Marianne Ryan's blog

Already it’s nearly the end of August, the sun is shining (albeit briefly!) and it’s nearly time for the new term to begin. Actually, 3 weeks to go, which is a relief as I am still busy writing courses. There are some new ones in the pipeline, as Studio Nostra, the little art education venture run by Jess Hand and myself, is going from strength to strength and we are having a great time coming up with ideas and structuring them into our teaching. We have regular planning and appraisal sessions every 2 weeks or so, and there’s nothing like tea and scones to get the creative juices going!

Apart from all the courses we ran last term, we’ve also done some informal outdoor sessions at Hellens Manor House in Much Marcle – a great success in spite of a few showers! There’s another one on 24 August, 10 – 3.45; meet us by the fountain in front of the house, bringing some materials and a sketchbook with you, plus £15 cheque or cash, and enjoy a day of lovely vistas, beautiful classical garden and prolific architectural detail.

As for the Autumn Term, here are the four 5-week Studio Nostra courses, taking place on Thursdays:
1. Watercolour Skills
2. How to Make the Best Use of your Sketchbook
3. Oil Painting Blitz 2
4. How to Plan, Develop and Execute a Professional Painting.

These are all taking place at the Phoenix Studio (through the garden of the Phoenix Cafe [ex-Cafe Green], 43 St Owen St Hereford). Our new policy is to give the final session of each course an all-day option – this worked well last year and gives students the option of taking their time over final pieces of work. For more details click on ‘Current Courses’ in the bar at the top of this page.

I’m also teaching at Hereford College of Art on Wednesdays: (a) Improve your Painting and Drawing: Beginners; b) Drawing skills; c) Life Drawing Evening). These are 10-week courses and you can book them via the College: http://www.hca.ac.uk/short-courses. Look up the ‘Fine Art’ option, and also the ‘Painting and Drawing Workshops’ – four one-day workshops that act as taster-days for courses next term.

Think that’s about it for now – apart from announcing that I’m going to be starting my Fine Art MA at Bristol (University of West of England) starting this September – so am going to be more than a little busy…

Hope you’re all having a brilliant summer!

Hooray – I’ve got a studio – almost!

At last, to my children’s great relief, no more tripping over my easel in my front room! My erstwhile garage is now a not-quite pristine small white space, with an overhead rooflight, a table and a set of shelves. Unfortunately the roof does leak at the moment, in spite of only just having been done. But hopefully nothing that can’t be fixed.

And I’ve just applied to do a Fine Art MA at the University of the West of England (Bristol) a thought that fills me with excitement and fear in probably equal measure. The fact is, I have almost no work to show for the last two years, in spite of good intentions and several ideas – the easel mentioned above has been used almost entirely for samples and demonstrations for my teaching. Interestingly though, this teaching stuff has had some effect on my ideas for my own work, and gives me much food for thought. So I’m off to my new studio now to see what happens…

Talking about teaching, the next Landscape course starts on 9 June, Thursday mornings at the Phoenix Cafe Studio. We’ll be working mainly in watercolour and ink and wash, and building on what we started in the earlier course, so focusing on specific aspects like clouds, foliage, water, close-ups etc.

Then there’s also the one-day Landscape Painting course I’m teaching at Queenswood on 8 June – should be wonderful, the trees are beautiful, and the vistas and views spectacular. And it’s bound to be good weather, natch… The course is bookable via Hereford Art College, 01432 273359.

Got to go and put finishing touches to my studio walls, hope you’re all enjoying half-term!

… and to my horror I see I haven’t added a new post since January. How remiss of me – so much has happened since then, I don’t know where to begin, which luckily means I shall be brief and to the point!

Have to say, Watercolours exhibition at Tate Britain is absolutely magnificent, hugely worth seeing, not least for its juxtapositions of work (some quite contentious) and for the modern and contemporary artists, who make watercolours that are exciting and beautiful, often quite unexpected. Callum Innes is perhaps my favourite, but loads of others, in particular, artists such as David Jones, Ed Burra, Paul Nash, Roger Hilton, Patrick Heron, Lucia Noguera, Peter Doig, Ian McKeever… the show’s on till 21 August, so plenty of time to make a visit or two; I shall certainly be returning.

And the other best thing that’s happened to me recently is Hereford’s Borderlines Film Festival, over 2 weeks of back to back films of all sorts – arty, indie, national, international, mainstream, local – am booked in to about 25 films, which may seem like overload, but it’s such a good opportunity to watch, compare, contrast and just enjoy! If you haven’t already succumbed to all the films on offer, check it out at the Borderlines website: http://www.borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk.

As a postscript I should add that Jess Hand and I are teaching several more art courses starting in May, I’ll very shortly be uploading the details onto the Blog in the hope that you might join us,

All for now,
Marianne

… but nevertheless I find myself full of optimism about the months ahead – partly because my courses are all up and running with students old and new, which is great for me (and hopefully for you too); and partly because I went to some great exhibitions last weekend, which I found inspiring and thought provoking. Aware, Art Fashion Identity at Royal Academy Burlington Gardens made me really think about connections between fabrics, personal and political identity (so just up my street, natch) – it’s on till 30 Jan. Canaletto at the National Gallery (now finished) was actually slightly disappointing – beautiful paintings, but no drawings or sketches and, wonderful though the paintings are, I’d have liked more Guardi’s, of which there were only a few. Lovely precursor to Turner, though.

Then there was the artist Ben Johnson, making a rather amazing painting of the London cityscape, assembling buildings, skylines and perspectives into a beautiful whole, tying in with the Canaletto. Johnson’s airbrush technique is superb and he was fascinating to talk to about his ideas too – so I hope to invite him to talk to my students at some point.

I went back to revisit the Glasgow Boys too – wonderful turn-of-the-century paintings demonstrating great deftness and imagination with colour and paint, well within the boundaries of figurative painting but pushing towards impressionism and even abstraction at times. Sadly that exhibition’s also finished – I would like to have taken a group of students to stand and stare – and then discuss!

Gauguin at Tate Modern was also on the list. I’m not a huge Gauguin fan, but I’m glad I went. Rather confirmed my slight apathy to the artist, in spite of his often exciting and outré use of colour. Took a look at some of the other displays in Tate Modern: Photographic Typologies was excellent, particularly August Sander’s work but also a number of other contemporary photographers whose work really makes you look.

So I came home feeling ambitious and inspired to initiate some new work – now just a question of priorities and revamping my timetable!

Hope you’re all having an equally productive time, bye for now.

I’m running exciting new art classes for 2011. Have a look at Current Courses for more information and to book your place!

Just sending out course info to all and sundry in good time for you to book your place on one of the many wondrous courses at your disposal! So send me an email if you’re interested, and watch your inboxes…

Just a quick note as am about to embark on a mincepie-cooking bonanza in readiness for the weekend. Not to mention decorating the tree and putting up all the fairy lights accumulated over several years of Christmasry. But meanwhile, have been planning my forthcoming art courses – some at Hereford College of Arts and some taking place in the Cafe Green cabin in Hereford (which we are now calling the Studio Green). As soon as I have got Christmas out of my hair, I will be in touch with everyone on my emailing list, to encourage you to read the blurb, sign up or pass on info to all your (arty or non-arty) friends and colleagues.

Jess Hand (see previous post) and I are also thinking of organising a few group trips to art galleries in the Spring, so if you fancy a structured tour taking in lots of artwork, with some interesting observations and pithy discussion, keep your eyes peeled for more info.

That’s it for now, hope you all have a great Christmas and manage to keep warm and snug.

Has summer really gone for good? In theory my central heating’s still firmly off, but I have to admit to a sneak couple of hours last night…

Meanwhile, regaled by the amazing Liszt piano music that my daughter Jess is playing, I am adding the final touches to my lesson plans for the short courses I’m teaching at the Art College – Drawing and Painting for Beginners and Advanced, on Tuesdays, and a Life Drawing class on Wednesdays. I get really excited planning these sessions – I’m very ambitious for my students, even the beginners – and I have loads of ideas for how to acquire technical skill and then put it to good use.

Then there are also the drawing classes at the Museum Resource Centre – the 6-week Natural History Drawing class has been postponed and is now starting on 4 November. A glorious and colourful assembly of sea-shells (some simple, some exotic), butterflies and birds awaits my students…

The Portrait class is a 2-day workshop (19 and 20 November), starting with a little introduction to the stunning portraits by local Hereford artist Brian Hatton, and following with a lot of focused drawing, with a live model for the second day. Should be good fun, if hard work!

Work on my studio (otherwise known as my garage) is on hold just for the moment, but watch this space as I may soon be calling on all my friends to come and help me celebrate the launch of the new space.

Let me know if you’re interested in any of the courses or in private art tuition.

That’s it for now, Liszt has come to an end and it’s my turn to tinkle the ivories for a bit. So goodbye for now.

… it’s that time of year again – lesson plans at the ready and I’m busy thinking up new teaching ideas. Thought I’d just remind everyone that I’m teaching several day and evening short courses at the Art College – lots of drawing, painting, life classes etc; take a look: Hereford Art College Short Courses. Also, I’m teaching a couple of courses at Hereford’s wonderful Museum and Resource Centre in Friars St, where they have fantastic reserve collections that will make your eyes water…  My first course is Natural History Drawing, starting on 16 September, and the second is a Portrait Class, on 19/20 November – Roll up, Roll up, come and join in, I can promise you an exhilarating – and possibly steep but pre-eminently fun –  learning experience! Here’s another link: Museum art courses.

And then of course there’s Art in the Woods at Queenswood, taking place on 18 and 19 September – lots of woodland art activities aimed at youngsters and/or their elder siblings and associated adults. We’re focusing on eco-friendly themes and hoping for sunny weather. Maybe you’d like to be involved as part of the Art in the Woods team of artists (in which case, contact me), or maybe you’d just like to come along for a visit  - Art in the Woods, Queenswood.

That’s it for now – off to watch Wallace and Gromit! (for thoroughly educational reasons, natch…)