The weekend will be about exploring the local views, both inside from references and outside en plein air. There are village scenes and rural landscapes abounds, and we will also throw in some warm up challenges to get people talking, sketching and loosening up.

Behind the Scenes at our last Course - Check out this video

Acceptance

More importantly, the weekend will be about acceptance and learning to enjoy yourself sketching. You might have seen the testimonials from our previous courses, overwhelmingly the feedback we received was that spending a weekend with like-minded people was freeing, led to huge personal and artistic development, and a gain in confidence.

Previous artists have ranged from absolute beginners through to very accomplished oil painters, but all have come with the same exploratory mindset. A lack of confidence has been a common theme at the beginning of the weekend, but this has normally all but vanished by the end of the first day.

Acceptance and and exploratory mindset are all we ask of you for the weekend!

Developing your style

Colin and I our ink and watercolour artists - with as many contrasts as we have similarities. We will challenge each other as much as we challenge you on this weekend, and you will see us as we struggle with a scene, explore each other's techniques and explain how and why we differ.

To give you an idea, here are some of our differences:

• Colin calls his process painting, and I call my process sketching.

• Colin mixes intuitively and realistically with his paints, I splash and splosh and am guided by the watercolours more than the scene.

• Colin has an enviable neatness and clarity to his colours, I revel in taking risks and hoping for the best.

• Neither of us are portrait painters, but I love adding abstracted people in, whilst Colin prefers scenes that celebrate the scene itself.

A classic scene from Lower Slaughter, where we will be based.

But we both have exactly the same love of architecture, landscapes and, more importantly, the same philosophy on creating - that it should be fun, full of forgiveness and part of journey of discovery not a rush to perfection.

The aim for the weekend is to help you develop your style - we will lead you through a series of guided workshops, both inside and outside. Discussing the principles that are common and fundamental to sketching architecture and landscapes in both ink and watercolour, but also how, why and when to break the rules.

Breaking the rules, after all, is how we develop our own styles - and is why Colin and I visually differ so much, when in fact we are so alike in our mindsets.