Field Breaks

Upcoming workshops

NEW! Colourful Flowers using Alcohol Inks with Millie Moth

Friday 29th November 2024 - The Art Room, Barlow, near Chesterfield S18 7TE £79

Sold out! But please do contact us to join the waiting list as we sometimes have a cancellation

Join us for a relaxing workshop using alcohol based ink pens, isopropyl alcohol and Yupo paper to create a vibrant flower picture. Karen will take us step by step through her fluid technique of layering background colours, splashes and texture, before adding floral details. Reference material will be available, as well as working from our imaginations.

Victorian Shop Windows in Line and Wash

Saturday 30th November 2024 - The Art Room, Barlow, near Chesterfield S18 7TE £79

Just two places left

Take a trip down the High Street with your paints and join us for a fun and inspiring workshop, looking at the many variations on a theme of Victorian shop windows. Learn to add lines, marks, textures and interest to your drawings, then add washes of colour and splashes, drips and dribbles to personalise your own compositions.

Online workshops

Taking place over the Winter and Spring via zoom - Just £12 per session

Relaxed and fun on-line liveworkshops, with an emphasis on experimentation. Each class will introduce a topic or demonstrate a technique for you to try at home. Join in during the class and chat to others for inspiration and ideas.

NEW! Beautiful botanicals in pen and watercolour, with Kate Dawes

Friday 14th March 2025 - The Art Room, Barlow, near Chesterfield S18 7TE £79

Kate will show you different techniques of pen drawing along with how to overlay with 'dry' watercolour to create beautiful botanical art. All materials are provided. With individual support and guidance throughout the day, Kate will bring flowers and foliage to work from and to inspire you, and by the end of the day you will have created an A4 botanical artwork to take home with you. Suitable for all abilities.

Golden Retriever in Soft Pastels with Cath Inglis

Monday 31st March 2025 - The Art Room, Barlow, near Chesterfield S18 7TE £79

Spend the day with award winning pastel artist Cath Inglis and learn how to capture realistic details to create your own stunning portrait of this characterful golden retriever. All materials are provided, or you can give your own an airing along with expert individual advice.

Mixed media - flowers and plants in Tissarge with Sally Brackett

Friday 11th April 2025 - The Art Room, Barlow, near Chesterfield S18 7TE £79

Join us for an inspiring day working with pen and ink on tissue paper. After collaging this onto a canvas background, you will create a Tissarge collage picture with an acrylic painted background on the canvas. Great fun, this is an unusual technique which is suitable for both beginners and more experienced artists. The collage technique is a perfect “best-of-both-worlds” way to combine decorative and stylised drawings with paint.

Still life in acrylics with Janet Mayled

Saturday 12th April 2025 - The Art Room, Barlow, near Chesterfield S18 7TE £79

Janet loves clean colour and pattern, and uses these to create vibrant paintings on a range of subject matter. After explaining her influences and inspiration she will lead the group through her processes to create a vibrant still life. Observing a still life you will record a composition that leads the viewer through a large-scale painting. Focussing on of colour mixing and layering, we will plan a successful composition to create a vibrant outcome using acrylics. Suitable for all abilities

Landscape and Industry - Sketching on location in Ironbridge

Monday 12 to Thursday 15th May, 2025 - Coalport Village Hall, near Telford £380

This four day workshop will explore the world inside and outside your sketchbook. Using the magnificent surroundings of Ironbridge in Shropshire for our starting point, we will make trips outdoors to gather information and take inspiration for compositions.

4 day non-residential workshop

Portraits in Oils for Beginners with Richard Kitson

Friday 23rd May 2025 - The Art Room, Barlow, near Chesterfield S18 7TE £79

Learn how to understand the human face by joining Richard Kitson with your oil paints. This fascinating workshop will take you right from the first steps and look at mixing skin tones, facial structure and capturing likeness. If you have tried oil paints but never taken the leap to portraits, with Richard’s guidance you will find it easy to start your painting journey here. With a foundation on the basic elements, this workshop is suitable for all abilities.

Atmospheric Mountains with Lesley Linley

Saturday 31st May 2025 - The Art Room, Barlow, near Chesterfield S18 7TE £79

Gaze over the loch with your watercolours as we head towards the Scottish mountains in this enjoyable and informative workshop. Lesley will show us how to recreate this stunning view in stages, gradually unfolding the landscape beneath the rolling clouds. Learn about techniques, pigments, and gain a greater understanding of your watercolours as we go along. Suitable for all abilities.

Andalusia - flowers, balconies and villages with Pam Smart

Saturday 28th June 2025 - The Art Room, Barlow, near Chesterfield S18 7TE £79

Capture the character of Andalusian buildings with Pam Smart in this inspirational and sun-filled workshop. Using the flower filled balconies and white painted villages of Andalusia for our inspiration, Pam will show you how to use watercolour techniques such as wet-in-wet and wet on dry, and use loose brushwork to create vibrant views of our flower filled balconies. Suitable for all abilities.

A watercolour view - Moss covered barn with Peter Woolley

Monday 30th June 2025 - The Art Room, Barlow, near Chesterfield S18 7TE £79

Take a stroll in the Lake District and join us for a relaxing and inspiring workshop, following in the steps of the great 19th century water-colourists as we overlook glorious Ullswater. With expert instruction from Peter Woolley, we will learn how to use a limited palette and simple techniques to capture this glorious scene. Taking each step at a time Peter will lead us through the process, helping us understand how to build the landscape and avoid common pitfalls. Suitable for all.

Loose portraits in acrylics with Paul Talbot-Greaves

Friday 4th July 2025 - The Art Room, Barlow, near Chesterfield S18 7TE £79

Learn how to create loose portraits painted in acrylic. In this workshop you will learn how to structure the proportions and features of the face through simple geometry before building the portrait through loose transparent layers of acrylic. You will be introduced to mixing colours and values to create forms and shapes to give your painting a dynamic look. Suitable for all abilities.

Summer Art School

The Nightingale Centre, Great Hucklow, Derbyshire, July 28th to August 1st 2025 £660 residential, or £360 non-residential

Annual residential art holiday based in the glorious Derbyshire countryside. Soak up the landscape and enjoy painting with relaxed company in a glorious location. Try out new ways to work and enjoy being inspired by likeminded artists.

4 nights, full board with en-suite accommodation. Non-residential places also available.

Hot Summer Colours! Botanical Illustration in Watercolours with Dawn Wright SBA - residential

The Nightingale Centre, Great Hucklow, Derbyshire, Monday 25th to Thursday 28th August 2025

Take time out this Summer to immerse yourself in a detailed study of all things botanical, studying the flowers, blooms and foliage of the season. Professional artist Dawn Wright SBA will lead us through a colourful world of watercolour and help us to use this lucid medium to capture the intricate details of this colourful time of year. Suitable for all abilities.

Woodland Wander - Felting Workshop with Eve Marshall

Saturday 27th September 2025 - The Art Room, Barlow, near Chesterfield S18 7TE £79

Take a wander through the woodlands and join us for a perfect introduction to wet felted landscapes. Learn the techniques of creating realistic trees in wet felting plus learning to add depth to your picture. We will be using a variety of colourful merino wool, wool curls, silk threads and more to layer into our landscape. Suitable for all abilities.

How to paint flora and fauna in watercolour or gouache

15th and 16th October2025 from 10:00 to 4:00

Ness Botanic Gardens, Neston, the Wirral CH64 4AY - £242 two days

Join Simon Williams SBA at the inspiring location of Ness Botanical Gardens on the Wirral, to study the art of depicting botanical or animal subjects in either watercolour or gouache. This annual workshop is geared to those who have a little taste of botanical illustration, and also more experienced artist who may need stretching to the next level.

Using A Key Colour In Watercolour with Paul Talbot-Greaves

Friday 24th October 2025 - The Art Room, Barlow, near Chesterfield S18 7TE £79

This day will focus on colour, starting by identifying a connecting colour from your reference and using it to harmonize your painting. We will look at combining this with a limited palette to create a painting based around a three-colour scheme. Paul will put the the dry with a demonstration painting to get you inspired and ready to paint, then you will work on your own painting with Paul's expert guidance throughout the afternoon. Suitable for all abilities.

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