| Workshops Programme 2025

In this workshop participants will use a range of drawing techniques to make a series of studies that will be used to develop into decorative artworks. There will be something to inspire everyone!
David has taught Art and Design for over 30 years, the last 25 at Arran High School. During his Fine Art Degree David studied across mediums including sculpture, photography, printmaking and drawing.

Necessary Experience | Suitable for all abilities, from absolute beginners to the more accomplished.

Materials to Bring | All materials will be provided.

Food & Drink | Please bring a packed lunch. Tea & coffee provided.

The morning will be spent discussing colour theory and experimenting with different palettes and techniques. In the afternoon you will have a chance to work on a freestyle piece (no references needed) with guidance from the tutor. Please bring your own sets of acrylic or oil paint and brushes if possible. You may also like to bring a canvas or board of your choice for your afternoon painting. Wear old clothes or bring an over shirt or apron. Old rags will also be useful.

Senja has over 25 years teaching experience, with the majority of it running an art room in a lager Edinburgh school. Senja has her own gallery, here on Arran, and exhibits in various galleries on the mainland. Although very busy with shows and commissions, Senja still finds time to support many of Arran's community events.

Necessary Experience | No experience required.

Materials to Bring | There will be a small selection of materials for those who need it.

Food & Drink | Please bring a packed lunch. Tea & coffee provided.

A bold 2-day mixed media workshop where we’ll embrace chaos, experiment with unconventional tools, and explore a range of mediums to uncover happy accidents. Layers of texture, splash, scrape, and smudge your way to creating unexpected, expressive landscapes. Perfect for those ready to break free and get fearless with their art!

Gillian Park is a fearless creative, author, award-winning artist and coach, known for her vibrant, expressive landscapes and fearless approach to creativity. Painting from her rural Ayrshire studio, she inspires others to break the rules, embrace joy, and make art unapologetically their own.

Necessary Experience | No experience necessary. Just a willingness to experiment and be open-minded.

Materials to Bring | - Any surfaces (bring a few as we’ll be working in a series) - NOT canvas - cardboard, MDF, cradleboards, old panels, oil painting or acrylic paper
- Any waterbased mediums: ink, acrylics, watercolour, pens, pencils, oil pastels, an texture mediums. Plus any brushes you have (please include a 1-2” emulsion brush), a kitchen scourer/sponge, plate or palette for mixing.
- Gillian will have a collection of goodies to play & experiment with.

Food & Drink | Please bring a packed lunch. Tea & coffee provided.

In this one-day workshop, Jen will guide you through the essentials of modern calligraphy using a brush pen. You’ll begin by learning foundational strokes and shapes, the building blocks that form letters and words. Once you’re comfortable, you’ll move on to creating beautiful letterforms, exploring how to connect them into flowing words. This step-by-step approach ensures you’ll gain confidence in your skills.

But that’s not all! You’ll also get the chance to try out faux calligraphy, a versatile technique that allows you to mimic the calligraphy look on a variety of surfaces, from chalkboards and signage to clothing and paper crafts. Plus, there will be an opportunity to experiment with different tools, opening up even more creative possibilities.

By the end of the day, you’ll walk away with a brand-new skill set, ready to create stunning pieces of your own. No prior experience is needed, and all materials are provided—including a pack of worksheets to help you keep practicing at home. Whether for relaxation, personal projects, or gifts, this workshop is the perfect way to dive into the world of modern calligraphy.

Jen is a Modern Calligrapher and illustrator working from her cosy studio in the vibrant East End of Glasgow. With a passion for creating bespoke, heartfelt designs, she specialises in crafting unique artworks for couples getting married—everything from elegant signage to personalised, hand-painted jackets and more. Beyond weddings, Jen collaborates with a variety of corporate clients, including renowned names like Gleneagles, The Macallan, ISS Facility Services, Lululemon, All Saints, and Radley. Her work blends creativity with thoughtful detail, making every project truly one of a kind.

Necessary Experience | No prior experience is required, this is suitable for total beginners and those who wish to improve their existing skills.

Materials to Bring | - Glasses if you wear them as some of the work we will do is quite small.
- If you have a project in mind – a wooden sign, chalkboard, bag, jacket or cushion that you would like to write on bring it along and we will work on personal projects later in the day. If you don’t have anything in mind don’t worry, I’ll have plenty for you to work with!
- Jen will bring a range of Brush pens in various colours and some nib and ink tools which will be available to purchase on the day.

Food & Drink | Please bring a packed lunch. Tea & coffee provided.

In this two day workshop, we will cover:
Day 1 morning: Facial structure. Facial proportion, adults versus children, the face seen at different angles, how shadows make the form. We will practice drawing the individual features of your chosen image, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, chin and neck.
Day 1 afternoon: Using burnt sienna, oil, we will paint your choice of Portrait. This will be your underpainting.
Day 2: The colours of flesh. Using a specific palette technique, you will premix all the colours you need for your painting, and spend the rest of the day completing your portrait.
The class will end with an individual critique on each student's work.

Joan studied at Glasgow School of Art and taught for many years before establishing her own art school, Robinwood, in Ayr in 1993. She is a practising artist enjoying working in a variety of mediums.

Necessary Experience | Not suitable for the absolute beginner.

Materials to Bring | - Sketchbook and any soft pencil, 2B or charcoal, pastel, conte or carbon.
- Rubber.
- Water soluble oils in the following colours: Yellow (any), Yellow ochre, Orange, Alison crimson, Purple, Blue (any), Green (any), Burnt sienna, Black.
- Your own choice of acrylic or oil brushes - not watercolour.
- A pliable pallet knife.
- A pallet to mix your paints on- reinforced glass is the best.
- Apron
- Rags or paper towels.
- Water soluble linseed oil if you have it.
- A canvas, or canvas board, no smaller than 10” x 12” and no bigger than 16” x 20”

Food & Drink | Please bring a packed lunch. Tea & coffee provided.

Initially trained as a modelmaker, Amelia has more recently enjoyed working as a community artist. Creatively re-using all manner of discarded materials, Amelia enjoys creating artworks with groups and extending knowledge of techniques in relaxed workshop settings.
In this fun, beginner friendly workshop, participants will use plastic waste from plastic bags & packaging to design and then create new sheets of bespoke material. These will be turned into a range of useful (coinpurse/wallet, glasses case, etc) and decorative items (jewellery, hangings) over the day using simple methods and hand tools.
There will be time to try things out, experiment and learn together.
All results can be replicated at home (with care) if you get inspired!

Creatively re-purposing all manner of discarded materials from aluminium cans to bicycle innertubes, Amelia enjoys creating artworks with groups, some of which are still to be seen in the streets and playgrounds of Glasgow. She enjoys introducing others to some of the magical techniques she’s come across in her work with litter and is keen to encourage sustainable practice for both environmental and financial reasons.

Necessary Experience | No experience necessary.

Materials to Bring | Everything provided, with attendees encouraged to bring their own plastic bags, soft plastic packagings, fruit/veg netting, ring-pulls etc. for inclusion if they have any lying around.

Food & Drink | Please bring a packed lunch. Tea & coffee provided.

In this one-day workshop participants will be shown how to create a charcoal drawing of a pet, with specific focus on creating realistic fur. There will be several demonstrations exploring a variety of techniques and tools that can create more realistic looking fur, such as using an eraser pen or tools that will indent the paper. We will then apply all these learnt techniques to the final drawing in order for each participant to go home with a drawing of their favourite pet.
Participants can work from their own printed image and will be shown a couple of ways to draw the outline accurately that would suit someone working at a beginner level or are more accomplished at copying freehand.

Lisa graduated with a Fine Art degree in 1994 in Nottingham, England. Her career then took a slight detour to become a teacher, and it wasn’t until she moved to Scotland in 2007 that her art once again became a priority. She now paints from her studio at home and teaches part time. Lisa has had extensive experience with many mediums, including oil and cold wax, but prefers to create semi abstract landscapes in acrylic. Her love of using charcoal to capture someone’s beloved furry friend is relatively new, but one that brings her as much joy as she gets from capturing an essence from the Scottish landscape around her.

Necessary Experience | As Lisa will be demonstrating a variety of techniques the workshop will suit all levels of drawing ability.

Materials to Bring | Smooth hot pressed water colour paper( A4) charcoal pencils, eraser pen (NOT electrical), putty rubber. If you have grey and white pastel pencils then this would be handy but not essential. If you want to work from your own image then please bring a black & white printed A4 image where the head and neck is about 15cm across has clear details othe eyes and fur. You will be producing an exact replica to size.
Materials provided by Lisa: indenting tools, blenders, masking tape, pencils, sharpeners, carbon paper, a selection of printed images of dogs, tissues.

Food & Drink | Please bring a packed lunch. Tea & coffee provided.

Day 1:
Introduction to slab building in clay. The theory, technique and practise. Historical examples shown. Participants will spend the day making simple clay slab-ware boxes/containers. Fitting lids, applying simple decoration.

Day 2
Using the experience from day 1, the workshop participants will aim to make a more ambitious slab-ware object. Small sculptures of old crofts and lighthouses will be made using the slab technique. These will be functional tea-light holders, incense burners or essential oil diffusers. (This is just a guide line and participants are totally free to choose their own subject to explore the possibilities of the technique).

Tim Pomeroy is an Arran-based artist who exhibits sculptures in Edinburgh and London. He has major works in Provands Lordship and Glasgow Metropolitan Cathedral. As well as the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery. He is currently working on a major commission for the Garden of Cosmic Speculation scheduled to be sited before December 2025.

Necessary Experience | Suitable for all abilities.

Materials to Bring | An additional charge will be requested for purchase of clay and energy to fire the finished objects. All clay working tools will be supplied. Participants are free to bring their own. Essential that participants should bring sketchbooks and pencils/charcoal drawing materials to sketch out ideas. Assistance and support given at every stage of the process.

Food & Drink | Please bring a packed lunch. Tea & coffee provided.

The 1 day colour mixing for landscape painting workshop will be a practice-based look at the three properties of colour, hue value and saturation, how these properties relate to each other and interact. The workshop will give a framework to enable participants to continue colour exercises and experiments independently working on a landscape of their choice. It is suitable for both beginners and more advanced artists who want to expand the knowledge of how to mix colour for their artwork.

You will learn:
- the three properties of colour, how they relate and interact
- how to mix colour in a methodical way
- how to use colour with intention
- how to apply the learned to a landscape painting

The workshop will be demonstrated using acrylic paint, but oil paint can be used if preferred.

Ewen Duncan, artist and founder of art4you Scotland, has many years of experience in various art forms and mediums. He is a Glasgow School of Art graduate followed by post graduate studies in New York. His life has been varied and each change has had an influence on his own work. He also worked in TV and film set design until setting up the art school art4you Scotland in 2010.

Necessary Experience | All levels welcome.

Materials to Bring | Acrylic paint: ideally the following colours: white, lemon yellow, primary yellow, cadmium red, magenta, viridian or hookers green, light green, ultramarine, cerulean blue, cobalt blue, phthalo blue, yellow ochre, raw sienna, burnt sienna, payne’s grey
Acrylic brushes size: flat size 10 & 14, 18 round size 2, 4 & 8 (or similar)
X2 Palette knife, pointed and flat ended
Two water containers
Surface: stretched canvas or canvas board size 30x40cm x2
Paper: A3 140gsm or 200gsm x4
X2 plastic palettes for mixing and Palette paper
Rags to clean brushes
Pencil, eraser

Food & Drink | Please bring a packed lunch. Tea & coffee provided.

Throughout the day you will learn how to weave, plait and tie straw in order to make a selection of Yuletide decorations. By the end of the day you should have a selection of small pieces of decorative straw work to take home with you, helping to keep this endangered and beautiful craft alive.

Julia studied Applied Arts (Craft) at Brighton University working mainly with glass, metal and ceramic. A keen interest in nature and traditional celebration and a want for a less environmentally impactful craft led her to start working with straw. Her work predominantly relates to nature and the renewal of life and is heavily influenced by ritual celebrations of British and native culture. Costume and performance art also have a strong link to her work.

Necessary Experience | No previous experience required.

Materials to Bring | Straw will be supplied.
To bring: Scissors, ruler or tape measure, pen and paper for making notes. Ribbons for decorating your finished pieces.

Food & Drink | Please bring a packed lunch. Tea & coffee provided.