Following on from the 2025 courses, we are excited to be welcoming David back in 2026.
This five day course is similar to the 5 day course in October 2025 and March 2026 and differs from the 3 day course in February simply in having more time to immerse yourself in David’s process and your work, so you will ultimately have more time to develop your canvas(s).
David is a contemporary painter based in Cornwall. David’s abstract landscape paintings are created through a dynamic process of risk, transition and change. This course is suitable for painters of all abilities and will give you the opportunity to explore new techniques and discover new possibilities with paint.
It will be particularly useful if you have some painting experience and want to experiment further with abstraction. If you have more experience the course will help you push the boundaries of your current painting practice.
Join David on an exciting voyage through the expressive handling of paint and materials, mark making and collage. He will guide you through the process of translating the shapes, textures, feelings and moods of the landscape in paint. Be prepared to be challenged to experiment, explore and discover. David is passionate about surface development, layering and dramatic editing to achieve exciting results. David will talk about his own work and how he translates the sensory experiences of the landscape into paint.
A series of successful solo exhibitions and fast-expanding following, has generated widespread interest in how David creates his evocative paintings. The process is all-important. He paints to problem-solve, discover, learn rather than produce a perfect ‘final’ image. The course will give you a unique opportunity to understand his process and allow you to acquire exciting new techniques and strategies to ignite your own process.
David shows his work in solo and group shows with respected contemporary art galleries in Cornwall, London and Edinburgh as well as at The London Art Fair. David welcomes and has created numerous large-scale commissions.
“When I begin, I might start off with a sketch. Then I will develop it as a work on paper: layering and building as I go. Connections begin to spark off. I move it to the canvas. I begin to see something in the image that reveals what l am trying to communicate: the experience of the landscape. I begin to think about the image: battling with the canvas and asking more of it. This is where all the tools gained through my understanding of process come in. I will respond to the canvas and try and move it on. I am always battling with questions: “What should I add?”, “Where shall I take it?”, “How should I do that?”
THIS COURSE WILL GO LIVE FOR BOOKING ONLINE AT MID-DAY I.E 12:00PM BST ON WEDNESDAY 25TH JUNE.
Booking Process
1) Join the mailing list here to get an email notification of when it goes on sale. Sign up to our 2026 courses Instagram announcement channel here.
2) Once it goes on sale all places are allocated on a first come first served basis.
3) If you don’t get a place you will automatically be added to a waiting list in the event that we have a cancellation on the course. The waiting list places are allocated on a first come first served basis.
We recommend you save this page in your browser and refresh it when booking goes live.
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I will mainly be using acrylic heavy body paint (Golden) to demonstrate and various mixed media - Please bring the following materials with you - they are ESSENTIAL for the course.
ACRYLIC PAINTS (Liquid or Heavy Body): ‘Any Artist Quality Brand of’:Titanium White // (note: buy any decent‘white label’ brand such as Jackson or Cass Art’s own Titanium white acrylic paint, 60ml or larger) // Golden “Liquid” (NOT high flow) acrylic paints (30ml bottles - these are quite small) or Golden “Heavy Body” (60ml tubes) in the following colours are recommended. Note: These paints are expensive (but very high quality so a little goes a long way); please feel free to also bring any other acrylic paints you have and use in your work.
COLOURS: Please feel free to add any other colours you wish to work with, this is simply a guide: These are colours I often use in my work.
Hansa Yellow// Pyrrole Red// Cobalt Teal // Cobalt Turquoise // Paynes Grey // Phthalo Blue (red shade) // Permanent Green Light // Bone or Carbon Black //Green gold // Diarylide Yellow // Turquoise Phthalo //Ultramarine blue// Azurite Blue/ Manganese Blue Hue/ /Primary Cyan// Prussian Blue // Cerulean deep blue// Raw Umber// Indian Yellow// Naples Yellow// Burnt Sienna //Raw Sienna // Van Dyke Brown/ AlizarinCrimson//Yellow Ochre //Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide /
CRAYONS: A small set of water-resistant wax crayons - a good basic set “Caran D’ache Neocolor I - 10 crayons
A small set of water soluble crayons Necolour 2 - 10 crayons
PASTELS: A small selection soft pastels. Ideally Unison. Some blues, greens and warm colours orange and ochre or colours of your choice Also bring any oil pastels if you have them.
CHARCOAL: Thin, Medium and Extra thick sticks. Recommended Coates.
INK: Black drawing Ink + basic bamboo dip pen. Plus any other colours you have and enjoy working with.
PENCILS AND PENS: A selection of pens and graphite pencils for sketching. These can include any type of pen including biro pens and things like Posca pens.
FIXATIVE (Optional ) For use sealing finished work at end of course. I recommend you bring some fixative as will use charcoal and crayons through the course. Lascaux Fixative is recommended. This also acts as a varnish
MEDIUMS ( OPTIONAL)
GAC 100 and Golden Airbrush Medium for extending paint.
BRUSHES: A mix of 5-10 brushes is preferable and it is not necessary to buy new brushes for this course if you have some you are already comfortable with using on acrylic works. An idea selection would be.
Large (if possible - doesn’t have to all sizes listed) - I use Omega brushes but similar size decorator brushes would also work or Jacksons own brand. The key is big brushes! 180mm (not critical) // 120mm //100mm
Medium - 20 x 40m mottler style brushes - Jacksons
Decorator Brushes would also be fine - you can buy cost effective brush sets which would be useful. I also use the Round decorator sash paint brushes 18mm and 25mm so one of these would be good.
Small - A mix of flat, pointed round and filbert in some of these sizes:
-Jackson’s own brand Hog bristle brushes series 334 (long flat) in size 4,8,
-Jackson’s own brand hog bristle brushes series 333 pointed round in size 2 and 6
-Jackson’s own brand hog bristle brushes series 335 (filbert) in 10 and 12
Fine - Rigger brush, Size 5 or 6
NON-BRUSH TOOLS A palette knife or other items/tools to use for sgraffito or scratching into wet paint. I use wallpaper scraper for example but it can be anything (Please bring anything else you enjoy painting with including found items or DIY items etc)
Squeegee - I have a Halfords one but any would be useful.
PAINTING AND DRAWING SURFACES: Sturdy Mixed media paper sheets for wet and dry materials in a pad (glue bound or spiral) - I use Clairefontaine paper - Acrylic Special Paper 360gsm. 36cm x 48cm or 42 x 56cm x 10 sheets in each. These would be ideal but there are other brands to choose from Jacksons Art have a good selection.
SKETCHBOOK: Suggested Seawhite or Jacksons - Spiral Bound. A4 landscape or square.
CANVAS OR BOARD: Three or four work surfaces in a size you are comfortable with experimenting on - 50 cm size and over will give you more scope (primed canvases or MDF boards or large sheets of paper)
MISCELLANEOUS SUPPLIES: A 20cm x 20cm and 30 x 30cm white window mount
A flat palette with a decent-sized mixing area in the middle — or a paper palette pad of tear off sheets. Also useful = a small tray/plastic tub for mixing larger quantities of paint. A5 to A4 size. I often use washed out vegetable trays from the supermarket
Kitchen Towel x 2
Some soft sponges or pads for wiping paint - Halfords is s good source for these types of things
Metal scourer
Pritt Stick or PVA Glue for collage work
Blu Tack
FLOTSAM: I beachcomb for flotsam which I use in my paintings. If you have found objects from the landscape you collect please along.
APPS: Please download the photo App Layout For Instagram Photo Collage Maker Grid Story.
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This course is designed for anyone that already has some painting experience.
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Sunday
5-7pm Residents arrive
7.00pm non residents arrive
7.00pm Welcome Drinks
8.00pm Dinner
Monday-Thursday
8.30am Breakfast for residents
9.30am Tuition starts in studio
1.00pm Lunch
5pm Tuition ends
7pm Dinner for Residents
Friday
8.30am breakfast for residents
9.30am final tuition session starts
1.00pm Lunch
2.00pm Course closes
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Residential and non-residential spaces available.
Residential spaces = all your food, accommodation and tuition from arrival on Thursday evening through to departure after lunch on Sunday.
Non residential spaces= include tuition and lunch.
NB Residents are not required to share bedrooms, but are required to share bathrooms. We do not have any en suite rooms on site. See accommodation for more info.
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There will be a maximum of 12 participants attending.
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Residential= £928 + VAT (total £1,113) which covers all your tuition, accommodation and food from arrival on Thursday through to departure after lunch on Sunday.
Non-residential = £678 + VAT (total £813) which includes all tuition, welcome drinks on Sunday and lunch each day.
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We are based in the South West of England in Devon near the banks of the River Dart.
Our address is Coombe Farm Studios, Dittisham, Dartmouth, Devon TQ6 0JA [What3words:
What3words: fulfilled.exploring.branching
By Car >: We have plenty of free onsite parking.
By Train > The nearest station is Totnes then we can arrange lift shares or send taxi details. We are about 20 minutes from the station.
International > Our nearest airports are Exeter, Bristol and London (with direct trains from London > Totnes as above) so you’d need to fly into one of those airports then get the train to Totnes and taxi to Coombe. The Trainline is good for booking your rail tickets in the UK.
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There is a £150 deposit payable at the time of booking.
All deposits are non refundable and non transferable. Please therefore take out adequate travel/health insurance in the event that you are unable to attend.
The balance of course fees are due three weeks before the course starts and are also non-refundable and non transferable.
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I’d like to stay in the area before/after the course, do you have any recommendations? Both Totnes and Dartmouth are nearby and really lovely towns so worth visiting. See the town links for recommendations of what to do and where to stay.
I have dietary requirements/food allergies can you cater for those? Yes, please give us the details in the dietary requirements section when you book online.
I have a partner that would like to come with me but not paint is that possible? Yes there’s a charge of £350 if they want to stay with us during the course but not paint/take part in the tuition. When you book just add that you would like a double room and a partner place in the ‘access’ requirements section. We will then make arrangements for you and invoice accordingly. That payment will be due three weeks before.
Can I bring my dog? We don’t accept pets during the course unless you have a specific access requirement, in which case let us know in the access requirements section of the booking form.
Can I arrange a taxi/lift share from the train station? Yes once you’ve booked you’ll get details about how we can do that for you. You will also get a registration pack with local taxi numbers.
There’s a lot of kit and I’m travelling from abroad/on public transport how can I manage that?
Yes you can arrange for your kit to be posted/shipped/couriered to us marked with your name c/o Lara Lloyd. Likewise to return it. There are various courier services in the UK including Royal Mail and Send my Bag International options vary accordingly but global options include FedEx
Do you recommend any UK suppliers for buying required kit and getting it either shipped to me or to Coombe Farm Studios direct? Yes Jacksons, Atlantis and Cass Art are all good online UK suppliers.
When this course is available to book the booking links and options will appear here.
