So much has happened in a short space of time that it’s been really inspiring to be at Coombe over the past three months. One of the best things has been to see so many students visiting from around the world including, since April alone, South Africa, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Sweden, Germany and America.
Closer to home a group visiting ‘areas of outstanding natural beauty’ across the South Hams came to Coombe. Interested in finding out how artists take their inspiration from nature, Tina took them into the landscape around Coombe explaining how her vision for the land transformed it from a working pig farm to the gorgeous grounds and gardens we now have as our creative sanctuary and Paul gave a fantastic demo showing exactly how the landscape can inspire us to create work.
Jill Fanshawe Kato’s course, which also took the natural environment as a creative starting point, was a huge success in the newly refurbished pottery with some fantastic results from students trying out our new glazes – see work soon to be posted on the blog. Paul has been teaching flat out between overseeing the final stages of their build which is going fantastically.
The Moor to Coast and Stream to Sea courses ran well despite some terrible weather and we have had groups hiring the barn when courses aren’t running! For those of you that might be interested in hiring the accommodation it’s available when courses aren’t in session and an ideal place to come with a group of friends or families holidaying together.
I’ve also been busy planning the rest of 2011 and I’m delighted to announce that four new courses are on the website; a ceramics course with Laurel Keeley 4-6th November, (following her sell out summer course) oil painting course for beginners with James Stewart who has just completed a hugely successful show at Mark’s gallery in Dartmouth and a beginners print making course with Kate Marshall, a self confessed obsessive of ‘line and colour’ Kate’s course will focus on printmaking taking inspiration from the river. Last but by no means least we introduce a new kind of writing course – writing and water – led by Jerome Fletcher taking place 12-16th September. Information on each of these new tutors and their courses is on the website. Margaret Evans is returning later this month with her pastels course which still has places so anyone thinking about trying pastels and looking for a last minute break her course is perfect.
Paul is getting a huge amount of work done a the moment with teaching the summer courses, preparing for his exhibition in Prague and the course there in September. Tina has been working to organise it all alongside fantastic work in the vegetable patch which is already providing delicious seasonal produce for the course so she’s hardly had time to stop! Eva is back with us following maternity leave and in her new role managing the land and buildings and Sally is continuing to cook what Jill Fanshaw-Kato perfectly describes as ‘classy food’. These newsletters will now return to their monthly run and as we keep running out of space more will appear on the blog so do sign up on the website!
