This will be our fourth year running the ‘Building Confidence Drawing and Painting Outside’ course. Each year our artists have loved the experience. The course has been designed to take Online Course students, from the mildly nervous to the truly terrified, from the studio to confidently drawing and painting in the great outdoors. Every year we have had the privilege of watching skills blossom and confidence grow in our students, it really is a magical week. 

Each day will begin in our lovely Little Art School Studio in Ayr on the west coast of Scotland, just a few minutes walk from the beach, then we will head out to paint on location for all of the five days. Joanne will be teaching the whole course and be with you every step of the way, guiding you to develop skills and techniques for improving sketching and painting outdoors. Transport to each location will be provided by us and we will also be providing lunches every day. We are based in beautiful Ayrshire and have planned 5 days in wonderful locations.

– DAY 1 The Beach: Starting to build confidence and discover the fun of painting outdoors. Lots of studio time with theory and techniques to build confidence

– DAY 2 Introduction to Sketchbook Journaling: Painting the Harbour at Dunure in the morning and then to Alloway and the Robert Burns experience with Brigadoon and the Auld Kirk

– DAY 3 Sketching in Museums: Visiting the Burrell Collection and building confidence sketching in a gallery setting

– DAY 4: Painting the Garden: Joanne will guide the class to develop skills painting in her garden, from small flower studies to painting a flower bed, trees and buildings, from detail to impressionism. Thursday will finish with a celebratory BBQ in Joanne’s garden with partners welcome

– DAY 5:  Studio Day: completing work and learning about how to transform outdoor studies into studio pieces

We have wet weather planning in place as the west coast of Scotland can sometimes have the odd shower in summer! 

All materials will be provided by us and you will leave with new sketchbooks packed with drawing and painting, all you will need to bring is your Cotman Watercolour box, we will have new brushes, pencils, paper etc for you, all included in the course cost. 

Our aim for this holiday is for it to be full of art and joy. It’s all about building confidence, so if the idea of sitting in a public place painting absolutely terrifies you, then this will be perfect, we will all be learning together, encouraging each other in what is, for us, the Little Art School way.

The cost of the full 5 day course, including materials, transport to locations, lunches and one evening meal is £500. This cost does not include accommodation, for those travelling we will provide a list of local hotels and B&Bs if required. We recommend staying close to our Studio (12 Alloway Place, Ayr, KA7 2AG) as we will begin and end each day here.