Date:  6th – 8h November 2026
Artist: Sinéad Lucey
Medium: Oil
Participants: Maximum 9
Course level: Beginners to advanced

Born in Cork, Sinéad Lucey studied Fine Art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris following which, she lived and worked in Paris for 25 years. In 2016, she moved to Inistioge, in Co. Kilkenny. Her work, largely painting and drawing, with some moving image, focuses on the human experience of space and movement.  Sinéad has taught Drawing and Painting in several 3rd level institutions in Paris and in Tours in France. She has participated in numerous exhibitions in France and Ireland. Recent exhibitions include the exhibition of shortlisted works of the Zurich Portrait Prize 2020 at the National Gallery of Ireland and the Crawford Art Gallery Cork, Three Billboards Outside, Periphery Space, Gorey, and Generation 2022- New Irish Painting at the Butler Gallery. Sinéad’s work features in Dr. Yvonne Scott’s,  2023 important publication ‘Landscape and Environment in Contemporary Irish Art’.

When learning to paint and draw, it’s helpful to keep good company. In the same way as musicians interpret the works of others, we can learn through investigating the works of great painters.

On first day of the course, we will begin by looking at Paul Cézanne’s still lives and draw from them to explore how they are composed of simple shapes and rhythms of dark and light. We will prepare coloured grounds and then make simple underpaintings. With a limited palette we will discuss tones, hues, paint consistency and brushwork. We will look at the context in which Cézanne worked and why his late painting is considered to be the beginning of modern art. To understand, we can’t start where Cézanne left off, but start where he started. By drawing and painting from his paintings we gain an embodied understanding of what motivated him and this in turn enriches our own practice.

On day2, will have a brief introduction to Pierre Bonnard and his mesmerizing highly coloured painting. Described as an Intimist, painting domestic scenes bathed in light, Bonnard explores how memory combines with the present moment to give heightened experience of the world. We will interpret some of his works through drawing and painting, allowing ourselves to experience his world as seen through his eyes.

Inspired by our previous days’ work, on the last day, we will set up our own scenes or still lives to paint from, using vessels, patterned fabric, fruit etc. Employing the same approach as we used when interpreting Bonnard and Cézanne’s work, we will look for effective compositions of our own and enjoy our decision making based on a simple but solid structure.

* The course takes place in Artform modern light-filled seaside studio with 24hr access for each visiting artist, and runs from 11am to 5pm on the first day and from 10am to 4pm on the subsequent days. Cost does not include accommodation, on request Artform offers artist accommodation options. Details on art materials will be provided after signing up to the course.