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Planning in a Pandemic

Planning in a Pandemic


Agata Smolska – still life study with grey and brown, from a class with Clare Haward

We are in that curious liminal space between Christmas and New Year, nothing left of last year and not yet the next; like when walking the shore between the tides we find the flotsam and fragments of previous projects and the space to imagine the new.

I was once lucky enough to work for a Japanese company that saw this period as the perfect time for a thorough stocktake and rather than going for bracing walks and eating hearty food would spend their time in the warehouse sifting through dusty boxes. I was even invited to join them.

Whilst I’m much more of a bracing walks kind of person, taking stock is a sensible endeavour, and now, as the days grow longer and a sense of new beginnings is in the air; it seems a natural thing to do.

Planning is best done with both the head and the heart, it is the head which conducts the stocktake and structural projection but it is the heart that brings the energy for the new. As artists, we are great at anything is possible style creative thinking but not always the best at the thoughtful review of practicalities. With a new beginning we have to start from where we are, so this time, here, now, is the time to have an unsentimental unpacking of all that we are, throw it out on the floor and have a good look. When we can clearly see where we are, the next step becomes easier to discern and our plans have a better chance of being realistic.

Planning in a time of plague

We may have our hopes for the New Year but by Jiminy, the virus and it’s new strains have scuppered some of them! Whilst the schools are shut we have to be too. Whilst international travel is so complicated we’re holding off on overseas painting trips (although we have the end of April pencilled in). However, our brilliant tutors have worked out how best to support you remotely and the results they are getting are amazing. We will also continue to run life drawing and painting sessions using Zoom starting on Tuesday the 5th Jan and keep our fingers crossed for the future.

We hope that Christmas has warmed your heart and that we’ll see you somewhere in our New Year.

These courses have space available:

Tuesday Evenings start 5th Jan – Introduction to Painting From Life with Alex Tzavaras
Wednesday Evenings start 6th Jan – Portraiture with Alex Tzavaras
Thursday Mornings start 7th Jan – Landscape with David Sawyer
Thursday Evenings start 7th Jan – Intermediate Life Drawing
Monday Evenings start 11th Jan – Introduction to Life Drawing

Zoom sessions:

Tuesdays Freya’s Fast Poses restart on the 5th January at 6.45pm for 7.00pm on zoom – book here
Wednesday portraiture sessions start again on 6th January at 2pm – book here
Saturday morning life drawing and painting starts on 9th January at 10am – Book here.