BOOK TWO WORKSHOPS TO GET 10% OFF your second WORKSHOP
1st - 5th September 2027
5 Day En Plein Air Duet Oil Workshop with Optional Watercolour
From £2,250.00 (Approx. USA $3,123.00)
Plus UK VAT (Sales Tax @ 20%) *
Join two of England's finest 'En Plein Air' teachers for 5 days of exciting tuition in both oil and watercolour - you choose! Having a duet workshop enables students to learn two different approaches, with two teachers offering an exciting dynamic. A basic knowledge of painting, colour mixing and values recognition is required. Ideal for those artists who are a little nervous painting En Plein Air and want to step up.
This will be a ‘duet’ workshop, with both Peter and Nigel teaching and demonstrating in tandem, with an emphasis on painting en plein air. They both tend to paint similar subject matter – mostly the British landscape in all its moods, although they have their instantly recognisable and individual styles. Nigel is equally at home painting in Oils or Watercolour, whilst Peter paints in Oils, Pastels and the occasional Watercolour.
Students of all levels are welcome to take 5 days learning from their no-nonsense approach to painting, with a fundamental emphasis on composition and drawing, without which, a painting falls down. Simplicity is the key for both artists – no technical jargon, just an easy to understand method of depicting what is in front of them. If the weather is inclement (in England – unlikely!), we will still soldier on (we’re English!), but if it really rains, we will continue in the studio using what we have already, to bring paintings to a gallery finish.
Peter Barker RSMA was born in 1954 in the Oxfordshire market town of Banbury where, as a boy, he spent most of his days immersed in the countryside, fishing and fervently observing wildlife and the beauty of his surroundings. It soon became apparent that he had a natural talent for drawing and painting. This passion was ignited further by a delightful and timeless book by author and artist Bernard Venables, ‘Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing’, and this became Peter’s bible. From 1972 to 1983 he was side-tracked by a career as a golf professional, but returned to his inevitable vocation, and has now become a renowned and prolific painter of landscapes and wildlife. Peter paints mostly in oils, with the occasional pastel and watercolour, and is especially known for his life-like depiction of water, and his ability to dash off portrayals of tree foliage and vegetation using a large fan brush.
He is a popular artist with Art Societies where he often does demonstrations, and he has exhibited with the prestigious major societies: the Pastel Society, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Royal Society of Marine Artists to which he was elected a full Member in 2015, and has won three awards at these annual exhibitions: the Frank Herring Award at the Pastel Society in 2006, and the Ranelagh Press award and the Stanley Grimm Prize at the ROI in 2009 for the favourite painting in the exhibition, as voted for by the public. Peter opened his own gallery in 2015, Peter Barker Fine Art, which has given him the opportunity to be an integral part of the journey a painting takes from easel to newly appointed residence.
Nigel Fletcher was born in the Cotswolds and now lives in a quiet Oxfordshire village between Oxford and Stratford upon Avon, where his work revolves around the changing seasons. He originally trained as an illustrator at Harrow School of Art in London, and a career in the commercial world as a freelance illustrator followed, but he continued to paint for his own pleasure, and since 2001 Nigel has painted for a living full time. He is another advocate of painting 'en plein air', in all weathers, but can also be found in his studio on a small dairy farm, where the rhythm of farm life goes on around him, and from which he derives quite a large part of his inspiration.
'Painting outside is what I love to do, either with oil or watercolour, and I try to complete a painting on site every time. I work in a spontaneous way and like to find subjects to paint in the ordinary everyday environment, preferring to lay paint down in a loose impressionist style, paying close attention to how the light falls. I'm more or less self-taught after a career in the commercial art world and am happy with oil or watercolours and have been teaching both to adults for the past ten years.'
Overwhelmed by the experience in the most wonderful way.
