Aside from Paul Riley, we have several specialist tutors who teach workshops at Coombe annually – each of them are professional artists in their own right, some live locally and some travel from throughout the UK and internationally. All are chosen to teach because they are stylistically different from our lead tutor Paul and because they share his desire to transfer their skills in an open and friendly environment.
Mic Chambers
Mic Chambers 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.
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
James Stewart
James has exhibited with us at Coombe for over a decade, his work is instantly recognizable, beautifully analytical and often shows great humour.
The creativity James employs in developing his original work and subject matter is supported by a rigorous attention to detail and the highest level of skill and technique.
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.
James has a one man show at our Dartmouth gallery, the exhibition ‘it’s only paint’ has been hugely successful in it’s first week.
Laurel Keeley
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.
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.
Bettina Schroeder
Bettina Schroeder is a practising artist whose work is regularly exhibited throughout Europe and America, most recently in Santa Fé, USA, Zurich, Switzerland and in London. She organized her first painting holiday in Wales in 1987. Such was its success that she has arranged painting holidays ever since, and steadily broadened the choice of locations for her courses. “Bettina is an exemplary teacher”, said Nicholas Shakespeare in The Telegraph Magazine.
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Jill Fanshawe Kato
Jill graduated as a painter at Chelsea School of ArtLondon of art before moving into ceramics. Since then she has exhibited widely and internationally particularly in Japan where she has already had 40 exhibitions.She taught for 17 years on the Postgraduate Ceramics Diploma Course at Goldsmiths College, London, and at Lambeth Institute and Kingsway College. She lectures (particularly on Japanese ceramics) and teaches workshops recently from New Zealand to USA
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Margaret Evans
Renowned for her pastel painting, Margaret also tutors watercolours, oils, acrylics and other media. She is internationally known for her portraits in oil and pastel and is a member of the Portrait Society of America, featuring regularly in the International Artist magazine.
