For the past two years I have delivered Experimental Still Life to a group of artists live for nearly two months in the early summer. I was fortunate enough to have a few students who loved it so much they came back a second time!
I wanted to show anyone interested in taking the course in the future some more examples of work created this year during and as a result of the course and speak a little about what to expect.
Lucy Mathers has taken both Ignite Your Art which you can enroll on now; and Experimental Still Life ; twice.
”Thanks again for a wonderful course - I love the way you teach: when I am on a course with you I seem to be able to really push myself, and somehow end up with a bunch of finished paintings”
Lucy Mathers
Lucy really honed her approach throughout the course; she didn’t try to do every single exercise that I demonstrated. Each week we would concentrate on a type of still life approach and within that I would demonstrate or prerecord a techniqu or exercises.
Ideally students would read and watch the weeks content first and then start to work on what felt exciting to them, going deeply into one or two aspects, knowing that they have more than a year to revisit the course. The live version was delivered over 6-7 weeks but if you were to do everything you would need 6 months to a year to really do it justice.
In October for a period of 6 months I am developing the self-paced version of Experimental Still Life and am offering it to people for a reduced price of £400 if they would like to go through it gradually; a week of the course per month in return for feedback monthly on how the content is for them. I’ll be iterating the course and these students will have lifetime access to the final version and any future tweaks. This is the version that will be available in mid 2023 for the full price, likely to be £600-£700. At the moment I don’t know if I’ll be running it live again. If you’re interested in this special offer register here so that I can send you further details about the opportunity of taking the course gradually at your own pace from October to April. This is only open to those who have never taken ESL before so that I get a true picture of how the content is perceived.
Alumni will be offered this self paced course at a big discount, to which they will have lifetime access in 2023. I fully intend to add more to it, particularly the latter stages which are more challenging. The abstract and the painting at scale sections.
Below is a beauty of a work created during ESL by Sigrun Hodne; who had a desire to make art “that feels truly and authentic mine, …I’m not really concerned by what the art looks like, rather I am more interested in the feeling it gives me.” Sigrun’s work is adventurous and bold and I recommend her interesting and dynamic blog which you can access via her instagram bio.
Angela Bone hadn’t even considered Still Life as a subject before she discovered and signed up for ESL. It’s now become a subject she really loves, alongside dramatic portrayals of horses and abstract landscapes.
Your unique style and teaching has taken my work down a new and exciting path, I am very grateful. I'm loving painting large vessels and their surfaces. I recently rediscovered my love of painting after taking a number of years off since my fine art degree. I use a variety of mediums and subjects to express and explore my feelings. This course has broadened and lit up my colour choices, giving a whole new vibrancy to my work. It has been truly inspiring and very enjoyable
Angela Bone
Anne Atkinson created this gorgeous work “Lemon and Lime” while taking the course for the second time. Just one of many beautiful softy atmospheric images she created. This one has a beautiful palette and light.
I’ve taken two of Gabriella’s courses, Experimental Still Life and Ignite Your Art. Gabriella is warm, generous, fun and passionate about her art, which is infectious. The courses were interesting, informative and inspiring from start to finish. I loved them. Whether you want to paint realistic, semi-abstract or abstract art, there is something for everyone. I learned so much from Gabriella’s live painting demonstrations and I really appreciated the small group, which made it possible to get to know other artists and get individual feedback and support from Gabriella, which helped my learning and development as an artist.
Anne Atkinson talking about the live experience of taking my classes
Another artist who has been through the course a couple of times now is Antonia Clare; the painting below which was created during this years course was chosen for the Holt Festival Art Prize 2022. Like me Antonia lives in Norfolk in the UK and is very inspired by the sea and local landscape when not creating still life paintings.
Experimental Still Life with Gabriella was like a summer dream. Watching Gabriella paint in her garden studio with freshly picked flowers and quirky pots, whilst listening to the bird song was such an inspirational and relaxing way to learn and spend my time. I also met a really supportive group of artists who were also doing the course, and many of us have kept in touch and continue to share each other’s work. I hope to do the course again this year. In fact, I can’t wait.
Antonia Clare - speaking in 2021
I will share more work by past students as time goes on and images are sent to me.
Thank you to all my past and future students for helping me make this Brave in Paint course a reality. I would say that it’s the perfect course for you if you have already begun your painting journey and you want to explore portraying objects in many different ways. We start with drawing and composition and move from observation to imagination to abstracting from life and working at scale - in whatever approach you decide. You dive in to what excites you!
For the special Beta offer that opens in October you will be feeding back to me privately about the structure of the course but I will also make the new Facebook group available so that you can share your work with each other and ask me questions if you need to. The group is not for feedback about the course itself but this way you will have a very real experience of how the self paced course would work, plus more time to do it all and connect with each other. The group is totally optional. If you’ve been meaning to take ESL this is the best value way for you to take part in the future. Join the list of Beta testers here for this special offer!
To see more past students’ work do look at the following hashtags on Instagram #experimentalstilllife2021#ESLart2022 and #braveinpaint. You will also find much of my own work there too.