Explore the traditional art of watercolour with internationally exhibited contemporary artist Simon Carter in this experimental and unconventional Exploring Watercolour with Simon Carter workshop!

Your session will begin with outlining the goals for the day and reviewing some artist examples that may inspire you.

Your first activity will involve drawing from the various landscape aspects visible from our Firstsite building.

We’ll focus on creating a series of quick, loose, and expressive drawings, mainly in black and white, using any medium of your choice—graphite, pencil, watercolour, or charcoal. We’ll explore how drawing can capture not only the physical appearance of the landscape but also our emotional response to it.

In the studio, we’ll build on these drawings by creating multiple watercolours in different sizes. The focus will be on embracing the unexpected and exploring unconventional methods, rather than focusing on technical precision.

Expect to experiment with painting, cutting, tearing, reassembling, and constructing your work.

The day will be an open and exploratory process, with the aim of leaving with a collection of observational drawings and several watercolour collages on paper in varying sizes to brighten up your home or share with friends!

Enjoy 50% off lunch in our café

As part of your Exploring Watercolour with Simon Carter workshop, you can get 50% off any main meal from our café menu*.

Just show your workshop ticket at the till when you order.

About the artist:

Simon Carter has a studio on the Essex coast and makes weekly drawing walks along the seawalls into the local marshes and backwaters. This landscape is the source material for the initial drawings and, in the studio, the paintings.

Solo exhibitions include The SEA Foundation, Netherlands, Messum’s, London and Firstsite, Essex.

Group shows include Newcastle Contemporary Art, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, Alaska, Norwich Castle, National Museum of Poland, Gdansk, Iasi Palace of Culture, Romania and Yantai Museum, China.

Work in museum collections including Abbot Hall, Rugby Art Gallery, Swindon Art Gallery, Falmouth Art Gallery and the University of Essex. Recently work has entered museum collections in China and USA, including the Yale Centre for British Art.

Simon is co-founder of the artist collective Contemporary British Painting, president of Colchester Art Society and was co-curator of Life with Art: Benton End and the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Firstsite, Essex.

Simon programme’s contemporary painting exhibitions at Oasis in his home town of Frinton-on-Sea. Simon is represented by Messum’s.

*Please note that our menu changes from time to time as we try out new and seasonal dishes, so there’s always something fresh to enjoy.