Second Saturday of each month

Saturdays 8 February, 8 March, 12 April, 10 May, 14 June 2025

10.30am - 3.30pm

Join us for a relaxed and inspiring sketching class in the enchanting woodland setting of Watts Gallery in Guildford, Surrey. Learning drawing tips and techniques to bring your sketchbooks to life.

Work with experienced artists, Mags Orson and Kerry Tristram, taking inspiration from natural finds of the season and the woodland setting of Watts Gallery. With a different theme each session – whether it be nature and the woodland at Watts Gallery observing natural materials such as leaves, feathers and plants or being inspired by our collections.

You will have the opportunity to explore a variety of media and experiment with different techniques to create a collection of observational or experimental studies. Enjoy combining elements of drawing, writing, painting or collage, and printing on your sketchbook pages to capture the essence of time and place.

Saturday 8th March
Tutor: Kerry Tristram
Taking inspiration from ‘The Spirit of Charleston’ exhibition we will fill our sketchbook pages with a variety of studies influenced by the decorative Bloomsbury style, in mixed media.

Saturday 12th April
Tutor: Mags Orson
At the end of winter, skeletons of the previous summer remain, beautiful, resilient seed heads which are silhouetted against the low winter light, or bejewelled by the morning dew. This workshop will use seed heads and winter foliage as an inspiration, and will also be used as a tool with inks and some natural dyes to create textures and explore mark making, which can then be developed and layered with observational drawing.

Saturday 10th May
Tutor: Kerry Tristram
In this workshop we will explore experimental and playful sketching techniques using a range of mark-making tools and materials. We will capture natural finds of the spring season and vignettes of the Watts Gallery setting on our sketchbook pages.

Saturday 14th June
Tutor: Mags Orson

Artist bios

Mags Orson is a creative artist-teacher, spending most of her working life at Charterhouse, Surrey.

Observation is always the beginning. A sunrise during the Spring Equinox, a neolithic burial chamber, or profound experiences such as birth or grief. Her work is primarily autobiographical and emotional. She works thematically using whatever medium is appropriate, painting, mixed media, printmaking, film, installation, or sculpture.

Although techniques vary, there are recurring preoccupations: transience, liminal spaces and the tension that can exist between space and matter.

Since 2020 her focus has been creating fabric designs based on the garden. After taking Rebecca Street’s Pattern Cutting course, she has started developing a new body of work called “Wearing the Garden”.

www.magsorson.com

Kerry Tristram is a mixed media artist, creating jewellery and collages, inspired by the natural world and the deep connection humans have felt with it throughout history. Collections of found objects and natural forms are the starting point for her work. Fragments are combined to tell stories of the woodlander, the beachcomber, the mudlarks, and the artisans. Many of her pieces are cast directly from miniature natural objects in fine silver. Drawn to curated collections of objects in museums, both natural and made by human hand, she aims to create her own evolving collection of curiosities; amulets for the modern age. An experienced teacher, she has worked in both primary and specialist art education. She is now a freelance educator for Watts Gallery, Guildford, The Lightbox, Woking and Creative Response, Farnham. Her work can be found at www.studio-cuckoo.com.