There is something magical about being able to record a visual expression of what it feels like to be in a certain time in a certain place. Gathering the Landscape is created to help you experience this feeling in your own part of the world.

Our creative spaces are often our sanctuary. A safe, comforting place to while away the hours, indoors, working on our art. The thought of venturing out of that environment to seek inspiration can, for some artists feel a little daunting. They might want to explore their surroundings but there are barriers that get in the way of giving it a go.

Where to go? What to sketch? What materials to take? What practical things do I need to think about? What if people look at me and judge what I am doing? What about the weather? How do I even begin?

Gathering the Landscape will enable you to:

• Find ways of expressing not just what you see but more about where you are and how you feel about it.

• Dive deep into an addictive way of gathering inspiration from your surroundings.

• Create a visual language that says something unique about how you see the world and the emotions that connect you to a specific time in a particular place.

• Have the confidence to take your creativity outside!

• Work through the practical challenges of sketching on location.

• Overcome the fear of sketching out in public.

Registration

Gathering the Landscape is only offered as a self study course. A Facebook group will be offered for connection, encouragement and inspiration. Gillian intends this course to be an enjoyable celebration of getting out into the world for inspiration. As this is a self study ecourse, there will be no feedback or critique offered by Gillian.

Course Content

This course incorporates video tutorials, prompts and practical tips that will enable you to venture out into your world in order to immerse yourself in creating in the landscape.

I will be sharing with you my absolute love for where I live and create and some of the ways that I gather inspiration from the landscape and places that surround me. My hope is that it will encourage you to see your surroundings in a new light and to find ways of gathering from your landscape. It will bring a fresh energy to your artwork and also allow you to embrace the idea of taking time out of your day to day life in order to observe, be inspired and express something about where you live.

We will be focussing on the fundamental elements and principles of art and using those to find new and exciting tools for expression. To say something about what your landscape looks like but most of all what if feels like to be there – to immerse yourself in expressive ways of creating outdoors.

Gathering the Landscape…

Designed For:

Artists and students who would love to get out into the landscape and sketch but have so far found it too daunting

Those who would love a new challenge and who want to find ways of bringing a new energy to their practice

Artists who love to explore and are eager to take their work and practice further

This isn’t just for landscape artists! Your usual art practice can be focussed on any subject and in any style. This course offers you ways of creating that will only enhance your overall creativity.

Students will enjoy…

• Full access to an easy to navigate class site with all of the lessons available immediately.

• Ten in-depth and inspiring lessons to help build your confidence in sketching from the landscape.

• Video demonstrations, materials lists and hints and tips that will get you enthused about the possibilities for you to gather inspiration from your own landscape.

• Images, audio, and text to spark your creativity and connection with the landscape.

• A private group on Facebook for connection, community, support and encouragement.

Whilst this is a course on gathering IN the landscape, there will be a very small number of downloadable images for you to work from should you wish to gain confidence in the techniques in the comfort of your usual creative space*.

*Please note however, that this is a course to encourage you to get outside, immerse yourself in your surroundings, observe what is around you in the time and place that you are in. So please know that this is the main focus of the course and I hope you embrace the act of getting outside into the fresh air and all the joy of creating outside and gathering your own inspiration.

Course Schedule

Lesson 1 – Simple starts

Simple, small scale and very portable ways of sketching outside.

Lesson 2 – Going with the flow

Simple materials that encourage an expressive use of mark making and ways of capturing an ever changing landscape.

Lesson 3 – This way and that-away

Pared down materials and ways of rendering strength and direction from a more industrial landscape.

Lesson 4 – Capturing a feeling

Using fluid, expressive materials to express movement and an emotional response to your surroundings

Lesson 5 – Structure and order

Working from more man made structures we will be exploring dynamic ways of bringing expression and gesture out of an imposing scene.

Lesson 6 – Layer by Layer

Ways of building up layers of value, colour and detail to render a scene with depth and expression.

Lesson 7 – Embracing the chaos

Capturing a busy scene with line, shape, texture and colour.

Lesson 8 – Discovering atmosphere

Ways of creating expression and atmosphere whilst working outside.

Lesson 9 – Bold and Mighty

Powerful and dynamic ways of exploring scale, contrast and emphasis from an imposing scene.

Lesson 10 – Lost and found

Embracing the ability to lose and find an image many times over in order to create an emotional response to the landscape.

As with my filming, you may find yourself with some extra time between lessons if your weather does not play fair! My hope is that any extra time between lessons will encourage you to play with the techniques, explore your landscape further and indulge in even more time connecting with your surroundings.

If you have studied with me previously, you will know that I put my heart and soul into my courses and my aim is to bring you something that shares my love of where I live and an eagerness for you to connect with where you live too.

Materials

A materials list will be available on the course site prior to the start of the course.