It’s been a great summer, not least of all because of all the students that have visited and made it so. It’s a real inspiration to meet everyone and to see the transition in students work from the first day of the courses to the last. A great weekend has just finished with Mic Chambers and Jill Fanshawe Kato where the change in portrait painting by Mic’s student from start to end was a huge testament to both Mic’s teaching and the students hard work and creativity. Jill’s students also produced some stunning work which is currently drying in preparation for firing in the next few weeks.

It’s a beautiful day today at Coombe with clear blue skies, chirping birds and cooing doves! Eva and Callum are doing fantastic work on the grounds during this quiet period between courses completing some essential maintenance work, which I hope all returning students will benefit from! Paul, Tina and Mimi are away in Prague for the whole month where Paul’s Private View for his exhibition was a great success – see his new website at www.paulrileyart.com for images (and picture above). The sold out course taking place in Prague and Southern Bohemia is well underway and Tina has just sent a blog post with all their news.

Back here at Coombe Remaining courses for 2011 are Paul’s Marine Painting 7-9th October where no doubt he will share his excitement and new techniques from the work he completed for the Prague exhibition. Creating Atmosphere in Watercolour takes place during the October half term (24th-28th Oct) which has just a couple of places left so get in quick if you’d like to book! Laurel Keeley’s ceramics course 4-6th November is now sold out, however you would like to be added to the waiting list do let me know and we will inform you if any places become available or get in now for next year!. The final course of the year is Paul’s traditional woodcuts, 2-4th December which is a great opportunity to work with Paul in a different medium.

It’s also been a busy time for the rest of the family with Antony working full time at The Photographic Angle www.thephotographicangle.co.uk & Malin completing her internship at Magnum in Paris. They are also expecting their first baby in December and Mark and Liz are hot on their heels with their third child due in January! Martin and I are very happily enjoying our time at Coombe this month having moved in to the house for a test run whilst Paul and Tina are away in Prague. We will soon be putting our own house on the market as the build nears completion and the grand move starts to become a reality! All very exciting!

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!

When we arrived at Old Coombe Farm in 1979 with Mark 8, Antony 2 and Lara at only 6 months old, we had big ideas, boundless energy and black hair!
None of our friends in the neat surroundings of Twickenham  could understand why we should swap a perfectly lovely house with a garden and central heating  for a derelict pig farm in the middle of nowhere. Jokes and Giles style cartoons abounded in the architectural office where Paul worked.
The fashion world in which I was involved, threw up it’s hands in horror muttering “she’ll be back – but at least dungarees are in fashion!”

Over the next two years living in the Nissan hut with no WC and a bath behind a curtain there were indeed moments of near despair but no regrets.

There were also wildly happy family moments including the arrival of my parents Mimi and Milo.Our new friends  included architects, photographers, farmers, writers, potters and the Dartmouth artists. We could never have predicted the  diversity of the community around us which sustains and inspires us to this day.

Four back breaking years later we opened Coombe Farm Studios and, thanks to all our students and friends we have been able to offer hundreds of people the time and tools to realise the excitement of the creative process for themselves.This year is another big birthday year for the Riley family as eldest son Mark will be 40, Mimi will celebrate her 90th year in November and I shall hit the “ it’s Ok to retire” age of 65.  So, as many of you already know, we’ve decided to start the process of stepping back and I am now officially out of the office.

As for Paul we’re not letting him off just yet but it’s time to concentrate more on his painting so that he’ll be able to move forward, experiment more and have something new to share with you in the years to come. He also still has a house to finish building so we can both enjoy creating  our final and special home.

The building has bought back together many of the people who, as mere teenagers, helped us with the restoration of the original Coombe project and who are now successful builders sometimes employing their own sons to help as well!

The last stage will also give us both an opportunity to enjoy all the facilities at Coombe making our own pots, woodburning stove, textiles and artefacts! When it’s all done we’ll look forward to inviting you in for a drink. As well as all the activities here Paul has a solo  exhibition of watercolours happening in Prague this coming September and we are organising a 10 day painters trip to Prague and Southern Bohemia to coincide with this event. It’s a trip we’ve done and enjoyed before but not in recent years. If any of you would like to join us we still have a few places and I’d be happy to send you details.

In the future we have plans to return to Bali, look at new locations in Sardinia, Corsica, Tunisia and Portugal and return to some of the old favourites France, Croatia and Venice. If there’s a special place you’ve enjoyed painting in either on a personal holiday or with another painting group it would be really good to hear about about it.You can always write, send me an email tina@rileyarts.com or call me for a chat 01803 722 352.
Now that Lara has taken over Coombe Farm Studios you’ll notice that there are some different courses and new young tutors whose work you may have seen in the gallery during your last visit. Notably James Stewart who has a solo show at the Dartmouth gallery at the moment.
If you’d like to learn to paint in oils do visit www.coombegallery.com and take a look.  We are also running ceramic courses again as you’ll see on the timetable with celebrated potters Jill Fanshawe Kato and Laurel Keeley both running short courses with great results from the students. if you have access to the internet do see these and lots more on the Coombe blog.

For those of you interested in printmaking I’d like to draw your attention to Kate Marshall’s course in September and Paul’s Japanese style woodcuts in November this year.

Finally, have you ever wanted to write or perhaps put words to something you’ve painted or illustrated? If so you’ll now be able to come to Coombe and learn to write creatively whilst still enjoying the food and ambiance you may remember from before.

We are very lucky that we have Sally Bond in the kitchen turning out truly excellent meals from hopefully a wider amount of good organic produce from the vegetable garden and the chickens that I’m entrusted to deliver! It’s still early in the growing season but at least salads and radishes are already on the table and mange tout are not far off.

Paul and Bettina’s courses are as popular as ever but there are still some spaces on all courses this summer.  As Paul is so well known for his vibrant colour and if you love colour yourself and want to enliven your own work do look at Being Bold with Colour July 4th-8th.

Many of you receiving this paper version of the newsletter will have been to Coombe or on a foreign trip at some time and of course we’d love to see you again. However, we are well aware that this may not be possible and if you’d prefer not to receive further letters from us please let us know. If you can now be contacted by email and are happy to receive news and updates from Lara please give us your details and we’ll delete you from the snail mail and save postage and trees by contacting you electronically.
For those of you planning to return, and we sincerely hope you do, much will be comfortingly familiar but with young faces and enthusiastic new tutors we’re sure there will be a energy about the place.  You’ll still see Eva, but she’ll be singing in the garden instead of the kitchen, and I’ll still be in the vegetable garden as often portrayed in Paul’s paintings over the years. Callum will be wielding the strimmer laying the hedges and creating new ones from willow.
At Coombe Gallery in Dartmouth, Mark has just confirmed that there will be a Peter Blake exhibition in August. That’s a great coup for a small gallery and we are really proud of his achievement.

Antony has also just changed jobs and is now working for a charity setting up photographic exhibitions and an interactive photographic website. This is all very new so not much to tell you yet but when it’s all up and running we’ll let you know so that interested photographers can log on.

Everyone has been asking what I’m going to do but the truth is I shall still be curating two big exhibitions here at the Studios with Lara  organising the foreign trips and finally starting to sort out and catalogue Paul’s paintings…… and that’s after enjoying more time with Mimi and starting to consider my own creative work once more.

Over the last 12 years Gina has become an honorary member of the Coombe family and you’ll still see her here at times as she will still be involved in various Coombe activities. She has recently moved to her first own new house in Cornworthy so is almost a neighbour.

In the meantime the house build goes on. We are watertight, the underfloor heating is in, and my greenhouse has a lemon tree!

And so Coombe goes on thanks to the next generation. We are completely confident that Lara and Martin with Mark and Liz, Antony and Malin will ensure that the quality and integrity we have strived for will continue for you all to enjoy in future.

In the meantime the old folks here will be on the
top of the hill directing newcomers down from the
car park – look out for us!

For Paul and I, after a hectic few days putting the exhibition together – see www.paulrileyart.com -  the private view day arrived. First the TV interview in a mix of Czech and English, and then the gallery opening in the evening. Paul nervously thought no one would turn up and was amazed when he arrived on time at 6pm to a gallery full of people. He was immediately accosted by autograph hunters,  journalists, friends and strangers. The rector of the academy made a speech praising Paul as a real English master of the very difficult technique of watercolour whilst Paul looked on not understanding a word and looking quite bemused by the whole affair. When we saw the TV clip on the cultural section of the main Czech TV station two days later we were surprised that it wasn’t a one second wonder and that they showed lots of the paintings. It has bought many people to the gallery since so everyone is happy,

Until to-day when it’s rather wet, we’ve been really lucky with weather and last night we enjoyed an excellent meal outdoors in a riverside restaurant where the wine and conversation flowed and everyone ended up singing, The hard core gang, excluding Paul and I on this occasion went on to ten pin bowling in a strange venue called “the Paradise club! “ Well it was obviously a bit of light relief after spending a day struggling with the perspective of the round tower complex!  So, on to Cesky Krumlov tomorrow, a beautiful Renaissance town in the middle of an ox bow of the Vltava river. I’m sorry you are not here with us but we’ll put up a slideshow of the work done at the end of the trip. Tina/Paul

I’m really looking forward to have Jill and her students here this weekend for her Creative Clay course, particularly with the newly refurbished pottery and new glazes and slips; as ever can’t wait to see what the students produce and hope to get some time in the pottery myself! More inf on Jill? see Jill’s recent article attached above and her website www.jllfanshawekato.com

James on safari!

James has exhibited with us at Coombe for over a decade, his work is instantly recognizable, beautifully analytical and often shows great humour. His highly collectable large and small-scale work sells regularly at the Affordable Art Fair in London as well as via the Coombe Galleries. James studied illustration including a specialized wildlife course at Dyfed College of Art, Carmarthen and worked as a freelance illustrator in London and Manchester designing book and album covers before moving south to pursue a career in Fine Art.

James’s work has been shown at such prestigious UK exhibitions as the Royal Festival Hall, the London South Bank Exhibition, the Royal Academy Summer Show, the Benson and Hedges Gold Award and the BP National Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery. He has also exhibited internationally in New York, Sydney and Melbourne. Portrait commissions have included Picasso’s model Sylvette David, Sir Terry Frost of the RCA and the late Professor Roland Levinsky.

Iris and Lemons

Nice pear!

Laurel in her studio

We are extremely proud to announce Laurel Keeley as a new tutor at Coombe – July 15th to 17th – the lovely Laurel is a dear friend and wonderful ceramicist and artist.  Internationally recognised ceramicist Laurel Keeley works with coloured slips and drawn line in stoneware and porcelain clays, with glazes and oxides

applied, often enhanced with Gold Lustre. The slab bowls, plates and pots are vehicles for figurative designs of fish and fields, rivers, canals and glimpses of the world through windows. More recently she has been working with images of gardens and landscape, her method informed by painting. Having exhibited her work at Coombe for over 15 years this new course is a natural progression to introducing Laurel’s work to an increasingly wider audience.
The course is designed to allow both experienced potters and beginners exploring clay for the first time to do slab and coil work, as well as throw pots on the wheel. Students will work in stoneware with coloured slips and drawn line. The scale of Laurel’s ceramics ranges from tiny pieces that fit in the palm of the hand, to coil built forms a metre high and students will have the chance to make and fire, both small and large-scale work according to their own ambition.

Round coloured plate

Laurel graduated with BA Hons in English and American Arts and an MA in Commonwealth Literature. She studied ceramics at Exeter College of Art and Design and has been working as a potter for 30 years, selling work throughout the UK in selected galleries and exhibitions. Laurel has received two Arts Council England Major Awards for her work and is a member of The Devon Guild of Craftsmen. Her ceramic pieces are owned worldwide. This is a unique opportunity to work alongside and interact with Laurel through her work.

Pot

Beautiful Spring Garden

Mic

The portrait maestro Mic Chambers is back again this year with a week long course April 10th to 15th – his portraits are quite frankly uncanny!

Mic is a self-taught artist. He started his illustrious career with a painting of an eagle which was accepted in the gallery on Vision On! from this auspicious beginning he studied alongside Ken Paine who was the President of the French Pastel Society and as a result of this he had an exhibition in Number Nine Gallery in Birmingham. He is a highly sought after portrait artist and teacher and his work has been in various galleries throughout the country including Sausmarez Manor in Guernsey, Coombe Galleries, Dartington, The Armada Gallery Plymouth, Somerville Gallery in Plymouth. For the Picture Me Now exhibition supported by The Prince of Wales and sponsoring the Prince’s Trust he chose to paint portraits of fellow artists and authors Mary Wesley, Bridget McCrum and David Leach,below you will see Mary’s and David’s portraits.

Portrait and life painting can be considered the same as landscape painting – the eyes and the mouth become recognizable geographical feature. Character, like hands and frown are an evolutionary statement. Most of us have two eyes, a nose and a mouth but the subtlety of their position and tone make for an endlessly fascinating study. In figure painting the shapes of the body can echo the shapes of the land, accentuated by light and tone. With lots of confidence, dynamics and a fun loving approach, hopefully this course will allow us to unlock the painter’s artistic enjoyment of reproducing a representative piece of art doing justice to the subject of both the head and the body.  Also attached are some portraits by the students from his course Winter 2010 – inspirational!

Students Portraits 2010 Hoorah!

Jack

Will

Prague is a city famed for music and there are many orchestras and concerts happening all over the city, not only in concert halls
but in churches, clubs and bars. As Tina is a native of Prague and speaks Czech fluently, she will be able to help with any local
knowledge and booking tickets for concerts or ballet etc.

We then move on to Southern Bohemia to an area of castles, lakes and forests where we will be staying in the comfortable Hotel Concertino in the town of Jindrichuv Hradec and we will also visit and paint at the Unesco heritage sites of Telc and Cesky Kruml

View from our favourite rooftop bar

Hotel Semik, Prague

Prague Castle

Stunning Charles Bridge

ov.