Past Events
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Painting on Black Paper 2
Saturday 13th December
11.00am to 4.00pm
Iridescent, interference or metallic colours lend themselves to pattern and decorative approaches. Working with these colours in watercolour or pastel, alone, or in conjunction with regular watercolours or pastels. Sea creatures, corals and shells make good subjects or even a Northern lights sky or a winter frost. Some references will be supplied and black paper will be available at cost.
For full info and booking visit
Painting on Black Paper 1
Saturday 15th November
11.00am to 4.00pm
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Altwood Road, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
Use gouache and watercolour to paint a posy of Autumn or Winter flowers, berries and seed heads on black paper.
Some flowers will be supplied or bring your own. Black paper will be available at cost from the tutor
For full info and booking visit
Creative use of Photo-reference
November 4 to December 9
Six Tuesdays 12.30pm to 3.30pm
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Altwood Road, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
This course will help you make thoughtful use of a variety of reference photographs including those of landscape, people and animals or birds. We’ll explore different compositions from the same photo; how advances in photography inspired artists like Degas; and how photos can be starting points for imaginative or abstract works.
For full info and booking visit
Drawing Trees 2
Saturday 25th October
11.00am to 4.00pm
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Altwood Road, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
In this workshop we explore drawing trees in pencil or ink and add washes of watercolour. Photo reference supplied or bring your own, preferably of a tree or group of trees you know well. We’ll reference works by John Ruskin, Samuel Palmer and Paul Nash.
For full info and booking visit
Natural and Unnatural History: drawing and painting course
September16 to October 28
Six Tuesdays 12.30pm to 3.30pm
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Altwood Road, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
This course explores how artists are inspired to work from natural objects. After a couple of sessions making works based on observation, we’ll go on to create more abstract works involving pattern, before finding ways of adding an imaginative or surreal twist. Reference artists to include John Ruskin, Peter Randall Page, Sophie Munns, Magritte.
For full info and booking visit
Please note there are spaces available for the remaining sessions
Surreal 2: Exploring the World of Joan Miro
Saturday 12th April11.00am to 4.00pm
Invent your own symbols for the universe, or a farm, or anything, with line and bold flat colours. We’ll look at Miro’s very abstract version of surrealism which was rooted in his Catalan heritage, before creating our own paintings. Bring your own materials: acrylic or Gouache would work well.
For full info and tickets visit: www.nordenfarm.org
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Altwood Road, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
Miro goes Fishing by Jo
Surreal 1: Where Loaves become Clouds
Saturday 8th March 11.00am to 4.00pm
A lighthearted look at the surreal works of Magritte. You are invited to use your imagination to create an extraordinary composition where an ordinary object is taken out of context or where the scale of objects is altered. Jo will bring a box of little objects for inspiration. Bring your choice of materials and your imagination. A sketchbook or paper to work out ideas would be useful.
For full info and tickets visit: www.nordenfarm.org
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Altwood Road, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
Cup Cake enters Harbour by Jo
Shiny and Transparent
Six Tuesdays 4th March to 8th April 12.30pm to 3.30pm
Transparent and metal objects can seem difficult to represent, this practical art course will show you how other artists have tackled these subjects and give you strategies for painting metallic, glass and other reflective surfaces as well as transparent packaging materials. Bring your own materials; pastel or wet media; acrylic or gouache. Watercolour is possible but would be more of a challenge.
For full info and tickets visit: www.nordenfarm.org
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Altwood Road, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
Dreaming of Sunshine; mixing warm colours in watercolour
Saturday 8th February 11.00am to 4.00pm
Paint the warm colours of North Africa, mixing sand, pink and earth colours and contrasting these with bright blue skies. Start by making irregular grids of colour evoking the landscape, spices or towns of North Africa in a similar way to Paul Klee when he visited Tunisia. Then choose to experiment further or to compose a more traditional landscape using similar colour mixes.
For full info and tickets visit: www.nordenfarm.org
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Altwood Road, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
On Your Marks
Six Tuesdays 14th January to 18th February 12.30pm to 3.30pm
On Your Marks
This drawing course explores the use of wet and dry media for drawing. Suitable for all those interested in drawing, we’ll look at working with ink, charcoal and other dry drawing materials using a variety of tools from pens to sticks and even old decorating brushes to discover how they can be used to draw different forms and textures. We will be drawing from objects supplied by the tutor for the first session and you will be invited to bring your own objects for subsequent weeks.
For full info and tickets visit: www.nordenfarm.org
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Altwood Road, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
Painting the Cold in Watercolour
Saturday 11th January 11.00am to 4.00pm
This workshop is about colour in the colder months; we’ll look at mixing colours for winter skies and practise making washes and textural strokes and marks for trees and branches before painting a winter landscape or garden.
For full info and tickets, visit: www.nordenfarm.org
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Altwood Road, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
Paint a Waterfall in Acrylic
Saturday 9th December
Scaleber Force
11am to 4pm
A Saturday workshop at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
A waterfall in full flood is one of the most exciting things to paint. We will learn to paint brush strokes that really go with the flow of rushing water. To make the waterfall convincing involves understanding the supporting landscape, light, and especially the tonal contrasts. We will look at how this has been achieved by American and European artists before painting our own pictures. For full details and booking visit http://www.nordenfarm.org
Paint a Small Concertina Book/Card
Saturday 11th November
11am to 4pm
A Saturday workshop at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
Paint a small concertina card/book in acrylic and acrylic paint pens, and make an origami closure band. This is an excellent way to experiment with a panoramic composition. We’ll cut and fold the book then choose a limited palette of colours and shapes to provide interest and also continuity from page to page. These make delightful Christmas gifts or unique cards. You may choose to work in a representational way or in a more abstract way with repeated shapes and patterns as in the sample illustrated. For full details and booking visit http://www.nordenfarm.org
The Rough and the Smooth: drawing techniques
Six Wednesdays: October 25, November 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
10am to 12am
An online drawing course
Explore a variety of surfaces and techniques for drawing; frottage over found and made surfaces; drawing over sandpaper; impressing and white line drawing; sgraffito with pastel, oil pastel or wax crayon; tracer prints using oil pastel or printing ink; using straight and curved edges or hand-made stencils to make defined areas of tone. There will be drawing in real time and demonstrations/slide shows at each session together with reviews of work done at the class and completed in your own time. You will be invited to send an image of finished work for inclusion at the end of a blog post published each week with practical ideas on materials and technique.
For full details and booking contact Jo by E-mail.
Winter River, Winter Garden
Six Tuesdays: October 24, 31, November 7, 14, 21, 28
12.30pm to 3.30pm
A short painting course at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts Maidenhead SL6 4PF
Be inspired by the colder months to create winter river and garden paintings with a limited palette. Use watercolour, gouache or pastel to paint icy riverbanks and frosted trees and plants spangled with bright berries. Take in the difference of reflections seen in water and ice and the effects of “broken” water. For full details and booking please visit http://www.nordenfarm.org
The Magic of Black: painting on black paper
Saturday 14th October
11.00am to 4.00pm
A Saturday workshop at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
Paint a picture on black paper in white gouache and/or watercolour and experiment with metallic and interference colours. Good subjects include a moth or an iridescent insect, iridescent fish or translucent water creatures like plankton and shrimp. You may work from your own reference or from photo-reference supplied. Some beautiful black Stonehenge watercolour paper will be supplied at cost from the tutor. For full details and booking visit http://www.nordenfarm.org
Granulation: experiments with watercolour
Saturday 30th September
11.00am to 4.00pm
A Saturday workshop at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
Using granulating colours gives interesting texture to watercolour paintings. In this workshop you will learn more about what causes granulation; which colours granulate, what mixtures of colour granulate; how to use granulating medium; and what super-granulating colours are, and then paint an imaginative landscape, or an intuitive or abstract composition using granulation techniques. For full details and booking visit http://www.nordenfarm.org
CAMAT: Cookham and Maidenhead Arts Trail
Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th September
10.00am to 5.00pm
This is is always a wonderful showcase for artists working in and around Maidenhead.
Jo will be showing paintings, drawings and prints at her venue .
Morar, Altwood Close, Maidenhead SL6 4PP
For details of everyone taking part which includes artists working in glass, ceramics, textiles and jewelry visit www.camat.org.uk
Water-birds and the Landscape
September 6, 13, 20, 27, October 4, 11
Six Wednesdays 10am to 12am
An online drawing and painting course
We’ll paint and draw water birds in and out of the water, taking note of their different forms and behaviour and how they relate pictorially to their surroundings: reflections, movement and wave creation, camouflaged or contrasting etc. Birds for study include; duck, goose, swan, grebe, heron, moorhen or coote. There will be drawing in real time from slide shows and discussions/reviews of work done, and short demonstrations where appropriate. More finished work will be completed in your own time in the medium of your choice and you will be encouraged to get out and draw birds locally. For full information and booking contact Jo by E-mail.
Negative Painting
Six Tuesdays: September 5, 12, 19, 26, October 3, 10
12.30pm to 3.30pm
A short course at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead SL6 4PF
Negative painting involves painting around shapes and objects rather than painting the objects themselves. Very beautiful layered effects can be made in this way inspired by subjects like trees in a forest and overlapping cascades of leaves. Starting with simple shapes we will also discover ways of painting more abstract compositions in a similar way, or by using found and made masks. Watercolour is excellent for this but acrylic used as fluid washes also works well and there is no danger of lower layers lifting. Full details can be seen and bookings made by visiting http://www.nordenfarm.org
Contact Jo by e-mail: johall@mhstudios.co.uk for more details of any of these events.