Experiment with colour, shape, and expressive mark-making to transform a familiar landscape into your own abstract oil painting in our Reimagining Seurat with Abstract Oil Painting workshop.

Using Georges Seurat’s celebrated Post Impressionist work ‘A Sunday on La Grande Jatte’ as a starting point, participants will investigate how colour, movement and composition can be transformed through abstraction.

The workshop introduces approaches for loosening traditional techniques, encourages the simplification of shapes as well as the use of bold contrasts and the development of mark making using our intuition.

Through guided demonstrations and painting exercises, participants reinterpret elements of the original artwork, shifting the focus from detailed representation to atmosphere, energy and personal response.

Working with oil paints on canvas board, you will experiment with expressive brushwork and colour choices to build confidence in your creative instincts. The session concludes with a reflective discussion, offering space to consider how abstraction supports a more instinctive and emotionally driven approach to painting.

Basic materials provided. Food and drink is also available for purchase throughout the session from our cafes. This workshop is suitable for ages 16+.

Accessibility information for your visit

What is Abstract Oil Painting?

Abstract oil painting uses colour, form and texture to convey mood and ideas rather than realistic subjects. Instead of aiming to reproduce a scene, the artwork transforms it into shapes and tones of expressive gestures.

Oil paint is ideal for this process because of its rich pigment, blending and ability to create layered, textured surfaces.

About your tutor

Denisa Mansfield is an artist whose work explores expressive colour, movement, and emotion through the language of Impressionism and abstraction.

She works primarily in oils, with a focus on how traditional methods can be reinterpreted in contemporary ways. Her practice celebrates curiosity, creative risk-taking, and the joy of discovery through paint.