SHADOWED PLACES - PAST AND PRESENT WITH GILLIAN LEE SMITH

October 1-8, 2023

Northumberland, United Kingdom

Northumberland is home to rolling green fields filled with sheep, cows, horses, castles and places to lose yourself in history and time. It is also where artist Gillian Lee Smith calls home. We visited here years ago and fell in love so we are heading back.

Once again, we will stay in delightful Alnwick at the charming 300-year-old coaching inn, The White Swan, just steps away from the Alnwick Castle and Gardens.

Gillian is over the moon to be sharing her local area of Northumberland for another workshop. This time we dive deep into history and a sense of atmosphere and place – the castles and ruins that dominate this landscape and remind us of times long since passed.

We will be exploring iconic historical landmarks such as the gloriously decadent Alnwick Castle and Gardens – Ancestral home of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland (and of course made famous by the story of a certain boy wizard, Harry Potter).

Holy Island is a very special place – separated from the mainland by a tidal causeway and the Priory is the scene of the Viking invasion of Britain. The Lindisfarne Castle is an instantly recognizable silhouette on this tiny island.

Warkworth Castle is Gillian’s (and mine) favorite castle in the area and is fascinating in its passageways, darkened, shadowed chambers and archways. Wonderful, mysterious and sure to be an inspiration for our creativity during this workshop.

The workshop

There are so many hidden and treasured locations to explore in Northumberland. It’s a challenge to pick only a few! Layers and layers of history, shape, texture, atmosphere and narrative are abundant, and we will be gathering lots of inspiration in order to create unique interpretations of our own personal response to all that is to be discovered here.

Doorways, arched windows, crumbling walls, ancient textures and text. Silhouettes and shadows. Heraldry and statues. Decadence and decay. The marks left by those long since departed. The colours in the landscape and ancient buildings. We will be gathering personal interpretations of all these things where we will use them to spark even deeper exploration back in the studio.

Gillian will be demonstrating simple ways of gathering inspirations from the fascinating multi-layered forms of castles and the priory. The shapes we find in the ruins will be the spark that will inspire sculptural book forms with mixed media with an additional focus on texture and atmosphere. Shadowy, inky colour washes, flowing, gestural lines and wonderful mark-making and textural details. Layers that fold out to form fascinating interpretations of the wonderful ancient architecture of the area.

These books could then inspire some large mixed media interpretations and compositions that build history and atmosphere, lost and found structures and evocative details layer upon layer.

Itinerary

Day 1. Oct. 1 We will meet at the hotel bar for our first meet and greet.

Day 2. Oct. 2 Breakfast will be served in the beautiful dining room at “our table.”

We will meet in the workshop room at 9:30. Gillian will share her sketchbooks and mixed media works and will talk about her inspiration and development of her work inspired by the local area.

We will then explore various simple book structures and techniques to create “maquettes” to inspire our sketching and book forms later in the week.

We will walk to Barter’s Bookstore for our dinner. The largest used bookstore in the United Kingdom. The best mac and cheese

Day 3. October 3 This morning we will leave promptly at 8:45 a.m. for Holy Island where we will spend the day sketching. The many historical landmarks will be inspiration for our gathering today in particular the ruins of the priory.

Gillian will demonstrate simple sketching techniques to help us gather information from the ancient buildings and ruins, the dramatic landscapes and the marks left by those long since departed. We will depart promptly at 2!

Lunch will be at Barn at Beale just off the island before we head to Baumburgh Castle to sketch or we may go the lime kilns at Beadnell before heading back to Alnwick.

Day 4. October 4 Breakfast at the hotel and then a studio day where we will be creating foundational pages for our book sculptures. Thinking about shape, space and laying down layers to work into later in the week. Lunch at the castle then free afternoon with dinner on your own.

Day 5. October 5 Time for another early breakfast before we leave at 9:00 am for Warkworth. You will love the passageways that will inspire your work this week.

We will have lunch at a nearby tea house, returning back to the castle for further sketching, or we will visit Chillingham Castle. Gillian swears we will love it there. Interesting history and an eclectic mix of items.

This Art Escape is full. A waitlist has started.

This Escape includes

• Seven days of instruction from Gillian

• 8 nights accommodation (based on double occupancy)

• All meals except for one dinner

• Some art supplies

• Opportunity to immerse yourself in history

• Delicious final meal at the beautiful Tree House at Alnwick Castle and Gardens

• Art Tribe

The price for this workshop is $3,700 

A $1,000 non-refundable deposit is due at registration. The final deposit is due April 15, 2023.   

Price does not include airfare to/from Alnwick. Price is based on shared accommodations. Limited single rooms are available for an additional price of $400

The White Swan, Alnwick Northumberland

Transportation: You can take the train from London’s Kings Cross to Alnmouth which will take about 4.5 hours. Almouth is 4 miles from Alnwick. There is a bus that leaves every 11 minutes or you can take a taxi.

Airport: Newcastle International Airport is an international airport located on the outskirts of Newcastle upon Tyne. Address: Woolsington, Newcastle upon Tyne NE13 8BZ, United Kingdom. The flight from Heathrow is about 1 hour and 10 minutes. It is 33.5 miles to Alnwick and you can catch a taxi or uber.

Code: NCL

Supply List

We will provide

• Carbon paper

• Gesso

• Paper (drawing and watercolor)

• Gray card for book covers

• Gel Matte Medium

• Glassine paper

• Wax crayon (for taking rubbings outside)

• Quink Ink

• Book glue

• Water containers for studio setting 

• Nib pens

• Clips for holding sketchbook pages when outside

• Linen thread and needles

• Paint

Student Supply List

• Camera or phone camera

• 3 tubes of watercolor paint - Indigo or paynes gray, sepia, or burnt umber, and yellow ochre or quinacridone gold

• Hardback sketchbook - at least 12 x 8 inches when closed (smooth paper not textured and at least 120 gsm paper weight)

• Embossing tools

• Paint brushes - a couple of watercolor brushes

• stick/pencil eraser

• Art Graf tailors chalk - black (can bring other colors, too)

• A portable mixing palette for watercolors

• 5 to 10 sheets of handmade paper to cover books with (Gillian suggests natural colors such as indigo or sepia or ivory colors

• Bone folder for bookbinding

• A couple of lead pencils such as Blackwing

• A couple of carbon pencils

• Craft knife or exacto knife with extra blades (put in your checked luggage!)

• Metal ruler

• Backpack or bag to carry your sketching supplies in the field

Day 6. October 6 Breakfast at the hotel, then a full day of class with Gillian. Based in the studio we will be continuing to work into our sketchbooks – adding elements and using our memories of place and atmosphere to build up richly detailed and textural pages that will become a treasured collection of imagery based on our own unique experiences. Lunch will be at the hotel and dinner this evening will be at one of the local pubs.

Day 7. October 7 Breakfast at the hotel and our last full day with Gillian. Lunch will be at the hotel. We will finish our books in the afternoon, clean up and share our work from this week. Tonight will be our farewell celebration at the fabulous Castle Treehouse.

Day 8. October 8 This morning you will check out of the hotel and make your way back to Newcastle, or to the train station.

This itinerary may change due to weather, new opportunities of the whim of the group.

COVID REQUIREMENTS

Each participant will need to show proof of vaccination and a rapid test result three days before departure to Northumberland. We will wear masks if warranted by local requirements. There are no exceptions.

This itinerary may change due to weather, new opportunities or the whim of the group.

Gillian Lee Smith is a Scottish artist living in the beautiful, historic North-East coast of England that daily influences her work. As a teacher, Gillian is inspired to bring her love of people and place to each workshop using a wealth of techniques to make new discoveries along with her students. She has several very successful online courses and a mentoring program.

Carla Sonheim is a painter, illustrator and creativity workshop instructor known for her fun and innovative projects and techniques designed to help adult students recover a more spontaneous, playful approach to creating. She is the author of three instructional art books, including Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun; Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals; and The Art of Silliness: A Creativity Book for Everyone. She and her husband, Steve, produce online classes via www.carlasonheim.com in drawing, painting and mixed-media with over 20 wonderful instructors.