Description
Creative Alchemy
Learn new techniques by combining painting, colour pouring and collage to create magical and unexpected effects.
Four-Week Creative Course
Fridays: 6, 13, 20, 27 November 2026
1.30 pm – 4.30 pm
Quaker Meeting House, Winchester
£180 – all four sessions
Alchemy is about transformation — taking something ordinary and discovering what else it could become.
That’s the idea behind Creative Alchemy.
We’ll begin with the magic and unpredictability of colour pouring and dipping. Colour flows, mixes and creates patterns and textures that you could never have planned. Rather than seeing these as finished paintings, we’ll use them as starting points for something new.
We’ll paint and draw into the surfaces, respond to shapes and marks, cut and rearrange sections, add collage and texture, and explore different ways of developing what has already begun.
As the weeks progress, you’ll begin to develop your own ideas and take the work further. You might be drawn to a particular colour, shape, texture, memory or unexpected image. The fun is in discovering what happens when you start experimenting.
The aim is not to make paintings that look like someone else’s, but to discover your own way of working.
The course draws on ideas around creative thinking and experimentation explored by Rod Judkins, Visual Medicine, Helen Frankenthaler, Dana Lynne Andersen and the inventive approaches to painting and collage of artists such as Picasso, Hannah Höch and Man Ray.
But this is not about following someone else’s method. It’s about experimenting, responding and finding your own way forward.
At the heart of my Awakening Creativity approach is a guided, inspirational way of freeing up your curiosity and playfulness through experimentation, helping you discover a more intuitive and authentic way of seeing and making.
You don’t need to know what you want to paint before you begin. In fact, part of the fun is discovering it along the way.
Whether you’re completely new to mixed media or already have plenty of experience, this course gives you time to experiment, develop ideas and take your work somewhere that is genuinely your own.
What we’ll explore
- Colour pouring and dipping and creating richly coloured, textured surfaces.
- Responding to unexpected marks, shapes and patterns.
- Developing poured surfaces through painting, drawing and mixed media.
- Creative collage — cutting, layering, rearranging and combining painted papers and images.
- Exploring texture to underly painting, transparency, mark-making and composition.
- Taking your experiments into your own personal project.
How We’ll Work
We’ll start by experimenting rather than trying to make a finished piece.
From these first explorations, you’ll begin to notice what interests you. Perhaps it’s a colour combination, a particular texture, an unexpected shape or something that reminds you of an idea or experience.
We’ll then look at ways of developing those discoveries through painting, collage, drawing and texture.
As the course progresses, you’ll have time to take the work further and begin developing your own personal project, with guidance and encouragement along the way.
There is no single finished outcome to aim for. Your work will develop through the choices you make and the things you discover along the way.
Suitable For
Complete beginners and experienced artists alike who would like to experiment more freely, develop confidence with mixed media and move beyond the fear of the blank page. No previous experience needed
What you’ll take away
By the end of the course you’ll have developed a body of original mixed media work and taken your own ideas further through painting, collage and texture.
You’ll also have new ways of starting a painting, developing an idea and responding to what emerges — rather than always having to know where you’re going before you begin.
What participants say
“I just wanted to say how supportive and freeing I found your workshop. You are a great teacher. 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
Lorna Carmen McNeill is a mixed-media and light artist, teacher and creative process facilitator. She studied Fine Art at Camberwell School of Art, Goldsmiths, and graduated with a First from The Art Academy, where she received an award for her research and innovations in light sculpture.
Before dedicating herself to her art practice, Lorna spent several decades working in healthcare, with a particular interest in nutrition, mental health and lifestyle behaviour change. She has taught across higher and further education, the NHS, charitable organisations, community settings and corporate environments.
Her work is rooted in the understanding that creativity is far more than artistic skill — it is a way of being and perceiving, responding to and engaging with the world.
Through carefully designed creative processes, Lorna creates supportive and inspiring environments where participants develop artistic confidence, technical skills and a deeper connection with their own innate creativity. As their confidence grows, they discover their own unique way of seeing, responding and making, enabling an authentic visual language to emerge naturally.
