Online & In-Person Workshops
Movement, Marks and Meditation online workshop
May 21st - June 18th, 2026
5 pm - 7:30 pm
Online
Price: £30 each
A series of monthly experimental taster workshops 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.
Marina’s approach to drawing is very close to mine, which is why we want to work together. While she comes from a dance and performance background, and I am from a visual art drawing background, we both approach drawing in the same way - as a sensory, physical, tactile and emotional experience - which can be further explored through movement, meditation, and the gestural mark. For example, if making drawings about the breath, Marina might start with more bodily references, to the anatomy and the physical structure of the lungs, while I might lead a meditation focusing on the breath itself, and as a mark - both of us would encourage expressive, emotional as well as physical drawings to emerge.
Marina leads from her own Somatic Art Practice® - “an embodied artmaking practice that explores the relationship between the psychophysical experience of corporeal structures & artistic gesture.” I too focus very much on the body and the senses as a vital part of the drawing process, using meditation as the starting point, to come into presence. Drawing from full awareness, whether from inside the body or from what is in the space around us.
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.
Drawing for All - Refresher Course for anyone needing a guided, practical boost
April 23rd, April 30th, May 7th and May 21st.
A series of four x 3 hour workshops which will be available LIVE online and as RECORDINGS
Online 10am - 1pm
Price: £150
A 4 part practical guide to drawing, suitable for anyone wanting to refresh and brush up on their drawing skills, including beginners. This course will consist of drawing workshops where the emphasis is on drawing - materials, processes, techniques to apply to everyday familiar subjects. You can join in the live sessions and/or watch the recordings to follow along at your own pace. The recordings will be available for at least one year.
Module 1: Drawing objects and still life - exploring materials and approaches, from pure observation to more expressive ways of drawing as a way of loosing up and getting over the feeling of “I can’t draw!”
Module 2: Drawing perspective - understanding the basic principles, looking at boxes on our table, and applying the same rules to streets and buildings
Module 3: Drawing organic forms - be inspired by the beauty of natural forms like shells, flowers and trees, looking for patterns and principles of organic growth
Module 4: Drawing organic forms - inspired by the human body and the landscape - gestural, sculptural, lyrical line
This course helps build confidence and experience when using different materials for different subjects, whether drawing in line, tone or describing textures. You will have time to practice and refresh your understanding of materials and techniques in the live sessions, and will be encouraged to ask questions and discuss challenges (you can be assured that any question you might have will be one that someone else is thinking of asking - there is so much to learn from sharing and listening to other people’s experiences). After each session you will be equipped with exercises to practice in between sessions - giving you the confidence to keep drawing. You will be encouraged to look at your work without judgment. I truly believe everyone can draw.
CREATIVE MEDITATIONS… ON WAYS OF SEEING
Saturday 23rd May 2026
10 am - 6 pm
Online
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.
You can be assured that this will be a beautiful, heartfelt day for developing your perception and awareness of the world around you. 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. Please do spread the word if you know who might be interested.
Please pay what you can afford (£50/£35) or contact Katie if you want to offer another amount
Vajradashini’s website can be viewed here
EMBODIED DRAWING Online Workshop (with charcoal and mixed drawing materials)
Thursday 7 May 2026
3 pm - 6 pm
Online
This 3 hour Drawing and Meditation Online Taster session on Embodied Drawing will give you the time to really get into your own drawing practice, in your own space, whilst being gently held and guided throughout. We will work with drawing and meditation to explore how the body and breath can create a rhythmical momentum as a way of starting a drawing, rather than thinking, or planning. You can work as large as you like, as large as you can, so that the whole body can get involved.
Without the need for any specific subject, we can let the gestural mark be layered and repeated, using inks and coloured pastels. By focusing on the movement and weight of the mark, exciting and surprising drawings will emerge out of the process.
You will be given guided exercises to initiate the drawing and prompts to help sustain it, change it, and help it grow. You will also have time to work in your own quiet space, with some time for discussion as a group if that seems appropriate; but with the emphasis always on finding your own way of working.
Price: £40
DRAWING AND MEDITATION - Creative Nourishment Weeks
11th - 15th May 2026 (and various dates throughout the year)
9.30am - 10.30am for a guided session (followed by studio/free time)
4.30pm - 5.30pm for an optional group share/discussion
Online
Cost £120 for 5 days (£80 for 3 days)
An online week of Drawing and Meditation is a precious a time to recommit to your practice and devote as much time as you can during this week. Each morning we will meet for a guided meditation session with a prompt to give you focus for that hour, or indeed the whole day. Each afternoon we work in our own spaces, with cameras on, audio off, in a quiet, focused co-working space. At the end of each day we meet for an hour to talk about our day, and what we might need for the following day. The discussions, connections, and shared inspirations are as much a part of the week as any individual projects you might have going on. The space becomes more than the sum of its parts. All you need do is show up, twice a day if you can. The rest will unfold.
Colour and Light on the Downs
DATES: Friday 8 May - Saturday 9 May;
29 May - 30 May;
25 Sept - 26 Sept
9.30 am - 4.30 pm
In-Person in Emily Ball at Seawhite
Price: £280 (all materials are included)
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.
Following last year’s success, Emily and Katie are offering 3 different workshops from early summer through autumn for this amazing course, so you can take your pick, or come to all three. And don’t miss out on the follow on course in June when we take all the studies back to the studio to make paintings from this exciting subject.
We will use the Truleigh Centre as our base while we are in the landscape. It is a fabulous recently converted barn space. We have access to it throughout each day to shelter from the elements, if needed, look at the work created and take breaks. It is spacious and light with all the facilities we need for our comfort. It is situated at the top of the Downs, nestled in the surrounding landscape.
All your materials for the 2 days will be provided for you.
Get Grounded
DATES: Monday 18 May - Tuesday 19 May
9.30 am - 4.30 pm
In-Person in Emily Ball at Seawhite
Price: £280 (all materials are included)
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!
You will be making drawings in the landscape, about the landscape, with the landscape (sometimes using the landscape as your canvas), using found materials, and making your own tools. You will be responding to the sights, sounds, smells and feel of the woods; returning to the studio each day equipped with natural materials, handfuls of inspiration, and hand made tools to continue working on a larger scale (think Richard Long and his mud drawings!). In the studio you may work on a larger scale, and explore new ways of drawing, experimenting with mediums and binders and different surfaces (paper, card, canvas).
Since cave people made the first marks on cave walls and drew lines in the sand, humans have been drawn to leave a visual trace of themselves. In this workshop, you will be reminded how drawing is a truly tactile, instinctive, primal experience, using the body and natural materials to make marks.
Colour and Light on the Downs - Development into Painting
DATES: Monday, 8 June - Wednesday, 10 June
9.30 am - 4.30 pm
In-Person in Emily Ball at Seawhite
Price: £380
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. The colours, marks, layers and memories are material to play and invent with. They have become your landscape for you to walk through and explore. They are reminders of the sensations, the light, the weather and the feelings of being out on the hill.
Students will bring the many beautiful studies that they have made in the landscape and the tutors will demonstrate and provide processes that will enable you to explore the possibilities in them to make new work using either acrylics or oils on canvas, board or paper. Experimentation with paint, tools and mark making will help everyone find the nececssary language to make powerful and exciting paintings.
Summer in the Garden
Monday 22 June - Thursday 25 June
10 am - 12.30 pm
Online
Price: £250
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 abun-dance of the summer garden. In May and June the shoots and buds are urgently pushing forward, gathering pace.
Spring melts into Summer and flowers become centre stage with their splashes of colour jostling for attention. Colours are luminous on the blousy petals of flowers, the bird song is shrill and excited, the shadows are deep, cool and inviting. To find a quiet, shady spot to sit, watch, listen, wonder and draw is the first part of this course. As you sit and make studies it gives you time to notice the foliage, the shapes of shadows and the dance of colour as your gaze meanders through the spaces.
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 that will help you make lots of stud-ies 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.
Artists to refer to for inspiration: Pierre Bonnard, Patrick Heron, Geoffroy Pithon, Anne Griffiths, Hurvin Anderson, Joan Snyder, Joan Mitchell, Joe Packer, Miranda Bolton, Adrian Berg, Tricia Gillman, Emma Biggs, Ivon Hitchens, Elisabeth Cummings, Claude Monet to name but a few.
Summer in the Garden (Seawhite Studio Summer School)
Monday 29 June - Friday 3 July
9.30 am - 4.30 pm
In-Person in Emily Ball at Seawhite
Price: £550
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. The first 2 days of the course are spent in the garden making lots of studies capturing the experience of this peaceful and inspiring place. The rest of the week is spent at the Seawhite studio where ambitious and expressive paintings will be created using these studies and our memories of the place. Click here to have a virtual tour of the garden.
Accessing the garden is easy. It is a short walk on flat ground from the carpark. All the paths in the garden are easy to navigate. There are benches dotted everywhere so that you can pause to sit and soak up the atmosphere and draw in comfort. Above the gardens is Highdown Hill; the gateway to the South Downs National Park.
