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Drawings from Porto

5/20/2025

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Here are some drawings by Isabella from our research trip. Let us know if you're interested in joining us next May. It’s has a lovely atmosphere, with grand buildings, colourful houses and some old run-down parts. Food is great and prices are reasonable. The river is the lifeblood of the city and the history of the port is still evident. Lots of quiet locations and cafes to draw in too. 
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Porto

5/17/2025

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We've just returned from a research trip to Porto. We are always looking for new destinations for our regular travellers and thought that Porto might be an option for next year. Well is it?
Most certainly it is! It's got all the right ingredients. Beautiful architecture and history, peaceful parks, river views and walks, fantastic food and of course Port!

Top this off with friendly locals and reasonable prices and it's perfect! Message us if you're interested. We're planning on travelling May 2026.
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Drawing in London

4/5/2025

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 Sunday 11th May 1.30pm
 
Everybody welcome!

​So pack a sketchbook, a blanket and maybe even a picnic and come along to this regular free drawing event.
Join Martyn and Isabella for a few hours of relaxed drawing, followed by a drink and a discussion about of the day’s work.
It’s a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and it's a great chance to draw with like-minded people and to meet us at Drawing Escapes.

​We will meet here

 https://maps.app.goo.gl/8gEXEMzFuGUPCFpM6?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy

​​This event is free but please message us to confirm your interest, ​or if you have any questions please get in touch.
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New dates for 2025

1/5/2025

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First of all, Happy New Year to all!

We are pleased to have our new dates for 2025 in place and hope you will be able to join us this year. We are keeping Bali, Istanbul, Spain and Krakow as our core destinations but will be researching new places too. There's a possibility of a life drawing trip to Galicia in Northern Spain in September where we have contacts with artists in La Coruña and lecturers at the University in Pontevedra. We'll keep you posted about this one. We hope to get to Gdansk again too and may tie it into the Krakow trip if we get sufficient interest. Message us for details.

Also, don't forget to get in touch with us if you have a custom destination in mind. We will do our best to make it happen!

Let's make 2025 is a happy and creative year! We hope to see you soon! ✍🏻
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Drawing in Spain feedback

10/29/2024

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Drawing in Malaga 16 – 23 October 2024
​

This was my second trip with ‘Drawing Escapes’.  The trips are becoming a central pillar to my mission to re-develop creative skills that have been lost over the years, due to neglect whilst I focussed my professional attention elsewhere. For me, it is the perfect fit: a combination of inspiring cultural environments; relaxed accommodation; a dynamic group of likeminded people and tuition that is tailored to the needs and demands of the group.
During the week, we shared stories, food, long walks and exchanged valuable tips and advice on drawing and creativity, to the benefit of everyone in the group.  Martyn’s style of teaching draws on a lifetime’s experience of teaching in top institutions, alongside his own artistic practice.  The intensely focussed workshops, as well as daily sessions, ‘en plein air’, enabled us all to refresh, reset and progress.  I managed to fill half a sketchbook with new work and ideas.  Looking forward to the Bali trip in May 2025 – hoping to fill an entire book on this one!  I’ve definitely got the bug!!!
 
Rachel Brooke
28.10.24
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Kathy Sawyer drawings from Athens

10/7/2024

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Here are just some of the drawings by Kathy Sawyer from the Athens drawing trip. We were blessed with fantastic weather on our first visit to this ancient city and are thinking of returning next year. Loving the confident line in these and the atmospheric quality of the 2 drawings on brown paper. What would we do without a white Posca! 😀
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Istanbul Street Life

9/26/2024

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Here are a selection of wonderful street photos of locals in Istanbul by Ellen Lawes taken on our trip last May. 
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Krakow in the sunshine

9/15/2024

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Just back from Krakow last week. We were blessed with fantastic weather and a lovely group including photographer Sharon Cooper. Sharon is a professional photographer who joined us with her daughter Velvet, one of my ex-students from Norwich University of the Arts.

Here are just some of Sharon's photos documenting the trip. 
You can see more of Sharon's work her website https://sharoncooper.co.uk/

We've been listening to the feedback about our destinations and will definitely be keeping Krakow, along with Istanbul on our list for next year. 
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A drawing manifesto

7/30/2024

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I've started working on a book about drawing. It's more about ways of approaching the task of drawing and ways of thinking about drawing than a 'how to do it' book. I'm going to start to post parts of what I'm putting together to get some feedback from an audience. I want it to be a bit confrontational and a little bit funny too, if I can make that work. We'll see. Meanwhile here's a manifesto to start with!

The Manifesto (first draft)

We, the undersigned, are artists, teachers and designers who have been raised in a world in which the process of drawing has been presented as something that is difficult and mysterious.

Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief, the market rewards it, a tide of media and publications reinforce it.

The media is saturated with commercial messages in the form of social media marketing campaigns, books, magazines, educational tools that endorse the view that drawing is hard, that drawing is a highly specialised skill, that drawing takes a long time to learn.

It is a harmful code of public discourse that promotes the idea that we are not able to draw properly and then attempts to sell you a product or technique that has the answers you've been wishing for.

But there are methods more worthy of our time and effort.

We propose a reversal of prioritities in the approach to learning to draw. Away from fake formulae and the 'tricky' towards a more expressive and personal interpretation of the world and our experience. A shift away from copying from photos, a shift away from ’techniques’ that will produce ‘realistic’ results. An active engagement with the real world and real experience. To eradicate sophist ideas that propose, for example, that we need to draw with a differnt side of the brain! ​Ha!

So what is to be done? How do we re-connect with our ability to draw and draw on our creative potential? Read on…

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Hayley Fern's drawings from Istanbul

6/15/2024

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Here are some beautiful drawings by Hayley from the recent trip to Istanbul. I had the pleasure of teaching Hayley at University more than 30 years ago and it was great to catch up again after such a long time. 

For a teacher it's great to see someone who is still actively creating and developing a very accomplished portfolio of work. Check out some of Hayley's other working this recent article. https://pukaarmagazine.com/an-arty-pilgrimage/

Or you can follow her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hayleyfernfineart/
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  • Destinations
    • Istanbul
    • Bali
    • Krakow
    • Spain
    • Social drawing days
    • Customised drawing trips
    • drawing in Porto
  • about
  • Video
    • drawing in Istanbul videos
    • drawing in Spain videos
    • drawing in Gdansk videos
    • drawing in Thailand video
    • drawing in Bali videos
    • secret destination videos
    • drawing in Kraków videos
    • drawing social videos
  • drawings
    • Kraków drawings
    • Istanbul drawings
    • Spain drawings
    • Bali drawings
    • Poland drawings
    • Thailand Drawings
    • Life-drawings
    • Secret trip drawings
  • reviews
  • Blog
  • Calendar
  • booking
  • Our Friends