Paula Varjack will be artist in residence for a mini R&D.

Paula is an artist working in performance, video and participation. She makes work as a way of making sense of and communicating with the world. In every show she makes, she aims to find the balance between making audiences question themselves, and feeling like they have had a fun night out.

A three day course designed specifically for anyone wanting to work with clay for the first time. This course led by Coombe Director Lara Lloyd and you will have a chance to both handbill and throw on the wheel.

An evening class for anyone that has done a beginners class or some work with clay and wants to develop their skills in a non-competitive professional arts environment.

Join David on an exciting 3 day 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.

The capacity to comprehend the world we live in is a key aspect of all creative practice. Many people who work with clay are absorbed in ceramic related process and technique and their inclination to explore, investigate and establish a rich visual two dimensional language is neglected.

This course will equip you with a wide range of drawing skills and techniques to support and help you develop your own ceramic practice. It will enable you to clarify your priorities and consequently identify a range of source material that will sustain progress and support longer term aims.

A weekly class for anyone that has had some experience of working with clay, either a small or large amount, that wants to progress their skills in a non-competitive professional arts environment, taught by potters who are also experienced teachers. You will have the chance to handbuild or throw on the wheel according to your interests. A tutored class where you have the freedom to explore and realise your own projects and ideas, supported and assisted in your making.

An evening class for anyone that has had some experience of working with clay, either a small or large amount, that wants to progress their skills in a non-competitive professional arts environment, taught by potters who are also experienced teachers. You will have the chance to handbuild or throw on the wheel according to your interests. A tutored class where you have the freedom to explore and realise your own projects and ideas, supported and assisted in your making.

This beautiful new course with Meredith Owen course offers you time to connect with the landscape through conversation, mark making and brush work techniques. Building on your confidence in colour theory with oil paints over three days.

Join David on an exciting 5 day 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.

An experimental intuitive painting course working with acrylics and mixed media, this course is suitable for painters of all abilities. It will be particularly useful if you have some painting experience and want to experiment with abstraction and how you use colour, or if you have a more experience but you want to free up from your current style and spend some time experimenting with a different approach.

A wonderful workshop of colour and flowers- from classic watercolour studies to bold expressive paintings…

Tessa will guide you through watercolour techniques, colour mixing and brush skills to capture the many forms and textures of flowers in a series of classic studies and will share her process to create larger more abstract floral watercolour paintings.

This 5 day course will begin by drawing from a still life looking at colour and composition, drawing upon the plants and flowers that surround Coombe. Through a series of exercises, you will build on experimentation and observation before planning and painting a diptych on canvas, capturing the personality of your chosen flower(s). This course is ideal if you are looking to build on your colour theory and immerse yourself in the intimate world of flowers and the myriad of patterns and colours in the natural world.

This is a three day course with internationally recognised and celebrated professional potter Anna Lambert. Learn how to develop designs for simple slab built ceramic platters and tiles. You will discover ways to build complex and layered surfaces with tonal and coloured slips, using combinations of surface pattern techniques.

You'll start with the rolling of slabs for plates and test pieces. We will then spend time around Coombe Farm, drawing and gathering ideas for the workshop.

A practical hands on approach to making glazes and exploiting a myriad of special effects in glazes from Lava to Oil Spot, expertly tutored by the author of numerous books on Glazing - Linda Bloomfield.

During the course you will spend the first day making glaze tests, then the next day learning about glaze chemistry and analysing the results.

This course is ideally suited to anyone that has some experience of glazing pots and wants to deepen their understanding and do some experimentation. 

An experimental immersive four day drawing course, great for anyone starting out drawing or for those that want to free up their mark making and experiment with new techniques and materials. Residential and non-residential places available for those living or staying near to Coombe.

We are delighted that master potter Tim Andrews joins us again in 2024. Tim is known internationally for his distinctive raku pottery and for his book ‘Raku‘* a comprehensive overview of raku, covering the history, clay types and firing of raku, as well as the glazes, techniques and reduction processes. Tim makes individual work, black and white with linear decoration, or burnished muted coloured slips. The pieces are usually thrown, although some work is hand-built.

This 4 day course will focus on methods to achieve vibrant and expressive mark making in the landscape using soft pastel as the primary medium in a mixed media process. Sarah Bee PS has been a member of The Pastel Society, and part of the Federation of British Artists, for almost 20 years.

During this time she has made it her mission to lift pastel painting from the doldrums of a long held dull and traditional reputation into the deserved spotlight of inspiring contemporary art.

An experimental intuitive painting course working with acrylics and mixed media, this course is suitable for painters of all abilities. It will be particularly useful if you have some painting experience and want to experiment with abstraction and how you use colour, or if you have a more experience but you want to free up from your current style and spend some time experimenting with a different approach.

Adam is a highly accomplished potter that makes clean, simple forms on wheel. Based in rural Northern Ireland Adam works in porcelain, creating thrown functional and large one-off pots and we are delighted that Adam is returning to Coombe for a third year to teach this fantastic course.

This inspiring and enjoyable drawing & painting course for beginners is for people who have always wanted to draw and paint but just don’t know where to start or want to develop their work.

If you are familiar with the fear of the blank page, have the feeling that you can’t draw, or you want to expand your skills, this course is suitable for you.

This inspiring and enjoyable drawing & painting course for improvers is for those that have taken part in beginners courses and want to progress their work.

Francine Lawrence and Susi Hoyle have taught over 2000 people to draw and given them the confidence to keep drawing.

This long weekend course is for intermediate potters. If you want to improve your throwing skills, this dedicated time and space with expert tuition will help you develop your ceramic practice. This course will include techniques for preparing and wedging your clay, centering on the wheel, throwing a basic cylinder, turning and trimming pots, attaching handles and exploring other forms including bowls, mugs, jugs, and plates.

I’m thrilled to announce Rachel Wood as a new tutor for 2025. This course aims to refresh, revitalise and deepen your connection with the hand building techniques of pinching and coiling. Using an experimental approach, you will be able to gain confidence, develop competent skills and befriend your clay.

You will learn and apply surface decoration and mark making techniques to add vitality and life to your work, so that the natural qualities of the clay, and the experience of being at Coombe come shining through.

We are delighted to be welcoming back to Coombe the utterly brilliant and talented Sabine Nemet. Sabine will be teaching a five day throwing course, focusing on the shapes and forms she makes and is known for.

We created this new course in 2023 offering tutored sessions in both outdoor swimming and pottery led by hugely talented and experienced potters Laurel Keeley and Jodie Crook Giles and Outdoor Swimming Society Director Kari Furre. It was a huge success so its back for 2024.

This is an immersive five day intensive pottery residential with the internationally recognised potter Anna Lambert. Anna builds her work from a white earthenware mixed clay, using a variety of handbuilding techniques.

Garden Landscapes - Exploring Colour and Pattern with collage.

In this workshop you will respond to the wonderful hedgerows and gardens at Coombe.

Looking for colour combinations, pattern and rhythms in the gardens, vegetable patch and hedgerows, using a variety of mixed media including oil pastels, watercolour, gouache and crayons you

Dylan Bowen. Making and decorating dynamic slip decorated earthenware - During this course Dylan will demonstrate and teach various techniques based on his own work.

An advanced pottery throwing course focusing throwing techniques and shapes for intermediate potters that want to advance to the next level.. Tim has taught around the world for over thirty years - workshops, lecturing, FE & HE.

He trained originally with David Leach and at Dartington and exhibits both nationally and internationally - most recently in Japan, China and Australia.

During this immersive workshop, you will be introduced to the traditional Japanese art of water-based woodblock printmaking.

Mokuhanga is perfect for anyone interested in a non-toxic, water-based, table-top printmaking technique.

Join David on an exciting 5 day 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.