they're softer, more human versions of their digital origins. 

Here is some developmental drawing using some digital manipulation of work made on the trip to Riga. Very simple but very stylish and economical. Lovely use of limited colour in combination with carefully placed line and blocks of textured surface. Very cool.

Here's a lovely embroidery by Kathy Olsson made from a drawing from the secret destination trip to Lithuania last month. Great to see developmental work from a working drawing. Might just have to do a specific embroidery trip in the future.. maybe Spain for this one. Watch this space! 

  We're just back from out secret destination trip to... Lithuania!

We visited Kaunas and beautiful Vilnius, the capital. I was blessed with a fantastic group of guests, who were drawing with energy and enthusiasm from the minute we boarded the flight to the moment we touched down at Stansted. The quality of drawing on this trip was exceptional. 

​We tramped around in the snow, making work, visiting museums, drinking lots of coffee, and we had a magical train journey through an enchanted winter wonderland between our two destinations. It was straight out of a fairytale. Magical.

We had a session of one to one tutorials on the last afternoon and finished off with a few beers and hot wine. What a brilliant story we made!  Thanks to all x

I've updated the website throughout and revised some of the dates and availability as 2 of our guests for next year have moved from the May to the September Spain trip. 

Best thing though, is that it's snow is landing on our landing page!!