the flower book workshop

With Janet Haigh

9th - 14th June 2024

This course is specially designed for drawing sessions in the drawing studios at Court House Farm, using flowers from the cutting garden.  

Students will be taken on a journey to develop their first observational drawings through a variety of examples, samples and advice using one-to-one tutorials and “show and tell” sessions enabling each person to take home an individual sketch book as a record of their study week of the garden flowers.

What’s Included

• Accommodation in a stunning medieval manor (1300sAD) or adjoining Tudor Manor house (1500sAD) the opportunity to stay in a beautifully renovated country house, steeped in history

• Fully catered, chef prepared meals: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner with selected wines and all refreshments.

• Daily guided mindfulness sessions or low key yoga!(optional)

• Inspiring and engaging talks from History of Art professional

• Flower Picking and Arranging in our beautiful flower garden

• Fulfilling conversation with likeminded individuals

• a local visit or two to a nearby gallery, cultural spots - Brunels suspension bridge, and / or the nearby Clevedon Pier- the prettiest in England!

• Time to potter to the shops, Marina and walk to the nearby estuary to see the beautiful sunsets.

What Will You Learn?

This workshop is aimed at people ready to experiment with different stages of learning to draw, or for those of us who use flowers as inspiration for working in different media. It focusses on how keep safe and easily available any ideas, drawings and samples as a record and stimulus for further study and outcomes.

Day 1: Short  Intro to course by Janet - story of the development of the Court House Farm Flowers.

We start by drawing bunches of specially selected garden flowers and introduce the tutor’s own preferred working methods and materials. * Then students will be invited to incorporate anything they find  useful into their own style of drawing

Day 2: Making it your own by finding what each student wants to achieve during the classes. We start with a show and tell discussion of the work, plus ongoing individual discussions with more drawing and introducing several choices of accessories to use with the flowers: fabrics, backgrounds, vases, ornaments etc. These could lead to building up a ‘still life’ composition or for more formal layouts.

Day 3: Introduction of different media and materials to sample: finding other sources of reference to ‘explain’ or signal further ideas: photographs, magazine pulls, messages, text, fabrics, colour studies – anything and everything that visually pulls the ‘story” together.

Day 4: Strting to develop the book, folder, portfolio, to display and preserve the visual journey undertaken by collecting, collating, drawing, sampling and editing to design the pages. These pages should enable you to make clear how you developed your initial inspiration and is ready for use either for your next piece of work, or to show others what you can do and how you work

Day 5: Assembling the book -  making bindings, choosing methods of construction so that everything is easily accessed and displayed. Samples and different systems will be offered and explained. 

A LITTLE ABOUT COURT HOUSE FARM…

Which isn’t really a working farm at all! It’s more of a lovely cluster of charming historic buildings, the site originally dating from pre doomsday. The remaining Manor and smaller Manor are medieval and Tudor, dating from 1350, with some characterful outbuildings. (You may be making things in the cowshed- but no cows and clean!) we have 4 acres of land around the buildings with a little flower farm, and we are right in the heart of a small estuary sea-side town of Portishead in Somerset (with a lovely little high street, Marina and stunning coastal walks and the most fabulous setting suns). Do look at more information on the website and for photographs of the interiors and exteriors. During your stay, we will have some additional fun interludes and entertainment (we must show you our neighbouring little seaside town called Clevedon- with the prettiest Pier in England) and of course plenty of flowers!

FURTHER DETAILS

• This is a 5-night residential retreat. (5 nights’ accommodation and full board).

• The price is £2550 for single occupancy, own room with ensuite, £2350 for single occupancy own room sharing a bathroom, £2150 shared room (both attending the retreat booked together). Contact us if you would like a non-participating partner to attend).

• If you are local and would like to attend the retreat on a day only basis the cost is £1,250. This includes all materials, delicious chef cooked lunch and early evening meal, plus wine, talks and visits. Please contact Helen for further details or to book at: at.courthousefarm@gmail.com

• The booking deposit is £500. (please get in touch for other currency)

• The balance will be due 8 weeks prior to the retreat. Payments can be made by Paypal or Bank Transfer, ( although we do charge for the Pay pal interest fee.)

• The Course Fees are non-refundable once paid, but of course, if we cancel for any reason all payments will be refunded, or mutually agreeable alternative dates offered.

• If you are coming from abroad or feel you may want to spend a day on either side of the retreat for rest and relaxation, do, please discuss this with us.

If you have a question or need further details please contact us using the button below.