Teaching is a fundamental part of my life and practice, sharing my own path of personal development with the intention of helping others find theirs. Interwoven with my meditation practice, I bring a unique combination of stillness and listening, along with sensitivity and curiosity when it comes to ideas and materials, awakening the senses through meditation, experimentation and play, in order to create the right conditions and space for creativity to flow.
I also teach occasional face to face workshops at various location, including Seawhite Studio, West Dean College, Sussex Prairie Gardens near Brighton, Hampshire Art Studio near Winchester, Rackham Hall near Storrington and Paddock Studio, Lewes. These can be anything from 1 day to a week, including retreats abroad.
I currently run regular online Drawing and Meditation sessions on a drop in basis for those interested in exploring the connection between the two practices, or anyone wanting to maintain a regular drawing practice but sometimes find it hard to get going. Using meditation to let go of expectations, and get into the body and breath, out of the mind, drawing comes more easily.
Drawing and Meditation online - weekly drop-in every Tuesday morning
EVERY TUESDAY MORNING 9.30 - 10.30AM ON ZOOM - THIS IS A WEEKLY ONGOING DROP IN
You are invited to join me on Zoom for an hour in my virtual studio as we share an hour of quiet, contemplative creativity. These sessions are for non-artists and artists alike, and can weave into the rest of the day however you choose. Think of it as you might a yoga class, a time to nurture yourself, to come away feeling nourished and enriched. Suitable for all.
Drawing and Meditation online - weekly drop-in every Tuesday evening
EVERY TUESDAY EVENING 6.30-7.30PM ON ZOOM - THIS IS A WEEKLY ONGOING DROP IN
You are invited to join me on Zoom for an hour in my virtual studio as we share an hour of quiet, contemplative creativity. These sessions are for non-artists and artists alike, and can weave into the rest of the day however you choose. Think of it as you might a yoga class, a time to nurture yourself, to come away feeling nourished and enriched. Suitable for all.
Summer in the Garden ONLINE
A month before the date of the live online sessions you will be sent a collection of short films that give you demonstrations of ways of working. These will help you make lots of studies which you will need in preparation for the live classes. During the live online sessions Emily and Katie will show you how to unpack and select from your many studies and create expressive paintings that bring back the glorious riot of colours, patterns, mood and memories of being in the garden.
NESTING Series of 3 Monthly Workshops (part 1)
Nesting - weaving together, bringing things in, gathering around, making a space for comfort and safety. It can also be a space for the emergence of something new.
A series of workshops on Wednesdays 3-6pm on 24 June, 29 July, 19 August
Wed 24 June - wrapping and cocooning, unwrapping and emerging - building a structure which we will then draw from
Wed 29 July - weaving and stitching, binding together, ways of joining - drawing and redrawing, undoing, redoing, making a woven drawing
Wed 19 August - drawing from home and memory - using movement and meditation to tap into our body’s memory of home, whether recent or from long ago - allowing the materials (charcoal) and the memory to create a personal expression of place
Summer in the Garden (Seawhite Studio Summer School)
This 5 day painting course takes its inspiration from Highdown Garden near Worthing, a unique chalk garden on the Downs. This garden is beautiful and remarkable. In the unlikely setting of a chalk pit the founders of the garden sourced plants from all over the world that would thrive in this habitat. It is a garden full of delights; mature trees and plants, winding pathways that lead to open spaces where you can sit and drink in the sites, sounds and smells. Long summer days are the time to celebrate the colour and abundance of nature.
Drawing on the Edge - An Artists’ Retreat in the South Downs National Park
This is an unmissable opportunity to escape, breathe, walk, draw and write freely to see where your thoughts and observations take you. Writing is an integral part of the experience and will inspire the drawing s directly over the 4 days. Writing, like walking, like drawing, is a continual thread, a movement in thought, forming how we interpret the world.
During the 4 days you will be immersed in this spectacular, expansive landscape, using walking, drawing and writing to travel through it, absorb it, and engage creatively with it. You will be gently guided and supported in the space throughout by Katie, with meditation and optional yoga to ease you into your flow.
NESTING Series of 3 Monthly Workshops (part 2)
Nesting - weaving together, bringing things in, gathering around, making a space for comfort and safety. It can also be a space for the emergence of something new.
A series of workshops on Wednesdays 3-6pm on 24 June, 29 July, 19 August
Wed 24 June - wrapping and cocooning, unwrapping and emerging - building a structure which we will then draw from
Wed 29 July - weaving and stitching, binding together, ways of joining - drawing and redrawing, undoing, redoing, making a woven drawing
Wed 19 August - drawing from home and memory - using movement and meditation to tap into our body’s memory of home, whether recent or from long ago - allowing the materials (charcoal) and the memory to create a personal expression of place
Movement, Marks and Meditation online workshop
An experimental taster workshop led by Marina Tsartsara (Somatic Arts Practice) and myself (Drawing and Meditation) bringing together our combined experiences and love for drawing with, and through, awareness of the body.
Together our teachings mirror and weave, offering similar approaches with our own personal differences of touch, of voice, of everyday life and creative life experiences. Together we aim to bring you a drawing workshop that offers an inspirational and meaningful way to engage with the body, art and creativity.
Garden Light - A Mindful Art Workshop
Celebrate the height of summer with a relaxed, sensory art workshop in the beautiful walled garden at West Horsley Place.
Through gentle meditation and mindful observation, you’ll be guided to slow down, tune into your surroundings, and respond creatively to colour, light and atmosphere.
Working with a range of mixed media—including pastels, inks, watercolour and natural materials—you’ll experiment freely to create a series of vibrant, expressive studies inspired by the shapes, textures and shifting light of the garden. These small works can stand alone or act as starting points for future pieces.
NESTING Series of 3 Monthly Workshops (part 3)
Nesting - weaving together, bringing things in, gathering around, making a space for comfort and safety. It can also be a space for the emergence of something new.
A series of workshops on Wednesdays 3-6pm on 24 June, 29 July, 19 August
Wed 24 June - wrapping and cocooning, unwrapping and emerging - building a structure which we will then draw from
Wed 29 July - weaving and stitching, binding together, ways of joining - drawing and redrawing, undoing, redoing, making a woven drawing
Wed 19 August - drawing from home and memory - using movement and meditation to tap into our body’s memory of home, whether recent or from long ago - allowing the materials (charcoal) and the memory to create a personal expression of place
Abstracting Nature - Charcoal Drawing
This charcoal drawing workshop takes inspiration from the natural patterns in the garden and surrounding woodland. Using abstraction and gestural, expressive marks in response to the woodland forms and structures, to create exciting, sensitive compositions.
Drawing inspiration from the beautiful surroundings of West Dean College and Gardens, this course will encourage a confident and expressive approach to your drawings. Working at a large and small scale, you will be in the studio each day following a short walk into the garden and arboretum.
Drawing in Dorgone - France Art Retreat
Drawing, qigong and deep rest in ancient lands
Draw from nature. Be inspired by cave paintings and ancient landscape. Relax and rest into a new rhythm. The Dordogne valley has been a place of mark-making for thousands of years. The cave painters of Lascaux traced bison and horses by firelight, capturing something essential about the world around them.
We come to the same landscape this September to draw. Using charcoal and natural materials we will experiment with making our own marks, as we explore what we see, and express what we feel.
Colour and Light on the Downs (option 3)
Standing on Truleigh Hill there are the most stunning views of the South Downs and the Adur Valley. You are held by the hill, grounded by the chalk beneath your feet, yet exhilarated by being up high, soaring and floating, feeling the air and wind in your face. If you love being in the landscape and are interested in making work that expressively captures the light, space, air and physicality of being on the South Downs then this course will provide you with the location,materials, inspiration and guidance to help you make exciting work.
This is a 2 day structured course led by Emily and Katie. They will offer an exciting collection of processes to help each artist feel immersed in the experience and able to produce drawings that go beyond copying the view and give the artist an injection of courage and creativity to make expressive new work.
Movement, Marks and Meditation online workshop
An experimental taster workshop led by Marina Tsartsara (Somatic Arts Practice) and myself (Drawing and Meditation) bringing together our combined experiences and love for drawing with, and through, awareness of the body.
Together our teachings mirror and weave, offering similar approaches with our own personal differences of touch, of voice, of everyday life and creative life experiences. Together we aim to bring you a drawing workshop that offers an inspirational and meaningful way to engage with the body, art and creativity.
Colour and Light on the Downs - Development into Painting
This 3 day course is suitable for any students who have attended the two day Colour and Light courses that Emily and Katie have run from the Trueligh Centre on the South Downs either in 2025 or 2026. The freshness, freedom and immediacy of the studies made in situ are qualities that are often wished for in sustained and finished paintings. The studies are not there to be copied but to be used as inspiration and triggers for new work. This course is all about unpacking and using the content in these studies to make new painted studies and work towards finished paintings.
Creative Retreat in the Spanish Mountains
A 6 day creative retreat, drawing and exploring an area of untouched natural wilderness and outstanding beauty in the Spanish mountains. This is a very special opportunity to rest and refresh your creative juices, take a break from every day life, and experiment with different approaches to drawing, guided by Katie’s unique and inspirational way of combining meditation with drawing, which will help set you at ease and awaken your senses more fully to your surroundings.
*Sunday Times 2022
Colour and Light on the Downs (option 2)
Standing on Truleigh Hill there are the most stunning views of the South Downs and the Adur Valley. You are held by the hill, grounded by the chalk beneath your feet, yet exhilarated by being up high, soaring and floating, feeling the air and wind in your face. If you love being in the landscape and are interested in making work that expressively captures the light, space, air and physicality of being on the South Downs then this course will provide you with the location,materials, inspiration and guidance to help you make exciting work.
This is a 2 day structured course led by Emily and Katie. They will offer an exciting collection of processes to help each artist feel immersed in the experience and able to produce drawings that go beyond copying the view and give the artist an injection of courage and creativity to make expressive new work.
CREATIVE MEDITATIONS… ON WAYS OF SEEING
I am delighted to say that my favourite Buddhist teacher Vajradashini and I are collaborating on a very special retreat style day on the theme of Ways of Seeing, on Monday 4th May 10.00am to 6pm (with a break from 12noon - 4pm for your own creative explorations).
Throughout the day we will be bringing a mix of reflection, meditation, and creative exploration. You do not need to be a Buddhist, nor have any art experience, for this workshop. Just bring your eyes, a pencil and paper if you have one, and or a camera.
Movement, Marks and Meditation online workshop
An experimental taster workshop led by Marina Tsartsara (Somatic Arts Practice) and myself (Drawing and Meditation) bringing together our combined experiences and love for drawing with, and through, awareness of the body.
Together our teachings mirror and weave, offering similar approaches with our own personal differences of touch, of voice, of everyday life and creative life experiences. Together we aim to bring you a drawing workshop that offers an inspirational and meaningful way to engage with the body, art and creativity.
Get Grounded
Come and walk in the woods when the bluebells are out and the ground is burgeoning with colour and new life. Feel more alive, engage with your natural surroundings, wake up your senses and create! Spend 2 days exploring the nearby woods in this fully immersive, practical and tactile workshop. Drawing with mud, puddle water, leaves and twigs, this will be a very hands on experience!
Booking directly with Emily Ball at Seawhite Studio
Creative Nourishment: Drawing & Meditation ONLINE Retreat - Quiet days of creative and meditative practice
£120 for 5 days
There will be a broad theme for each of these Creative Nourishment weeks to guide us. Step into a gentle daily rhythm designed to help you focus, slow down, and reconnect. Through simple creative exercises and meditation, you’ll develop a steady routine that cultivates presence, deepens attention, and supports your creative growth, whilst connecting with others in a small online group.
Colour and Light on the Downs (option 1)
Standing on Truleigh Hill there are the most stunning views of the South Downs and the Adur Valley. You are held by the hill, grounded by the chalk beneath your feet, yet exhilarated by being up high, soaring and floating, feeling the air and wind in your face. If you love being in the landscape and are interested in making work that expressively captures the light, space, air and physicality of being on the South Downs then this course will provide you with the location,materials, inspiration and guidance to help you make exciting work.
This is a 2 day structured course led by Emily and Katie. They will offer an exciting collection of processes to help each artist feel immersed in the experience and able to produce drawings that go beyond copying the view and give the artist an injection of courage and creativity to make expressive new work.
Drawing For All - an online course for beginners
A 4 day course of drawing workshops where the emphasis is on drawing - materials, processes, techniques to apply to subjects such as objects (still life), perspective (boxes/buildings), and organic form (figure/nature/landscape). To build confidence and experience when using different materials for different subjects, whether drawing in line, tone or describing textures.
Embodied Drawing
Embodied Drawing - An experimental 2 day drawing course embracing the physicality of drawing on a large scale - using your own body, gesture and sensation as your subject. Using the generous space of the Seawhite studio there is almost no limit as to how large you can go. This course is for anyone wishing to expand their drawing practice and find new limits, beyond the scale of your average drawing, by working large, freely, involving body and breath.
CREATIVE MEDITATIONS… ON LOVE
Throughout the day we will be bringing a mix of reflection, meditation, and creative exploration.
You can be assured that this will be a beautiful, heartfelt day for developing your sense of love for yourself and the world. You do not need to be a Buddhist, nor have any art experience, for this workshop.
A Not So Still Life ONLINE
In this course you will be working fast and freely from a still life set up in the studio (to which you are invited to contribute) with both drawing and painting materials, and anything in between. The objects will not be still, they will move, or rather, be moved - by me, by you, by other participants on the course. You will be encouraged to cut, collage and rethink the composition every now and then throughout the day.
Dancing and Drawing: An Exploratory, Interactive Creative Workshop
Another unique opportunity to make use of the expanse of the Seawhite Studio and the inspiration and motivation from Katie’s particular form of teaching. You do not have to be a dancer! This workshop is suitable for all, for anyone with an open heart and mind, physically able and willing to let go and get messy. Beginners welcome. An ideal gift for a friend or loved one.
Figure, Frills and Fashion - An Expressive Painting Workshop
A 3 day course in the Seawhite Studio painting from the clothed figure, inspired by colour and pattern as much as form and flesh. Celebrate the way fabric adorns the figure, how pattern changes as it wraps around form, glimpses of flesh, the features of the face emerging from folds and frills. Cost £330
Drawing by Candlelight at West Horsley Place
Drawing in the dark, by candlelight only, can be a very exciting, liberating experience, allowing you to be totally immersed in the process; sharing the excitement of drawing objects lit only by flickering candles, shapes shifting, shadows forming and moving. Think of sparkling decanters and the reflection in silverware, dark ambiguous spaces in between. Using ink and wax resist, working quickly and fluidly; enjoy a peaceful evening of drawing, letting the uncertainty of ink and watercolour reflect the ambiguity of the fading light.
Autumn Trees LIVE ONLINE
Autumn begins and Nature slows. As a celebratory finale the colours and majestic shapes of Autumn trees illuminate the landscape; often framed with a slate grey or sharp, clear, pale blue sky. Ornate tapestries of reds, oranges, yellows, browns, greens and purples appear in the canopies that reach skyward and spread out like hanging skirts. This 4 day live online course is all about capturing and exploring these qualities in drawing and painting
Autumn Trees at Leonardslee Gardens and Seawhite Studio
Autumn begins and Nature slows. As a celebratory finale the colours and majestic shapes of Autumn trees illuminate the landscape; often framed with a slate grey or sharp, clear, pale blue sky. Ornate tapestries of reds, oranges, yellows, browns, greens and purples appear in the canopies that reach skyward and spread out like hanging skirts. This 5 day course is all about capturing and exploring these qualities in drawing and painting
Large Scale Gestural Drawing - Rhythm and Repetition in Winter
November can be a wild month, especially here on the South coast in a studio so close to the sea. A good time for embracing the weather and moving the body, making large gestural drawings inspired by the energy of this place. Come and immerse yourself in the experience, whether taking a walk by the water’s edge or sheltering in the studio, and translate those invigorating sensations into marks on the page.
£170 booking via Atelier website
Painting Autumn Colour in the Garden
Immerse yourself in the Prairie Gardens at their best, in the height of their growth, as the seed heads are starting to form and the autumn colour is at its most vibrant. Spend two whole days getting to know the garden through coloured studies and paint.
Drawing and Painting the Autumn Garden ONLINE COURSE
An ONLINE Creative Practice Week - a practical course, with guided sessions each morning, including some meditation but with more emphasis on the practice of drawing and painting. You will be given a range of exercises and approaches for making studies directly in your own garden, during the live session and/or each afternoon in your own time.
DRAWING FROM MEMORY - The Interior Within And Without
We will use drawing, meditation and memory to help inspire a creative response to this timeless place. Take a walk around the evocative and atmospheric interior of West Horsley Place, drawing firstly on a small scale. Later, in the barn studio, you will make larger (charcoal) drawings, working with meditation and memory to explore the dreamlike space of the mind. Shutting the eyes to feel into the remembered space within, let the body replay your movements, let your hand leave traces on the paper, like fingerprints in dust.
POP UP ONLINE WORKSHOP MOVEMENT MARKS AND MEDITATION Inspired by Colour in the Garden
Working with movement, marks and meditation, using coloured pastels and ink in response to the colours of the summer garden, this 3 hour online workshop is open to all, whether you can come live or would like a recording. If you want to register, please email me to confirm and I will send you payment details (or pay in the usual way if you have my details). Last minute registration is possible by simply following this link any time before 9.30am on the day (pay later)
Movement, Marks and Meditation
Join me for a one-day session in expressive and experimental drawing using ink and sea water inspired by the energy of the ocean.
Spend a day in our studio making a series of quick small studies taking inspiration from whatever you experience on the beach. Being this close to the sea, you cannot help being affected by the proximity and power of water.
Seawhite Summer School - Painting in the Garden at Highdown
Sitting in the garden at the height of summer is heaven. This course is a celebration of the abundance of the summer garden, taking its inspiration from the beautiful Highdown Garden near Worthing, a unique chalk garden on the Downs. We will spend 2 days in the gardens making studies in situ, in full colour, followed by 3 days painting in the Seawhite studio
Seawhite Summer School ONLINE- Painting in the Garden
Sitting in the garden at the height of summer is heaven. Whether you have a beautiful garden of your own or you love to visit a garden for your inspiration, this course is a celebration of the abundance of the summer garden. A month before the date of the live online sessions you will be sent a collection of short films that give you demonstrations of ways of working. These will help you make lots of studies which you will need in preparation for the live classes. During the live online sessions Emily and Katie will show you how to unpack and select from your many studies and create expressive paintings that bring back the glorious riot of colours, patterns, mood and memories of being in the garden.
Rewild Your Sketchbook At Sussex Prairie Gardens
Learn to love the sketchbook, to accept that anything can go in it, and that it is a moveable, changeable feast. Learn to love it like a garden - cut, prune, mulch, mow, graft, transplant, propagate… Let it grow and flourish!
If you have ever been put off by the clean blank pages of a new sketchbook, this is the course for you. Let’s rewild our ideas of what a sketchbook is, and be free. We will begin by deconstructing the book, taking pages out of the spiral binding, to cut, tear, fold, pour ink, draw, and layer, putting them back in any order, so there is no longer a first page!
Cost: £160 email Katie to book
Small Wonders - Fill a mini sketchbook
Find Your Creative Freedom in this One Day Taster Workshop at Sussex Prairies
Spend a day immersed in all things wonderful about this beautiful garden. Relax and unwind with a playful and creative approach to filling a sketchbook - small but perfectly formed - you will be given a concertina sketchbook just 10cm x 7.5cm when closed, that opens out to be over a metre in length.
£75 materials provided Suitable for all email Katie to book
Markmaking and Meditation
Combining mindfulness meditation with drawing. A retreat style day, with all materials provided, suitable for any level, no expectations. You will be led into the session with an introduction to mindfulness meditation, using body and breath as a focus for your attention, followed by an introduction to the drawing materials you will be using for the day. You will be paying attention to how the materials feel in the hand, the touch on paper, the sound of drawing, the movement of the body, the relationship of your breath to the whole process.
Human Animal - movement, marks and meditation ONLINE Drawing and Meditation Workshop
A Drawing and Meditation Retreat Style 3h Workshop - Thursday 22 May 3-6pm £40 (recording available).
This will be a workshop working at your own scale, on a series of drawings in response to the movement of the body, using the body’s innate structure and sensibility to release, relax, and support itself, finding rest, so that the mind can be free, and the movement can initiate the drawing. Listening to the creative spark, sensing into our animal aliveness.
What People Are Saying
“There’s something extremely nurturing and restorative about the combination of meditation and mindfulness and art without judgement… ”
— Julia Cuckmere August 2022
I am one who meditates daily but much to my surprise I never brought my practice into my artwork. Everything about your presentations… Katie, have opened up my world and reignited a feeling of hope. I am forever grateful to you for giving me this.”
— Linda S USA 2023
“I’m finding it such a grounding practice and way to start my week… I love how holistic your sessions are in guiding me towards combining both body & mind with my developing art. .”
— Susanna, Drawing and Meditation Online 2022
“You hold the space in such a gentle way. It’s perfect ”
— Liz T, Embodied Drawing at Seawhite Studio, December 2023