Description
Making the Invisible Visible
Exploring Essence through Colour, Form and Personal Expression (Five Week Course)
Art offers a unique way of making the invisible visible. Through colour, form, texture and abstraction we can move beyond surface appearance to reveal the essence, energy, atmosphere and emotional reality of our experience.
Drawing inspiration from artists including Pollock, Picasso and Rothko, this course explores how abstraction—alongside more figurative approaches—can help us communicate the essence of what cannot easily be expressed in words. From expressive semi-figurative work to fully non-figurative painting, you’ll discover the approach that most authentically expresses your own way of seeing.
Throughout the course you will be encouraged to develop your own personal theme or creative enquiry. Each new technique and creative process becomes another way of exploring ideas, memories, places, emotions or questions that matter deeply to you, allowing your own work to develop naturally through experimentation, reflection and making.
Although everyone works through the same creative processes together, each participant then follows their own individual enquiry. As a result, no two bodies of work are ever the same.
Some participants may discover that highly abstract work best expresses what they wish to communicate, while others may remain more figurative, using abstraction to distil and strengthen the essence of what they want to express. The emphasis is never on adopting a particular style, but on discovering the approach that feels most authentic to you.
What you’ll explore
- Colour, form, texture, rhythm, movement and mark-making as expressive visual languages.
- A wide range of materials, techniques and creative processes, including both 2D and 3D approaches to abstraction.
- The working methods of influential abstract artists and how their ideas can inform your own creative practice.
- Different ways of expressing atmosphere, emotion, memory and the essence through abstraction.
- Increasing confidence in experimentation, intuition and creative decision-making.
- Developing your own visual language through a personally meaningful creative enquiry.
How we’ll work
Across five inspiring workshops you will:
- Explore a range of creative approaches through guided demonstrations and practical experimentation.
- Learn techniques that encourage freedom, curiosity and unexpected creative discovery.
- Apply each new process to your own developing theme or enquiry.
- Receive individual guidance tailored to your own interests, experience and stage of development.
- Share ideas, reflect together and deepen your understanding of your own creative process within a supportive and encouraging group.
No two people will create the same work. The course is designed to help each participant discover and develop their own unique creative direction.
Outcome
By the end of the course you will have created a body of experimental work together with a number of more resolved pieces, while gaining experience of a wide range of abstract processes, materials and approaches.
More importantly, you will have begun to develop a personal visual language through which to express your own ideas, experiences and way of seeing—discovering new creative possibilities that can continue to grow long after the course has finished.
Who this course is for
- Beginners and experienced artists alike.
- Anyone wishing to explore abstraction as a powerful visual language for expressing the essence of their own ideas, experiences and creative vision.
- Those wanting to move beyond representation towards greater freedom and authenticity in their work.
- Anyone interested in exploring colour, form and creativity as a pathway to deeper perception, expression and personal discovery.
Materials
Provided
- Basic paper
- Drawing materials
- Water containers
Please bring
- Student-quality acrylic paints.
- A selection of round and flat brushes.
A detailed materials list will be sent after enrolment.
What participants say
“I just wanted to say how supportive and freeing I found your workshop. I loved the techniques and your way of teaching—so powerful. You grounded our practice in spirituality and art history, which I found fascinating. You are a great teacher and the workshops are all art teaching should be. I would highly recommend your workshops to anyone—beginner or established artist. You’ve inspired me to apply for a formal Art qualification—something I never thought I would do.”
Elaine W.
“Exceptional teacher. Lorna created a space that creatively freed me. A deeply enriching experience.”
About Lorna Carmen McNeill
Lorna Carmen McNeill is a mixed media and light artist, educator and creative facilitator. She studied Fine Art at Camberwell School of Art, Goldsmiths and The Art Academy, and has taught across higher and further education, the NHS, charitable organisations, community settings and corporate environments.
Her work is rooted in the knowing that creativity is far more than artistic skill—it is a way of perceiving, responding to and engaging with the world. Through carefully designed creative processes she helps participants develop technical confidence while discovering their own unique visual language and capacity for authentic expression. Lorna creates supportive and inspiring environments to enable people to reconnect with their creative flow, develop artistic confidence while discovering their own unique way of seeing, responding and making.
