Somatic Drawing
NEW AUTUMN/WINTER 2026 Dates: October 29th, November 12th, December 17th
3 pm - 5:30 pm UK time (GMT)
Online
Price: £30
A series of experimental 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.
In these sessions, Marina and I combine our broad and extensive experience of creative and body work into the virtual space, combining meditation with movements, prompts with poetry. 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.
This term we are inspired by the elements of the Chinese Medicine calendar, and will be exploring Air - traditionally associated with the metal element, and the organs of Lungs and Large Intestines - Autumn being a time for letting go, as well as for nourishing.
If you are paying in GBP please use the BOOK HERE button below. If you are paying in EUR please email Marina for payment details on tsartsaram@gmail.com
Embodied Drawing Inspired by the Sea
Saturday, 21 November
10.30 am - 4 pm
In-Person in Atelier by the Sea Kings Arches, Brighton
Price: £120
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.
Using pencil, charcoal and mixed media, you will make small drawings outside (November weather permitting!), observing the natural rhythms and patterns of sea, sky and shore, as well as more abstract responses to sound and movement. In the studio these observations and marks will be put through a process of repetition and layering until the surface is covered, working further, rubbing out, sticking on to find a connection to the space and energy of the great outdoors.
Large-scale drawings (4ftx8ft) will be worked on during the day to enable you to really investigate the process of change, the build up of marks, and the abstract potential of charcoal on paper. At the end of the course you may choose to take it away whole, cut it up into smaller pieces, wash it off in the sea, or leave it behind and take away only the memory of the experience.
Tickets include lunch.
Autumn Trees
November 23rd - 26th (Monday - Thursday)
9.30 am - 12.30 pm
Online Live
Price: £250
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. Their branches and trunks are like limbs; weathered, standing, twisting and bending in the spaces. This 4 day course is all about capturing and exploring these qualities in drawing and painting.
The first part of the course is provided a month before as a pre-recorded film of Emily and Katie demonstrating different ways of making studies in the landscape. You might have a favourite tree in your garden or you might like to walk in the woods or parkland near your home. Any of these will be a wonderful subject to explore. Being able to make studies outside in situ is vital to ensure that you create work with enough content to paint from. The exercises offer different options and ways of making rich, inventive drawings and colour studies that will be the inspiration for paintings during the live streamed course from the Seawhite Studio.
This course now includes a new pre-recorded film demonstrations sent 4 weeks before the course starts.
Dancing and Drawing: An exploratory, interactive creative workshop
Wednesday, 2nd December 2026
9.30 pm - 4.30 pm
In-Person in Emily Ball at Seawhite
Price: £100
Another unique opportunity to make use of the expanse of the Seawhite Studio and the in-spiration 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, physi-cally able and willing to let go and get messy. Beginners welcome. An ideal gift for a friend or loved one.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to make work as big as your studio walls? Have you ever seen children lose themselves in a large sheet of paper, painting with their hands and feet. Think of this as an experience, rather than a technique or process to learn. Something you might never dare do at home, and most likely would never have the space for. Treat yourself to this one off, one day, moment of joy and madness! Think Jackson Pollock meets Moulin Rouge!
Dance like no one is watching
Paint like no one cares
Move like an animal
Laugh like a child
'Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listen-ing; live like it's heaven on earth.’ original quote source unclear, possibly William Purkey or Mark Twain
Embodied Drawing
Thursday, 3rd - Friday, 4th December 2026
9.30 pm - 4.30 pm
In-Person in Emily Ball at Seawhite
Price: £280
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. You will be your own model, working on 2 or 3 large sale drawings, guided by Katie’s exercises and meditation. She will encourage you to experiment, layer, develop and change the drawings over the course of 2 days.
Imagine shutting your eyes, and drawing yourself from the inside out. What does it feel like to be standing here, like this, breathing, still, steady; and now, on one leg, wobbling, stretching out to the top of the page, then crouching, curled into a tight ball, charcoal crunching underfoot? Working intuitively, drawing can be like a dance; full of movement, breath, weight, balance, repetition, grace, or imbalance and clumsiness.
By connecting the process of drawing to our own physicality, we can harness directly the power and sensations of the body to create marks; to fill space, to rub out, to scratch the surface, make our mark, to press into, walk through, push, pull, fight, or dance with, find harmony or discord, create movement or find stillness.
Drawing by Candlelight - A Creative Workshop
Monday, 7th December 2026
2.00 pm - 8.00 pm
In-Person in West Horsley Place, KT24 6AN
Price: £100
Experience the magic of drawing by candlelight at West Horsley Place. A sumptuous still life, lit by flickering candles, will inspire shifting shadows, reflections, and mysterious spaces.
We begin mid-afternoon with guided meditation and warm-ups before working from observation using ink and wax resist. As daylight fades into dusk, you’ll create a series of quick, fluid drawings, embracing the ambiguity of ink, watercolour, and shadow.
The evening ends with a sharing of work, reflections, and tea.
Practical Information:
All materials will be provided.
No experience required.
Suitable for ages 16+, those under 18 must be accompanied.
Tea/coffee included.
For more information about access, visit our access page.
Qigong and Drawing
Friday 19 February 2027
9:30am - 4:30pm
In-Person in Emily Ball at Seawhite
Price: £135
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. Combining drawing with the ancient Chinese moving meditation called Qigong (pronounced chi-gung), this one day workshop will focus on the energy flow of repetitive movements and how this can translate onto large scale paper. You will each have a piece of paper that is at least as tall as you are, to work with on the floor or wall, or both.
Starting the session with a 45 minute introduction to the practice of qigong, Katie will then lead you gently into a mindful meditative approach to drawing, paying particular attention attention to the touch of materials, the way marks are made, and the movement of the body. Throughout the day, guided breath work and qigong flows will encourage you to continue drawing with full embodied awareness. Settling into rhythmical movements which help overcome the paralysis of ‘overthinking’, you can let go of expectations about what a drawing is ,or is supposed to be, and simply enjoy the feel of your body and breath in unison, in flow. Think yoga on the page!
No experience of qigong (or drawing) needed - this workshop is suitable for all, for anyone with an open heart and mind, able and willing to go with the flow and get messy. Beginners welcome. An ideal gift for a friend or loved one.
Woodland Diaries
Wed, 14 Apr 2027 - Fri, 16 Apr 2027
9:30am - 4:30pm
In-Person in Emily Ball at Seawhite
Price: £380
3 days of meandering and drawing with natural materials in the landscape.
Spend 3 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 respond to the sights, sounds, smells and feel of the woods, filling a concertina sketchbook with your findings, and making other small scale experimental studies alongside it. Using found materials, as well as your usual drawing materials, you will be making studies in the landscape, about the landscape, with the landscape. Let the landscape be your canvas, leave ephemeral marks, create mini installations, take photographs, write down your observations.
Each day there will be some studio time to take stock, pause for reflective writing, view work and discuss our findings. We can share our collective knowledge of working with natural materials, making inks (eg. alder ink from local trees), mixing earth pigments etc. We can experiment with combining processes and different surfaces, to develop ideas for taking back out on site or continue in the studio. We can decide how much time to spend outside, depending on weather conditions and individual needs. You will come away with a sketchbook (or 2) full of observations, drawings, notes, ideas and experiments, a renewed sense of wonder and curiosity, and a deeper connection to the place and the season.
Suitable for all, this will be a fun and experimental course, that could be research for a bigger project, or simply be a way to step outside of your ordinary practice, connect with nature, enjoy a creative a reset.
Summer School of Painting and Drawing - 2 weeks
Mon, 28 Jun 2027 - Fri, 2 Jul 2027 (week 1)
Mon, 26 Jul 2027 - Fri, 30 Jul 2027 (week 2)
9:30am - 4:30pm
In-Person in Truleigh Hill Centre
Price: £620 each week
On top of Truleigh Hill. Price includes all materials for the 2 days making studies in the landscape.
Our summer school week is five days dedicated to drawing and painting, inspired by the most beautiful location on the top of Truleigh Hill in West Sussex. Taught by two artists who love their profession and have over 60 years of teaching and painting experience between them. The first two days of the course are spent on location making drawings and colour studies that are searching and playful, rather than plans for paintings. The final three days are spent in the Seawhite studio developing paintings inspired by the drawings and memories of being on the hill. Your tutors will guide, support and encourage you to experiment, play and find your personal language to express what you loved about being in the place.
Give yourself time to sit in the landscape and marvel at it. Notice the sounds, colours, the plants, the light and weather. From on top of the hill you have spectacular, expansive views across hills and valleys, out to the sparkling, shimmering sea. On a clear day you can see the Isle of Wight and the rows of Wind Turbines distant in the sea beyond Shoreham. You can hear and see Sky Larks above your head and will walk amongst wild flowers and grasses. We have worked on the hill many times and on one occasion we had the magical experience of seeing mist filling the bowl of the valley below us; billowing, rolling obscuring the view and then the landscape being slowly revealed as the sun burnt away the mist. Every day is different, every season brings new wonder.
Large Scale Winter Drawing
Wed, 1 Dec 2027 - Fri, 3 Dec 2027
9:30am - 4:30pm
In-Person in Emily Ball at Seawhite
Price: £380
Large scale Charcoal Drawing Inspired by Nature
Frost on seed head, rising mist caught in hedgerows, clouds suspended above bare branches - the landscape in Winter is sublime and beautiful and often overlooked. Why wait for the colour and warmth before venturing outside? What are we missing in these shorter days? In this workshop you will be encouraged to take short walks outside, to fully immerse yourself in the place and moment, whatever the weather, even if fleetingly - to bring it back into the studio, fresh in the mind’s eye, and in the body.
Drawing inspiration from the natural forms and patterns in the winter landscape near the studio, this course will encourage a confident, gestural and expressive approach to your drawings, working at a large scale over the 3 days, to create exciting and sensitive compositions.
You will take a short walk each day along the old railway line to the flood plains of the River Adur. The act of walking itself is a way of connecting to the subject, and coming into your body. Mindful movement (qigong) and meditation exercises will also be offered to reinforce the relationship between body and breath, the process of drawing, and the natural world.
Back in the studio, you will be guided through warm up drawing exercises each day, using gesture, rhythm and repetition to get the drawings started in a more abstract way. From here the drawings can develop as you allow your memory, and your research notes, to inform the drawing.
DRAWING AND MEDITATION - Creative Nourishment Weeks
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.
