Experimental Still Life 2022

ENROLLMENT FOR THE LIVE VERSION OF ESL2022 IS CLOSED
(if I run it live again it will not be until late August 2023)

Would you like to work on this course completely privately in your own time with an optional Facebook group for contact if needed? Click below and I will be letting everyone know when this is ready

I'M INTERESTED IN THE NEW SELF PACED VERSION

£550

Experimental Still Life - 2022

Closed

Transform yourself into a brave explorer of paint and process as you spend six weeks painting still life as a subject with Gabriella Buckingham. You'll have personal feedback whenever you need it and through different techniques and exercises, your confidence will expand as you develop your own way of painting.

Read on to see if this is the perfect course for you..

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Welcome!

I'm Gabriella Buckingham - fine artist and your teacher for the six weeks we have together. The course begins on May 23rd and officially runs until July 1st. I love to be spontaneous so it may spill into the week after and there is content available as soon as you sign up which you can work on! There several lessons each week and three live painting /Q+A sessions a week, plus the best videos from last year to watch.

Before I talk to you more about what's actually in the course here are a few thoughts from past students :

What did last year's students think?

Hélène

This is a brilliant course and such fun. There is so much thought provoking content including colour theory, composition and design principals, different approaches to drawing and mark making, experimental print-making and painting techniques to name just a few. It has kept me going all year and has encouraged me to experiment with painting in acrylics. I still have a way to go but this course was like stepping back into art school but learning in weeks what might be covered in several years and delivered in Gabriella’s unique warm and relaxed style. I cannot recommend Gabriella’s course highly enough.

Klair

I have to say a massive thank you to you. You put your heart and soul into this course. It has been mind expanding for me. I have cemented some learning and added further facets to my knowledge. I am (mostly!) proud of the work produced on the course, have met some wonderful fellow artists and even sold two pieces to another course member. I’m so grateful I signed up.

Ruth

I wanted to say that I loved that there was a blend of realism and abstraction because that is exactly what I am trying to do is blend the two. I loved the collage and I liked seeing how you work with light. You covered a lot and I appreciated how much it took to put it together for us. You helped me to see still life in new ways. The exercises pushed me to try new techniques and successfully create original artworks all the while developing a new understanding of grouping objects, paint manipulation and finding my own way within still life. Gabriella was always readily available to her students and I believe you too will find great value in this course.

...a little more to help you decide

Early on we'll work on composition and values and then have a lot of fun experimenting with approaches and techniques, moving from observational work through to imagined work and abstraction. The latter will initially involve working from life again and developing your unique approach based on what you've enjoyed most in the course and your intentions when you began.

You can choose to experiment from the moment you begin or aim at creating a cohesive body of work. I'd suggest that if you throw yourself into it with an open mind you will discover and learn most. There's plenty of time to develop a collection afterwards. You will find that individual experiments could spark something completely new as it did for my student Klair who discovered a great talent for precise collage and sold two pieces while on the course:

"Looking back it’s amazing to see how much work I produced!! I certainly learnt a lot."

I'll be live a minimum of three times a week to demonstrate key aspects of the course and take your questions. There are pre recorded videos to watch too, including inspiring slide shows of still life work I love and a selection of the work of last years students too.

Margaret from last year said: "How has my work changed as a result - I came on the course to rekindle my fire for art and painting and it is thoroughly rekindled. Thank you!"

If you have questions write me a message using the bright yellow speech bubble in the pink circle; do please add your name so I know who I'm chatting to! Thanks.

How is this course going to help me?

My intention is to fully support you at whatever stage you are at so that by the end of the course your faith and confidence in yourself has risen and you finish being excited with and inspired by your own work. You will have tried a lot of processes and I hope all your questions will have been answered by myself or students that perhaps may have more or supplementary experience in their art practice.

You will be transformed from a tentative artist to a joyful one who fully knows that to make a great painting we have to make ugly paintings, incomplete paintings, try things out and stretch ourselves out of our comfort zones.
I will encourage you to meditate and exercise throughout the course to open yourself up to your innate creativity.

"Honestly this is the best course I’ve ever done so thank you so much. " - Liz

This is likely to be an intimate group where you will really get to know each other and I can support you fully

you receive personal feedback whenever needed
every time I go live you can ask questions as they arise
there's a private facebook community where you can tag me to show me your work and connect with new artist friends too
if you aren't on Facebook but want personal feedback message me as detailed in the last point and I can give you my personal email so that you can send me your image/s to comment on
There will be weekly printable summaries of the key points and
helpful tips and book recommendations
Access until July 1st 2023
You can message me privately using the speech bubble in the bottom right hand corner and I'll respond as soon as possible Mon-Fri 9am - 5pm UK time
after 6 weeks there's bonus content on finishing your work; framing and photographing your work
the Facebook group stays open for as long as FB exists

I'M IN!!

More student testimonials

Melanie

I learned so many important things in your class, but I think the most important one is that I feel confident that with some hard work and really trying to hone in on who the heck I even am and what I really want to do, I have a chance at actually being a decent painter. I don't really know how to express how much this has meant to me.

Margaret

Let's Play was my favourite week. Such fun, really uninhibiting. The demonstrations throughout were excellent - it made it feel as if we weren't doing an online course to a certain extent. I really enjoyed that you were so natural, that mistakes occurred sometimes and it didn't matter. I loved that there was a lot of content so that you could pick and choose to your taste/direction or have stuff to come back to. I didn't feel overwhelmed, on the contrary. I thought your 'lectures' and example videos were of very high quality and very informative. I enjoyed so much, Gabs!

Sigrid

I have been really enjoying the course, it has given me a boost of motivation and some confidence. It is also a very lovely group of other artists you have created here.
By working through the steps and showing up as much as I can, I will have a better idea of how I want to proceed and where I want to go.

Who is this course for?

This course is for you if

you want to expand your painting practice in a fun and exploratory way.
You want to experiment more with acrylic.
explorer painters who want inspiration and stimulation from another perspective.
Brave beginners (with some experience of drawing and painting or a fearless feet-first can do attitude) will LOVE it.
You're creative but keen to strengthen your painting skills.
You might be a full time artist but feel in need of a shift in the way you work.
You love being connected to other artists and want personal feedback on your work and interaction.

This course is not for you

if you need step-by-step instructions on every single aspect of painting, however you could absolutely learn a huge amount from leaping into this as a brave beginner and asking questions as you go. You have a years access to work through everything several times and be amazed at how much you improve.
It's not for you if you want a paint by numbers way to recreate a particular painting of mine or anyone else's. My aim is to inspire your own creativity.
it's not for you if you hate still life as a subject in all its forms!
its not for you if you want to learn oil painting techniques because I only use acrylics on this course but if you are interested in colour, composition and different approaches to still life and want to paint in oils it could be. It will be up to you to explore your creativity using your knowledge of oils.
It's not for you if you expect transcripts of lessons. I will be describing the essential points under each video.

I CAN TELL IT'S FOR ME!

The course itself

Content is released weekly on a Monday morning and there'll be some material you can watch straight away and a summary of what we're aiming at and the timetable for the live sessions too. These are streamed into Facebook if you join in there and are available to rewatch in the course a couple of hours later.

There will be at least three live sessions a week in which I'll paint and answer questions.

10am on Monday
1pm on Wednesday
10am on Friday.

All times are GMT and subject to change - there may be additional impromptu sessions depending what students need and everyone's location. Any other sessions will need to be between 8am - 5pm GMT.

Week 1 - Strong Foundations - mark making, value studies and composition

Week 2 - Let's Play - Embracing gelli printing, layering, colour palette exploration, masking, exploring different surfaces

Week 3 - Everyone Can Draw A Lemon - Using techniques learned in the previous weeks in combination with really looking I invite you to push your ideas of what observational painting is. Be as experimental as you like here. If you want to work with flowers and plants this could be where you start. This will inform the next half of the course where many of you will probably work more abstractly. If you want to paint more realistically I hope that this week will have confirmed that for you.

Week 4 - Painting from the Inside Out - Creating from imagination and/or your previous drawings you'll be exploring your process more - thinking about atmosphere, markmaking and form without necessarily having objects in front of you, so as to learn about your innate qualities as well as creating both intuitively with concious decision making. You'll find out whether this approach is a key focus for you, an aspect of your work or is just not your cup of tea! You also watch me create a mini collection - Bon Bon - now all sold.

Week 5 - Let's Abstract - different approaches to abstraction using still life as a subject which you will be invited to explore; I expect by this stage that it will be much clearer to you what abstraction is likely to look like for you, so let what I show you simply be a catalyst to inspire further development in your own approach.

Week 6 - Painting on a large Scale - Here's your chance to experiment with working on one piece that is larger than you have ever gone before; conversely you may wish to create a series of small works ( you can revisit week 4 to see me create one of these) to consolidate what you enjoyed most in the previous weeks. This a chance to consolidate what you've gleaned so far and feel into how you'd love to paint in your wildest dreams. Go for it! What's the worst that can happen?

(spoiler - using a lot of paint up!!)

Right at the end of the course you can watch me paint at least one painting from start to finish. Warts and all.

The facebook group will be available to you permanently after the course. The course videos will be removed from the FB group when your access to the full course ends; but all your personal videos and work photos and chats and any Zoom calls will remain.

OK - I LOVE THIS - I'M IN!

a few examples of student work from ESL 2021

To see more wonderful work by my students in last year's course please search the hashtags #experimentalstilllife2021 and #experimentalstilllife on Instagram

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Frankie Carboni

Hélène Byrne

Angela Slack

Klair Bauly

Sigrun Hodne

Melanie Graham

Rita Kwong

Jude Askey Brown

Liz Vater

FAQS

Do I have to join the Facebook group?

You do not have to join the Facebook group. You can do this course quietly on your own if you would prefer that. Every single Live class will be added to the course material itself after it has aired in Facebook - usually within the hour.

The fullest experience, if you want to be connected to me and others would be to join the group as of course everyone posts their art in the group throughout the course and beyond. It's where I would go just to quickly announce something, or possibly do a live demo for someone stuck or talk about an individual painting if help were asked for. If you want full support from me and the ability to ask me questions on your work then that's the best option.

I'm not sure I will have much time for this, how much time do I need?

You get a years access to all the content, plenty of time to revisit. I suggest to all students that they read the overview of each week and decide what appeals to them most. Which aspect excites them and concentrate on the most important thing to them. That's how results will be deeper and personal to you. Obviously if you were doing nothing but painting all week then you will make progress faster but if you have devotion and you are serious about your art practice you will make some time to do a few hours a week. I would say that between 8-12 hours a week would be great but you're in control. You could decide to participate in all the live sessions and get to know the other artists too and then paint for two afternoons a week. Everyone has busy lives it's up to you to fit in what you can when you can. I will not be chasing you! I am here to inspire you. Last year I had a few students who weren't well during the actual course. They loved watching the videos and told me they were really inspired to work when they were better.

What guarantee do I have?

If you find that after the first week, by Friday May 27th that the course isn't for you then you can request your money back, no questions asked.

When will you be running Experimental Still Life again?

If I run it live again then it will be next year. Currently I do not know if I will do it this way - I love it - but I may turn it into a self study course. Depending on what happens in my life as a working artist I won't know until next year. I have a solo show coming up in April 2023 so it may not happen until the Autumn next year.

I don't live in the UK - when are the lives?

The timings are loosely set for UK times 10am and 1pm. Please convert those times to your own area to see when that might be for you. However all live sessions are uploaded to the course so you never actually miss them and you can ask me questions afterwards if anything comes up for you.