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Painting - 5 Day Course Contemporary Landscapes in Ink & Watercolour with Max Naylor.

Sunday, 8 October 2023 17:00
Friday, 13 October 2023 14:00

Coombe Farm Studios (map)

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On this course Max will tutor you through his process, working initially from observation, collecting imagery from the inspiring surroundings at Coombe then exploring your findings and, working from your imagination, you will start to transform them into exciting new compositions, whilst developing your own particular visual language.

This course bridges the gap between drawing and painting, working directly in wet media with a variety of tools you will be encouraged to relinquish some control and learn tocollaborate with this dynamic medium. Through experimentation with new mark making techniques will come the realization that mistakes are irrelevant and only lead to new potentials. Immersing oneself in the process will lead to chance discoveries, serendipitous and surprising outcomes that develop your confidence as an Image maker. Go with the flow!

Max is a professional artist living in Bristol where he has a studio at Spike Island Studios, along side his own fine art practice Max is a tutor at the Royal Drawing School in London. He has completed a number of international residencies including time spent in Los Angelis and Delhi. In 2017 Max won the Discerning Eye Drawing Bursary and in 2016 the Jacksons Painting Prize. He has exhibited widely in the UK and has his work in private collections throughout the world.

“I tend to describe my work as a collaboration between place and self. I guess what I mean by that, is that I think of it as a collaboration between the medium I’m using, myself, and the place I’m doing it in, it’s a three way activity of these things all flowing and going in and out, its a collaboration between them all. ”

— Max Naylor

Max’s practice is concerned with constructing an alternate universe; each painting made is another glimpse into this other realm. Familiar yet exotic, these paintings resemble the age of the anthropocene seen through the filter of personal consciousness. Max thinks of these works as mindscapes, reoccurring motifs that well up from the subconscious and spill onto the paper or canvas.

The painting process is instinctive and ongoing, working from memory that’s being constantly added to through travel and experience. His aim is to continue to develop and expand this body of work, enlarging and illuminating his personal microcosm.

Max is teaching two courses at Coombe this year - this 5 day course and a shorter 3 day course in May. Both courses essentially follow a similar structure and process, with the five day course providing an opportunity to immerse yourself with a little more time.

“My parents were artists, so there was always drawing equipment in the house, I started drawing around 2 or 3 years old and I always knew it was what I wanted to do. A lot of my work is based in lasndscape in some way. I’m often out in the landscape, I walk a lot, I run a lot, I cycle a lot, so I’m always in the landscape absorbing it, I don’t tend to go out sletching that much, I tend to go out and just absorb visual information and it gets stuck somehow and comes out at a later date. ”

— Max Naylor