Summer Painting Holidays
Find your challenge this summer …
By Lynda Cookson
I’m an artist of the spoilt brat variety … self taught and revelling in learning what I want to learn, how and when I want to learn it; accepting the artistic challenges I am free to choose - when I feel ready. It’s heady stuff but it’s also really easy to hide in a comfort zone.
A couple of summers ago I joined a group of leisure artists on a sketching trip, to conquer my fear of drawing with charcoal.
The first lesson was very scary. The view stretched for endless miles - hot, hazy, distant mountains. Too intimidated at this stage to use charcoal, I grabbed a pencil and tried desperately to find a bit of that scene on which to focus my sketch. Two hours later, having been put through a number of challenging sketching exercises I felt humbled but good. I’d learnt to have confidence that my individual style will always be there like a trusted friend.
This is not what I sketched that day, but I had the confidence
to come home and sketch The Quiet Man Bridge
Later that day we were allowed to use paints – ‘Yippee!’ I thought. ‘My comfort zone.’ Oh dear. In my eagerness I totally over-worked the painting and was about to hide it and start again when the lesson ended. Now if I was back in my studio, it wouldn’t have seen the light of day and no-one would have been the wiser – but ‘the mess’ was whipped away from me and joined the pile of art to be analysed after dinner. I needn’t have worried. Most of the group felt the same and the tutors were kind and gentle, using very constructive criticism to nudge us all along the way.
The next day we were set free amongst the pencils, paints, charcoals and inks. It’s amazing how you can slip into a comfort zone when no-one’s watching! I had great fun painting a small stone outhouse and it was a wonderful release for my feelings of inadequacy which had been building up. I was quite happy to be hiding, messing with paints and giving a mere nod to the charcoal challenge. Did I really think I was getting into the charcoal thing by adding a few lines to a mainly acrylic piece? Hmmm.
I finally had to face The Challenge of the Charcoal. No choice. We were given five minutes to make a strong charcoal sketch of the landscape and pass it on to someone else in the group. Each person had to erase the sketch of the person they had received it from and produce a new sketch on top of that. We did this four or five times until our hands, faces and the boards were black with soot. It was heart-breaking rubbing away someone’s masterpiece and yet wonderfully exhilarating to feel free to make mistakes and experiment in the knowledge they’d be covered up!
Not the image I produced on the course but again
what I produced when I came home. "My Husband"
Our last lesson arrived and this time I was ready to face my challenge head-on and picked up the charcoal. I didn’t manage to finish the large sketch – probably because I was trying to be too precious about it and it ended up pretty messy and undefined - but I felt I had conquered my fear of working with charcoal … and bought myself a few sticks to continue the challenge at home. I had done what an art course encourages you to do … start the process and face your fears.
Recently I visited Seosamh (Joseph) Ó Dálaigh at his Dánlann Yawl Art Gallery and School of Painting on the Curraun Peninsula in Co Mayo. He talks a blue streak and passes on his exuberance and love of culture and painting with such enthusiasm that I left there on a high of inspiration. The school is named after the famous work boat of Achill, the Yawl, and is set in the breathtaking landscape which Paul Henry’s paintings made so famous. Seosamh offers instruction in oils, watercolour and pastel in the peace and quiet of the Old Stable Studio overlooking the sea with an apartment which sleeps four attached to the gallery. Other accommodation is available in nearby Achill. Courses run from May through to September and it’s advisable to book early!
Maureen Cahill runs the Suaibhneas Studio in Ballincollig in Co Cork, running courses in Co Kerry as well, and has a few amusing painting course tales to tell. She and a group of artists settled down to paint at the edge of a nearby golf course. Within minutes an irate foreman stomped over ready to shoo them away. To Maureen’s confusion he suddenly calmed down and thanked them for high-lighting the plight of the endangered Natter-jack toad …. and then Maureen realised she was wearing a wildlife preservation T-shirt. She didn’t enlighten him any further!
Across the country in Co Carlow, Mairead Holohan runs painting courses where she builds on the skills a student already possesses, encouraging the power of positive thinking. She says: ‘During your painting holiday I will introduce you to different techniques such as wet on wet, pen and wash, colour theory and its application in painting.’ She chuckled when she told me: ‘The most amusing group I hosted recently was a hen party! They collaborated on a couple of canvases in acrylic for the bride-to-be to do with as she wished.’
In the north-east of the country artist and art instructor Dermot Kelly tries to take the mystique out of watercolour painting and to eliminate the fear factor. He’s known for his contagious enthusiasm and declares: ‘An ounce of enthusiasm is worth a whole library of certificates!’ Harvey’s Point Country Hotel at the edge of Lough Eske in Donegal Town has been the seat of his classes for more than fifteen years and they offer four-day packages including breakfast, light lunches, coffee breaks and dinners.
So … haul out those brushes and paints and find your personal challenge this summer.
"After Picasso, in Venice"
My website : http://lyndacookson.blogspot.fr