Have you ever wanted to write your memoirs, or are you burning to write the story of someone else’s life? This course, led by critically acclaimed biographer Lucinda Hawksley, will help you develop your writing and research skills and give you the confidence to move forwards with your manuscript.
Whether you’re struggling to begin writing, or if you want to develop a manuscript you’ve been working on for years, this course will help unlock your creativity and show the best ways to make your story come to life.
This 7-night course will look at how to structure your writing, how to plot the course of your biography or autobiography, and how to keep your reader engaged. We will talk about common problems and develop strategies to overcome them, such as: how do you encompass a life spanning many decades into a single book, how do you manage research difficulties, and how can you move on from writers’ block?
We will work in pairs, as a group and individually. Each day will allow you writing time and the course includes a writing-exercise trip to the beautiful nearby town of San Gimignano.
Lucinda Hawksley is the author of three critically acclaimed biographies: Lizzie Siddal: The Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel, The Mystery of Princess Louise, and Dickens’s Artistic Daughter Katey. Her other titles include March, Women, March: How Women Won the Vote, The Writer Abroad, and Bitten By Witch Fever: Wallpaper and Arsenic in the Victorian Home. She has also written three books about her great great great grandfather, Charles Dickens. Lucinda is also a lecturer and broadcaster, who has written and narrated podcasts for Audible, and speaks regularly at the National Portrait Gallery in London. She is a Patron of the Charles Dickens Museum in London. Lucinda has taught writing workshops for clients including the Arvon Foundation, the National Portrait Gallery and the Jane Austen House. www.lucindahawksley.com
This watercolour workshop will be held at the Verrocchio Art Center in the beautiful hill town of Casole d’Elsa in Tuscany. The overall dates for this workshop will be June 3rd – 13th June 2020 (10 nights)
3 June arrival: Collection from Florence train station (Santa Maria Novella) around 4 pm.
4 - 12 June Workshop
13 June departure: from 9:30 am with transfer to Florence
During this workshop, you will be personally interpreting this lovely town and the stunning surroundings, in your watercolour sketchbook and also through larger paintings in watercolour and/or mixed media. (The mixed media supplies will be shared and shipped to the school ahead of time).
In the mornings you will spend some time sketching and painting in a different location in the town in your sketchbooks. After a relaxing lunch and siesta time, you will return to paint and sketch in the studio. You will also want to spend some time gathering inspiration for these afternoon paintings from the town and the surroundings in your sketchbook. Evenings will include sharing and discussing the day's work, dinner (always at 8 pm), followed by a passeggiata (leisurely stroll) and the nightlife that Casole d'Elsa has to offer.
You will also have the optional opportunity to visit the nearby towns of Volterra, Siena and San Gimignano during the workshop.
PHOTOS FROM 2017 COURSE
PHOTOS FROM 2018 COURSE
"Tranquil, energizing, creative. I hope to come back. You offer a wonderful retreat". (Life and Landscape) A.H (USA)
"Imaginative tuition, excellent model. Inspiring, educational, challenging". (Life and Landscape) Z.O. (UK)
"I benefited from the expert teaching. Challenging, inspiring, life-affirming." (Life and Sculpture) J.C. (Canada)
"Julia really knew her stuff and was able to help me. This is a safe and beautiful place where I feel taken care of and in addition learning about art." (Life and Landscape) P.P. (USA)
The chance to work from our life model makes this a very special opportunity, and half the tutoring time will be spent working in the studio from her. Julia will encourage you to draw freely with a sense of fun and confidence, developing hand-eye co-ordination through short poses and more considered responses to the longer ones. You will have the opportunity to draw using a range of materials and techniques .We are fortunate to have a very experienced life model, Deb Pearson, from The Royal West of England Academy Drawing School, Bristol. She will be an inspiration to the sculptors as well who will continue working with Nigel in his sculpture studio.
Julia has been visiting Verrocchio annually since 2007 and although her work is deeply rooted in the human form, she has found the Verrocchio environment to be a visually exciting place that gives her the opportunity to develop her feel for light and colour.
You will be encouraged to use the drawing and painting media you are familiar with, as well as explore new ones. When working from the life model, a wide range of materials will be provided for your use during the sessions, which usually take place in the mornings. A1 sheets of good quality cartridge paper will be included to enable you to work large in the studio.
When you are not working from Deb, there will be time in which to continue exploring the materials and techniques used in the life sessions in your concertina sketch books, enabling you to respond creatively to your chosen subject, whether found in the old Verrocchio House, the terrace, village or the stunning surrounding Tuscan Landscape. There will be the opportunity to develop sketch book studies into paintings on primed canvas, which is available at The Centre.
Although the course is focused on using water-based media, those wishing to work with oil paints are very welcome.
Taught days will usually run from 9:30 am-12:30 pm, with breaks for lunch and a siesta. Teaching will start again at 3:30 pm until 5:30 pm. The studios will be open for you to use throughout the day and evening. Lunch can be bought in one of the local bars just a couple of minutes’ walk from the Centre, or prepared in the Martini kitchen at the Centre with food bought from the local shops. Non-participating partners are welcome, as this is an ideal time for walking and cycling. See Activities page for suggestions of things for them to do.
There will be an optional trip to Siena.
Julia studied Fine Art at Dartington College of Arts and at The Bristol School of Art. She is a qualified art teacher with over 20 years’ experience in Art Education, gaining an ‘Outstanding’ rating from Ofsted for classroom teaching. In 2007 she started to live a creative life away from the art room: combining her love of art and travel, she became part of Adventure Cruising, teaching watercolour painting on the ships Spirit of Adventure and The Quest for Adventure. It was here that Julia discovered her enjoyment in teaching adults. Her life paintings have been exhibited in galleries in the South West of England, London, The RWA, Bristol, and nationally at the Affordable Art Fairs.
Julia is an Artist Network member of The Royal West of England Academy and this year has started to teach Life Drawing workshops in the Drawing School at the RWA. At present her Drawings from Life are on show at the ‘Hidden Gallery’, Clifton, Bristol. www.myhiddenworld.co.uk
www.julia-adams.co.uk. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
I walked in to my first life room in Feb 1996 in Kent and immediately knew “I’m home!” I have lost none of my passion or fascination for it and continue to model, primarily in Bristol and Bath, 20+ years later. For many years I modelled regularly at West Dean College and Edinburgh School of Art. I was the model in the Royal Academy life room featured in the BBC Omnibus programme about the controversial YBA’s “Sensation” exhibition in 1997. In 2002 I modelled for “Life Class”, a HTV production with Roger Conlon and Toyah Wilcox. I was inaugural in the first ventures of the Bristol Drawing School, originally set up at Paintworks by the sculptor Carol Peace in 2007, and still run my own untutored life classes for it's second home at the RWA. With 2 other local art enthusiasts, I set up the West Bristol Arts Trail in 2008 which is still thriving. I am a passionate and prolific art collector! More...