courses and classes
Alongside my work as an artist, I also work as a tutor, designing and delivering art courses for adults, teachers, students and practitioners. My courses always develop around themes of: discovery, persistence, strategies for modification, invention and investigating the principles of spontaneity. I specialise in painting and drawing, but have also delivered collage, sculpture and print-making. All my courses also aim to inform and contextualise through historical references. Exercises include colour theory into practice, inventive drawing and painting approaches, working figuratively from life-models, objects, and imagery and through working in the abstract.
Selected:
NATIONAL GALLERY
Playing with the unfinished: April 2024 - Online workshop of life-drawing connected to The Entombment by Michelangelo.
Playing with the unfinished: April 2024 - Life drawing: Exploring notions of finish and completion. Whole day workshop - featuring tour and discussions- in the gallery.
Royal Academy:
Saturday Sketch Club - Drawing texture - May 2024 - Online workshop exploring drawing approaches and historical contexts.
Advanced Colour Theory: RA Schools post-graduate students: February 2024 - Exploring and questioning the role and uses of colour theory in practical workshops
Sketch with paint like an Impressionist- December 2023- weekend course working with the life model. Painting with oil and gouache, underpinned by drawing approaches and historical contexts. Written essay to accompany the course.
Saturday Sketch Club - Drawing from Imagination - October 2023 - Online workshop exploring drawing approaches and historical contexts.
Colour Theory into Practice - May 2023 - 5 week online course looking at approaches to colour theory in practical exercises and challenges.
Saturday Sketch Club - Life drawing: February 2023 - Online workshop exploring drawing approaches and historical contexts.
Beyond Still-life: February 2023 - Weekend course drawing and painting from still-life set ups connected to the Making Modernism exhibition.
Practical workshop for teachers: November 2022- working in a range of media in 2 and 3 dimensions.
Colour theory into practice online workshop: October 2022 - Colour wheel and colour space models informing exercises and challenges - feedback using Padlet app.
Life drawing online workshop: October 2022 - Working with a dancer and choreographer and exploring feedback using Padlet app.
Moving into the abstract: Experimenting with colour: September 2022 - Weekend course on rethinking approaches to landscape - connected to the Milton Avery exhibition.
Advanced Colour Theory: RA Schools post-graduate students: May 2022 - exploring the role and practical uses of colour theory over 2 afternoon workshops
Life drawing online: Movement part 2: February 2022 - Working with a dancer and choreographer on the theme of movement, with historical contexts. Platform: Zoom.
Painting with acrylics: October 2021 - Weekend course on painting approaches, landscape responses with a focus on the Late Constable exhibition at the RA.
Exploring colour through paint: October 2021 - Weekend (x2 workshops) for teachers, exploring advanced colour theory and its applications.
Life drawing online: Movement part 1: October 2021 - Working with the model on the theme of movement and exploring historical contexts. Platform: Zoom.
Saturday Sketch Club - Drawing into the abstract: June 2021 - Online workshop exploring drawing approaches and historical contexts (link in videos to YouTube film)
Picasso and his processes: February /March 2020 - 5 week evening course covering drawing, printmaking, sculpture, collage and mixed-media with a focus on Picasso at the RA
Exploring colour through paint: February 2020 - 1 day workshops for teachers, exploring advanced colour theory and its applications.
Colour Painting- Strategy and Spontaneity: October 2019 - 5 week evening course exploring painting.
Colour Through Watercolour: September 2019 - As part of the RA summer workshops on watercolour painting
Drawing and Painting Inventively: December 2018 - 5 week evening course exploring how to be inventive when dealing with the relationship between these disciplines.
Colour, Light and Space: theory into practice: September 2018 - a six day intensive course with guest lecturer Nicholas Watkins
Colour Theory: July 2018 - A weekend workshop as part of RA250 festival.
Exploring Visual Creativity: April 2018 - 4 week evening course working with : sculpture ; drawing ; collage ; painting. Including historical precedents.
Working with Paint: October 2017 - 4 week evening course working from primary and secondary sources, improvisation and memory, using "Open Acrylics"
The Expressiveness of Colour: April /May 2017 - 4 week evening course exploring colour theory, painting approaches, mediums and their uses
The Expressiveness of Abstract Painting: October 2016 - a weekend course looking at The Abstract Expressionist movement and the Abstract Expressionists at the RA.
(Connecting to the Abstract Expressionist exhibition: an “in gallery talk” given on Pollock and Rothko as part of the exhibition and an accompanying dinner speech for sponsors, also on the exhibition)
The Reality of Abstract Painting: July 2016 - 4 week evening course exploring colour, surface, modification and historical precedents.
Understanding Surface, Structure and Colour: February 2016 - A weekend course looking at collage and colour theory.
Southbank Centre:
Colour, Shape, Sequence and Surprise: November / December 2019 : 4 week evening course, including in gallery talks about the Bridget Riley exhibition at the Hayward Gallery.
Singapore Art Workshop
Guest artist/ lecturer July 2018 : 2 day intensive painting course for artists in Singapore.
NEW SCHOOL OF ART / Mall GALLERIES, LONDON
Abstract Art: July 2016: 2 day intensive painting course covering colour theory.
comments:
"Excellent tutor - approachable and encouraging"
"Emyr was excellent, enthusiastic and knowledgeable"
"Very thought-provoking and engaging practically. Good pace and well thought through."
"There was a good balance between theory and practice."
"Intensity of workload. Tutor - excellent and very approachable. Chance to experiment."
"The tutor gave me the confidence to try something different."
“Amazing tutor - unassuming yet there when you needed his input then he pushed me beyond where I thought I could go. Thank you.”
“The tutor was fun, kind, generous and hugely knowledgeable and spared no energy to help us.”
“Emyr has been a tireless, inspiring and a fantastic trainer. We could not ask for anyone better.”
“Emyr is not just talented, he is a brilliant teacher and organiser.”