Amanda Blake, Teaching
I teach on the BA Hons Fine Art course at Carmarthen School of Art, West Wales, as lecturer in Painting and Drawing. I have also taught across BA Fine Art Painting, Drawing and Digital & Lens Based Media courses at Bradford College, University of Salford, UWIC and University of Plymouth. I also freelance for fine art portfolio and art theory development for pre-foundation and degree students.
Workshops in Fresco, Gesso, Egg Tempera and Drawing
I have run workshops in traditional materials in painting and drawing for artists and makers since 2011 - with a focus on materiality, surface qualities and environmental sustainability.
Short courses offer introductory techniques and hands on experience using natural raw materials from Ancient to Renaissance times, to explore unique qualities of colour, light and line, intrinsic to materials, as well as ideas around harvesting, gathering and re-purposing that resonate with current environmental concerns.
Upcoming
Bespoke courses currently in development for 2026, venues and dates to be confirmed.
Click on workshop titles below images for course details
Please click on workshop titles for further details
Drawing with Nature - A one day introduction to traditional natural methods and materials, re-purposing, gathering and harvesting materials and facilitiating drawing techniques for individual expansion. You will work with natural chalk and gesso grounds, make your own tracing papers, use natural local oak gall and acorn inks, willow charcoal and introduciton to silverpoint. There will be facilitated experimentation and selection for developing in depth drawing work.
Painting with Nature - Egg Tempera and Natural Raw Pigments One and Three day introductions to making egg tempera and working in individual experimental ways towards a final chalk gesso panel. The three day course will allow you to learn to make natural chalk gesso panels as well as the egg tempera painting.
Buon Fresco - three day introduction and development of final panel
This course will allow you to create a finished fresco panel whilst learning the basics to apply this in your own time, whether on panel, or direct on the wall. Ideal for those interested in learning this technique, and the basics towards applying it to a home or wall-based project, or a final piece to frame.
Buon Fresco - extended course - for artists and makers
This extended course will intoduce you to the processes involved in making fresco, from substrate to final layer, working up lime plaster layers, and final painting surfaces. It will introduce you to fresco’s history and contemporary practice, to its materiality, and to facilitate ways of integrating this into your own art practice or finding your own artistic voice with it.
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