June 2026 Exhibition & Workshop News!

Immersed in the bluebells with my easel and pastels

I hope you have survived the heatwave and are now enjoying slightly cooler weather! I have been painting outside as much as I can. 

'Deep in a bluebell wood' Pastels

 One of the most memorable days was deep in a bluebell wood watching orange tipped butterflies dart about the bluebells in the dappled light. This is just one of the paintings I will have on display in my June Exhibition at Craven Arts Skipton. Alongside recent watercolours, pastels, and charcoal paintings. I hope you can make it.

I am really looking forward to running some workshops to celebrate my exhibition. I am pleased to say my ‘Expressive Skies workshop in watercolours’ on June 10^th is already getting booked up but there are currently a few spaces left if you are interested. Skies are such a wonderful thing to paint and there is so much variety as they are all so different. I look out from my studio everyday and enjoy a view of a big expansive sky over the Moor.

Sketching by the canal

Students often tell me that they wish they had more time to sketch and paint. Life gets so busy and we can easily forget to do things we love. I have been getting into the habit of popping a small A6 sketchbook into my bag and sketching out and about. I am looking forward to sharing my sketching tips on June 17^th ‘Sketching People on location’ this is a full day workshop, and I am keeping the group small (8 students) as we will be sketching in Skipton.  Then back to Craven Arts for tea and cake to share our experiences, there will be demonstrations and several tips along the way. This is a great follow up workshop if you've attended 'The Art of sketching people' as with my support you can put everything we learnt into practice!

If you are new to sketching people and would like a full comprehensive day with an experienced Tutor like me then I have the prefect workshop for you on July 25^th ‘The Art of sketching People’.  This is more classroom based along with sketching in the exhibition rooms.

I am delighted to have received lots of positive feedback from students who have already attended. I know I like to feel reassured that something is worth doing before I book so I am sharing recent feedback with you;

Students on 'The Art of sketching people' workshop

‘From the outset, I was made very welcome, a lovely, relaxed feel to the day with Amanda giving me the confidence to take my first steps of sketching.  The day flew by, as the course was well organised and structured. It was nice to also utilise the building doing live sketching of each other in the exhibition halls I certainly feel inspired to take sketching further’.

‘I was extremely satisfied with this workshop, and it surpassed my expectations.  There was considerable variety of technique and visual aid as well as opportunity to experiment. I learnt about proportion and where to start with a scene and sketch.’

‘The workshop was fun and very constructive.  It positively built up my confidence and taught me not to be too precious about my sketches as well as how to apply proportions. I would recommend this workshop’

Pastel painting in Harrogate Valley Gardens. On display at my forthcoming exhibition

To see a full list of my workshops please visit my CLASSES page