We have an amazing selection of visual arts courses and workshops coming your way this summer, from pottery, painting, and stained glass making, to fun interactive sessions for young artists. Professional practicing artists lead all of our classes, so you’re in safe hands to experiment and develop your skills! Create something you love and enjoy the process of making. Here are our tutors and what they’ll be teaching this season:
Youth Arts with Sophie Martin
Sophie Martin is a local artist, illustrator and educator who specialises in lively pen and watercolour illustrations often drawn on location. She studied illustration at Edinburgh College of Art and has worked since as a freelance artist and illustrator. She has undertaken numerous commissions and exhibiting locally and further afield as well as self-publishing a number of books. She has a PGCE in post-compulsory education and has experience running creative workshops in many places, including schools, colleges, adult education centres and for refugee groups in India and Nepal.
This season Sophie will be teaching:
29 April – 8 July: 11.30am-12.30pm
29 April – 8 July: 1pm-2.30pm
29 April – 8 July: 4-5.30pm
Mixed Media and Ceramics with Lucy Wright
Lucy Wright is a Lake District-based fine artist and ceramicist whose work speaks of nature and the interplay between the wild and the human. Playful, delicate and infinitely beautiful, her work is intriguing and often whimsical with a warmth and humour which speaks to the heart.
Lucy’s ceramic assemblage pieces are created by introducing often opposing, found and repurposed objects to support or highlight a ceramic sculpture at the centre.
This season Lucy will be teaching:
30 April – 9 July: 4-5.30pm
Printing and Making with Helena McGregor
Helena McGregor is a visual artist and a qualified Art Teacher with 15 years of experience in UK and International Schools, teaching in a range of creative subjects and year groups. She is now part of our Creative Learning team at Brewery Arts, overseeing the Exhibitions and Youth Arts programmes as well as teaching visual art classes for both young people and adults. Helena enjoys an exploratory approach to creativity, focussing on experimentation with different media, techniques and ideas and believes in the importance of play.
This season Helena will be teaching:
1 May – 10 July: 4-5.30pm
7 June: 12-4pm
Pottery with Chris Barnes
Chris Barnes has a degree in Sculpture and has worked as a professional potter since 1992. He has taught Pottery with adults since 1994 and has experience of teaching Art in schools from Infant to Secondary School level.
This season Chris will be teaching:
Pottery Beginners and Improvers
29 April – 8 July: 1.30-4.30pm or 6-9pm
3 May: 11.15am-12.45pm, 1.30-3pm, 3.30-5pm
7 June: 11.15am-12.45pm, 1.30-3pm, 3.30-5pm
14 June: 12-4pm
1 May – 10 July: 4-5.30pm
Drawing and Painting with Catherine MacDiarmid
Catherine MacDiarmid has 29 years’ of experience teaching a range of art classes and applying her knowledge as a practising artist to her role as a Tutor. She exhibits widely, including exhibiting in the BP Portrait in 2001/2, New Light Art Tour 2021/22 and 2023/24 (of outstanding Northern-based Artists) and regularly at the Mall Galleries. Catherine has won many awards for her art. Most recently, being the Watercolour Materials Award in the Jacksons Painting Prize 2023.
This season Cat will be teaching:
29 April – 8 July: 7-9pm
30 April – 9 July: 10.30am-1pm
30 April – 4 Jun: 7-9pm
2 May – 11 July: 10.30am-1pm
11 June – 9 July: 7-9pm
24 May: 11.30am-5.30pm
21 June: 11.30am-5.30pm
5 July: 11.30am-5.30pm
Stained Glass with Sarah Walkley
Sarah Walkley trained at Vetrate Artistiche Toscana in Siena. She had a stained glass studio in London for several years before setting up business in Kendal and developing a specialist fused glass range named Sarah Bibet Fused Glass, which she now sells online and to local shops. Sarah has been teaching her skills to classes for 30 years.
This season Sarah will be teaching:
Stained & Fused Glass Thursday
1 May – 10 July: 6-8pm
2 May – 11 July: 4.30-6.30pm
10 May: 12-4pm
31 May: 12-4pm
5 July: 12-4pm
Printmaking with Caroline Stow
Caroline Stow is a printmaker whose work is rooted in an interest in ecology, environment, and health. She is particularly interested in making as an explorative process, which melds together materiality and slow thinking. Caroline hones in on the positive, restorative, and nurturing effects of creativity. In her work, she uses printmaking (etching, etched lino, monoprint and collagraph) to make and remake images.
This season Caroline will be teaching:
Printmaking for Beginners and Improvers: Collagraph and Mixed Media
8 May – 10 July: 7-9pm
See all Creative Learning courses here.
