Building A Creative Practice:
6-Month Mentoring Course with Carys Wilson
£775 per person
7th February - 4th July 2027
10:00 - 16:00
This six-month course is designed to give you a stronger sense of identity both within your practical work and how you project yourself as an artist to the outside world. The course will provide space to explore new techniques alongside expanding your own practice, and helpful, practical advice on ways to build your confidence, present yourself and your work, build your community and take steps forward in your journey as an artist within a supportive group environment, with individual guidance from professional artists. Culminating in a pop-up group show at Studio KIND, this course allows you to embrace challenges, build direction into your practice and professional life and develop your identity as an artist.
Session 1: Sunday 7th February
Introduction to course: We'll start with an outline of what to expect each session and the general pattern of the sessions. You'll get a brief introduction to Carys' practice/background and you'll work with Carys to identify where you are currently with their own practice, subject matter and where you would like to be in you practice. You'll share some of your current work with the group - bringing in physical work or showing images, and you'll be introduced to group crits in a supportive environment.
Sketchbook circle: You'll be introduced to sketchbook circles - pieces of work to be undertaken outside of the course, to be rotated, worked on, added to, disrupted, and evolved within the group.
Experimental drawing: We'll undertake some tasks to introduce the group to each other and loosen up our creative juices. Please note that some of this drawing time may take place outside gallery space, so please bring adequate footwear and a water bottle. This will include large and smaller scale drawings using a variety of media and tools. All materials provided.
Session 2: Sunday 21st February
Finding the joy in not knowing: Group practical session with a focus on loosening up, welcoming 'happy accidents', letting go of outcomes, controlling and relinquishing control in our work. Large and tiny scale ink drawings on wet paper, drawing back into images with wet and dry media. All materials provided.
Roadmaps: Lots of visual maps, silent thinking time and group discussion on where you are now and where you want to be. Holistic and realistic guidance to enable you to find out what you want your creative life to look like.
Session 3: Sunday 7th March
What, how and why: Writing and talking about your practice. Articulating what you do with clarity and confidence. Individual and group discussions on where you are within your practice currently. Participants to bring their own work with them to work on during the session. Learn about and participate in different crit methods, in particular the Silent Crit method, where you introduce a piece(s) of work you want to be discussed within the group, and take on board responses from others, guided by Carys in a supportive environment.
Individual tutorials: How do you respond to your own work? In which direction do you want to push your work? How can you achieve this? This will include practical individual advice and targets, interspersed with group discussions about keeping a sketchbook, opportunities for visual research in everyday life, self-made pressures and judgments, ways of changing our thought patterns, picking up threads or starting from scratch.
Words and pictures: A light playful visual task, alongside the individual tutorials, to give you time to engage with visual work, digest your thoughts, and prepare for tutorial time should you need to. All materials provided.
Session 4: Sunday 21st March
Life drawing session: highlighting the importance of looking, regardless of whether one's own practice is working from observation or not. Short poses initially, using a range of media and experimental techniques, leading into some more sustained drawings. Drawing materials provided.
Hester Berry talk: Visiting artist Hester Berry will give a talk her own practice and career, and will spend spend some time with participants giving individual tutorials.
Session 5: Sunday 4th April
Where do you sit? Who are your role models? The importance of looking at art, and becoming saturated by looking at art. How can we learn from the artists / writers / people we admire? Using social media as a positive and celebratory tool, being realistic, talk about comparison: colleagues and inspiration, not competition! Reading around your subject.
Playing in sketchbooks: Practical session exploring lots of different media, being a 'creative magpie' and making drawings from and learning from the work of others, exchanging work, ideas, and collaborating with others. Mark-making and colour. A drawing, printmaking and painting workshop using a variety of media, methods and tools to build up and rub down surfaces, to create tactile surfaces to work onto, to explore line, tone, shape, textures. All materials provided.
Session 6: Sunday 18th April
Drawing from nonvisual observation: practical drawing workshop focussing on sound, touch, memory, feeling, intuition, breathing. Discussion surrounding self-imposed restrictions, breaking habits, stepping outside our comfort zones. Session to focus on continuing of own work, alongside individual tutorials. All materials provided.
Review of own work: with one-to-one tutorials, in depth discussion with Carys about your work, your ideas, anything you want to discuss surrounding your practice.
Session 7: Sunday 2nd May
Getting to know your materials: Discussion on how / what you make, environmental impact and if this of importance to you. Drawings from previous sessions to be explored further within a traditional gesso making / egg tempera / oil paint making workshop.
Visit from Studio KIND director, Laura Porter: Laura will give a brief talk about her career and how she curates a programme at Studio KIND, giving practice advice for working relationships between artists and galleries.
Session 8: Sunday 30th May
Whole group discussion and written tasks: You'll be setting your own targets, where / what next, how to nourish and sustain one's practice, hitting brick walls and practical solutions to moving forward, discussing problems that ALL artists face, regardless of how successful they are, suggestions for further reading. Joining and creating a wider community locally and beyond.
Preparation for pop up show: We'll start thinking about how you curate a successful group exhibition, the conversations between the work you'll be showing, and how to promote and direct your own projects.
Session 9: Sunday 6th June
Curate and hang pop-up exhibition at Studio KIND: Showcasing work participants have made throughout the course so far, participants will explore connections between art works, themes, and curate their show. Curation/hanging to take place in the morning, before welcoming friends, family and the community to the opening in the afternoon (2-4pm).
Session 10: Sunday 4th July
Debrief and celebration surrounding exhibition: Sharing our thoughts on what was successful and what was a challenge for the exhibition pop-up. What did you learn from the experience?
Artist statements: Revisiting your statements of intent, the what, the how and the why. Quiet writing time alongside discussion, looking at the statements of established artists, rewriting your own, exploring your image in the world and what you want to look like.
Confidence and limiting beliefs: A discussion and thinking / writing workshop where you will be challenged to test your own limiting beliefs. Overcoming self-sabotage and applying this to your practice.
Individual tutorials alongside group discussion: This will be a fluid session allowing for participants to extract what they need from the session. Participants to revisit and remake their visual roadmap, to enable them to move forward with greater clarity and independence beyond the course.
Carys Wilson is a visual artist whose painting and drawing practice is informed by daily walking in the landscapes of Cornwall, Devon and Wales. She works from visual observation, sounds of, and physical feelings within her body to investigate how she embodies the landscape. Carys uses egg tempera on traditional gesso surfaces and is keen to connect with her materials. She has participated in numerous residencies in the UK, Spain and Cyprus, and shows her work regularly at the Royal Cambrian Academy in Conwy and Penwith Gallery in St Ives. Carys has taught in a wide range of educational establishments from schools and colleges to gallery education settings and studio workshops.
Each session will be 10:00 - 16:00 with a lunch break from 13:00-13:30
