Dartmoor Landscape Painting 2008

Dartmoor Landscape Painting is a year-round programme of landscape painting and drawing. It is centred in Okehampton, Devon, an historic market town, gateway to some of the most unspoilt scenery of the Dartmoor National Park. This area known as the ‘High Moor’ has no crossing roads and is largely untouched by tourism. It is a dramatic moorland landscape - huge empty vistas with fantastic skyscapes silhouetting granite outcrops. There are forests, cascading rivers and waterfalls, clapper bridges, stone rows and circles, early industrial ruins with granite chimneys and tumbledown cottages, disused quarries with deep reflective pools of water. There are ancient bluebell woods, and wildflowers and wildlife in abundance.

The spectacular North Devon coastline is nearby, a landscape of crashing surf and vertiginous cliffs.

These are challenging subjects, and the enjoyment shared and level of art work produced are testament to the confidence and skill developed with Claire in the Dartmoor workshops, where in many cases people have started as complete beginners. Emphasis is given to the idea of painting as the interpretation and expression of light, colour, atmosphere, not just as physical description. The importance of group interaction, discussion and support is stressed, and everyone is encouraged to work in a personal way developing an individual voice.

The programme is designed for all levels of experience from the committed beginner to the professional, and all mediums are encouraged. The week workshops provide the opportunity for all day on-location landscape painting, while the day workshops are studio-based and have a technical focus such as watercolour techniques and colour mixing, or a subject focus such as still life or interiors.

The programme includes two trips abroad, - painting in the French Alps, hill-top villages in south-west France, chateaux and abbayes in Normandy, river gorges in Northern Spain have been locations in recent years.

Claire has been painting and exhibiting as a professional for over 30 years. She is an experienced tutor at all levels, teaching for 13 years at Central St Martins College of Art in London and running specialist landscape painting courses for over 15 years. As the many regulars to her workshops will vouch, she offers a high level of sympathetic and individual tuition.

She is a fully qualified teacher and has a BA Fine Art from Reading University and a MA Fine Art from Chelsea School of Art. She has recently gained a Postgraduate Diploma in Art History from London University and is presently studying part-time for an MA in Contemporary Art Theory.

Claire’s husband, David Panton, co-director of the London-based organisation Acme Studios which develops and manages affordable studio space for artists, is involved in the planning and organisation of the course programme and is an efficient ‘gofer’ on the trips abroad!

Monty the dog is also an enthusiastic and well-behaved member of the team!

Click here to download the brochure.

(photos by courtesy of Claire Smith and Richard Knights)