Autumn Brings a Harvest
UK and USA In-Person Classes, Online Courses, Instructional Videos and more...
Into the Blue
Dear Friends, warmest greetings to you from my desk in Bournemouth, where (if I am honest) I have been procrastinating sending this email for a few weeks, but am now glad of it due to recent sudden venue changes. I hope this finds you well and hearty after a good summer, or a peaceful winter for my antipodean readers…
This newsletter, I’ll keep it simple with clear headings and no rambling, as there’s lots of news and dates to share. As ever, if it’s more poetic words you’re after, you can feast to your heart’s content over at Uncivil Savant. Here’s a recent one on Lapis Lazuli…
Don’t forget to harvest blackberries, elderberries and late bright petals for winter inks, you can dry or freeze berries very well and they’ll still make lovely inks after several years.
Paid subscriptions, instructional videos and more.
The first news is something you may have noticed already. After a couple of readers asked how they could contribute to my work or say thanks for something specific, I turned on the ‘paid subscriptions’ button. I have set it to $6 a month ($2 less than Substack recommends as standard) as I want people of low means to be able to access the upcoming instructional videos too. Next year, if I start to produce longer videos, perhaps I will raise the price a little, but for now, here it is. It’s an option for helping me develop my teaching practice, especially my research into extracting ultramarine from lapis lazuli safely, from ethical sources and with less effort than some of the extant traditional methods. The raw materials are costly compared the the plain earths of my usual materials. Thanks in advance for anyone who signs up!
Paid subscribers will receive an instructional video on some aspect of my craft and art practice every 2 months, as well as access to the archive of films.
‘Founding members’, at $100 rather than $60 per year, will also get a free copy of the ‘Found and Ground’ book signed and sent anywhere in the world. If you choose that tier, email me with your address by replying to this or any of my newsletters.
To entice you to sign up, as well as to say thanks for reading, here’s a video I made for the Wild Twins course I ran for three years with my friend Paul Kingsnorth, 2018-2020, (where we brought art and writing, the word and the image, back together, as they should be). My simple clips were edited together by award-winning film-maker Jonny Randall to make this how-to make artists’ charcoal video for the students for when we ran the course online over lockdown. By the way, if you have need of a great arts video editor, wherever you are in the world, then I can happily recommend him.
The next video for paid subscribers will be in October, of my recent Pigments Revealed International pigments talk ‘See With The Body Eye’. The next instructional video should be coming along in November.
Courses in Vermont USA in October 2024
The Wild and Ancient Art Kit
Join me at the wonderful In Situ Polyculture Commons 19-20th October for two days of natural art materials making this autumn. We will cover simple sewn sketchbooks, all kinds of natural pigment paints, charcoal making and pigment refining, as well as investigating so-called waste streams and overabundant sources. There’s a sliding fee scale and all over 16s are welcome. Details and booking are here.
Movement for Connection: Heartwork
There’s also a day long movement class the day before (18th) where for the first time I’ll be sharing my late T’ai Chi Grandmaster’s wonderful Heartwork practices outside my T’ai Chi school. All over 16s are welcome. Details and booking here.
Found and Ground course June 23-27th 2025 newsflash
My signature course in the UK which has been running for 3 years at Schumacher College has found a new venue after the sad and sudden closure of Schumacher by the Dartington Estate in Devon. I had another 4 courses planned there and had finalised all my teaching for 2025 when I hear the news 10 days ago. While the closure and subsequent student refund of the sold-out course are in Dartington’s hands, I have been working away behind the scenes to get new venues and run all the courses.
My amazing colleague Flora Arbuthnott of Plants and Colour has offered her brand new craft studio as the venue and we will be talking about details tomorrow (10th September). However, I wanted to post this here today so that as many of the refunded students who can come will be given first choice on the 15 places available. As soon as I have prices and full details, I’ll create a newsletter edition especially for that, but for now, if you had intended to come, just reply to this email, or get in touch by my webform, and I will save your details and email you first. It’ll be in Dartmoor, non-residential and non-catered, but refreshments such as teas, coffees and biscuits will be provided. This way, we’ll be able to keep the costs down and those who want to camp locally will be able to do so. If there is the demand, I will run a further date later in the year.
We’ll cover: ethical earth pigment gathering, materials foraging such as gums and fibres, pigment preparation, levigation, ink making, paint-making (watercolour, gouache, tempera, glair, veglair, pastel making, natural pastel fixatives, charcoal making, simple sketchbook making, reverse-wrap cordage making (string!) and many more incidental topics along the way. This course is where I annually cram everything you need to go away and feel confident to make art materials wherever you find yourself.
I love this course and it is always a joy to see what people make on the last day when you get a chance to play and make more to take away. It is likely to run 10am-4pm Monday-Friday with an hour for lunch and a free hour until 5pm after the teaching ends for you to test out and swatch materials and gather your thoughts each day. Watch this space for prices, booking and local travel and accommodation details.
I have also designed a ‘Found and Ground level 2’ follow up course ‘Drawn From the Wild’, (also the name of my next book on the same topics), which will include in-depth days on four methods and materials close to my heart such as metal point, graphite based drawing tools, conte style graphic tinted pastels, and a host of tannin inks and more. This course will take us deeper into practice with each method and will be suitable for anyone who has studied on a multi-day course or privately with me before. It was due to run at Schumacher, so watch this space for when I have finalised where I will offer it.
Suggestions for UK venues to host this are also welcome.
Natural Colour Making for Artists
I am one of the faculty teaching a year long online course at Plants and Colour, suitable for everyone who makes art of any kind. I’ll be teaching pastel making and traditional egg paints in two of the monthly modules. The course is beautifully put together and has optional study groups for a more immersive experience. There’s still time to sign up, it starts in October 2024. See you online!
This Winter and Beyond
In November I will be back at Cemus in Uppsala, Sweden in conversation with Ingrid Reiser for her wonderful podcast Forest of Thought. In this public event on Friday November 15th, together we’ll mull over what an embodied, crafting, life can be as well as touching on Tao, T’ai Chi, music and other inspirations. All are welcome. More details soon.
I’ll be back at Artisans of Now with my regular 5-day introduction to natural paints and inks in Italy in December, as well as a new course based on making superb artist quality drawing materials and then spending a part of each day using them to draw from huge still life set ups, the local landscapes and from the figure. Sign up to their mailing list if you want to be the first to know. They usually sell out pretty quickly. More next newsletter!
The Making Course with Isla Macleod and Elizabeth Crawford in Devon this August was cancelled due to big changes afoot at Embercombe. However, we three are all so glad we have met and are planning to work together next year.
The planned painting course Painting with Earth and Heart with Rima Staines that was due to be held at Schumacher College 7-11 July 2025 will still almost certainly take place. We are just finalising a Devon venue and will post details when Rima recovers from the work involved in staging her amazing solo show at Southcombe Barn. Congratulations Rima!
I plan to run a day course at Butser Ancient Farm next year after cheffing venison for Theresa Emmerich Kamper’s legendary 3-day Using the Whole Animal course there April 4-6th 2025. I have always wanted to go to Butser, so being asked to teach there is a real honour. The details will follow this winter but the date is likely to be 3rd or 7th April.
There’s more news, but it can wait until next time. I am a little behind on finishing my next book Drawn From the Wild, so I will be locked away with my laptop for the next two weeks. Wish me luck.
For those who would like to, you can now…
I can’t in all honesty guarantee to spend every penny on coffee. It might actually be used to purchase larch turpentine or gum mastic for extracting deepest blue from hard rocks!
Many thanks for reading, for your support and interest. It means the world to me.
Until next time, go well. All the low slanting sunray best, Caro.
All sounds amazing! Sorry about the closure. So much work for you.
Disappointing news about the college closure, what a special time it was learning from you there this year. I look forward to Found & ground 2 wherever it may be …& any future offerings …Im contemplating the colour year course as a good recap & prompt to ‘do’ good things.
Also, I was surprised & intrigued to hear that the talented Rima has a painting course in the offing , there is nothing on her website, will you be posting about it Caroline .?
Best of wishes. Jennie