There is nothing quite like being outside in the fresh air, in an inspiring environment and taking time to express not just what that place looks like, but how it feels. This is where I feel most alive, where I feel at peace and connected both with my surroundings and myself.
I would love to share with you ways that I have found to connect with the place I live, respond to familiar and unfamiliar scenes and create out in the landscape.
This course is currently only available as a Self Study Course.
I will guide you through various exercises to help you gather inspiration and to experience your landscape through an immersive creative practice.
Are You Ready...
• To venture into new places in your creativity?
• To be inspired by where you live or where you travel?
• To take some time to observe, appreciate and fall in love with the landscape?
• To see the world with a different perspective – for the beautiful and inspiring place that it is?
• Most of all, to find new ways of taking time for your creative self and venture outside?
Where better to create art than out in our wonderful world?
I don’t think you need to be a ‘landscape artist’ to enjoy responding to the landscape and creating within it.
There is great joy to be found in observing, appreciating our surroundings - taking time to notice and just be - and to fall in love with the landscape. To see the world with a different perspective - for the beautiful and inspiring place that it is. Most of all, to find new ways of taking time for your creative self and venture outside. Where better to create art than out in our wonderful world?
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.
"I have taken both in person and online courses with Gillian. She is a brilliant teacher and a kind soul. She encourages you to find and own your own style while teaching foundational methods. I felt like I was at art school! Gillian was instrumental in helping me find my own style and encouraged me to believe in my abilities. I’m so grateful."
Jodi Kincaid
IT'S TIME!
Be inspired by your own unique surroundings and find a new appreciation for the places you love.
Find ways of expressing not just what you see but more about where you are and how you feel about it.
Fill sketchbooks with experiences, memories, sketches and drawings - books that you will treasure for years to come
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 and overcome the challenges that you might encounter when creating outside.
Choose your tools and materials to suit where you journey to, your own practical considerations, and how you wish to respond to your landscape.
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, and 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.
COMING SOON!
I am currently writing a brand new E-course where I will explore a specific subject in the landscape, gather inspiration, and work through possibilities for interpretation before creating paintings based on the preparatory work. This course will be launched in late 2023. 'Gathering the Landscape' provides the perfect precursor for this all-new course.
Please sign up for my newsletter to hear more.
If you have studied with me previously, you 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
In order to fully explore the potential for creating outdoors and gathering from your landscape, the materials will be varied and will encourage exploration and experimentation. Many of the materials will likely be in your creative toolbox if you already have a creative practice.
The materials list will be filled with suggested items based on the demonstrations. My aim, however, is not for you feel bound to buy everything on the list. There is no pressure to buy materials that do not suit your practice or your pocket. So the materials list will highlight recommendations, alternatives, and materials that are optional but not absolutely necessary.
A materials list is available at the beginning of the course and additional information on materials is included throughout the course. But we start with the most simple of materials - pencil and paper! So if you have that, you are ready to begin!
Our inside creative spaces are often our sanctuary whether you have a dining table, shed, or studio. It is 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.
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? How to I choose what to draw?
In Gathering the Landscape, my aim is to give you a place to start, ways to find yourself and your creativity whilst outdoors and the desire to make this an ongoing part of your creative practice.
There is a whole world out there to inspire our creativity and ‘draw’ from. No matter where you live, what scenery surrounds you or what landscapes you can visit, there is a wealth of opportunity for expressing something about the world in which we live.
"I enjoyed and learned in ALL Gillian classes and cannot wait for new, but I keep going through these classes and see new every time! Get them!"
Mary Simpson Hunt