Expressive Seascapes - Advanced - Mansfield Woodhouse Library - Adult Learning

About this course

Moving beyond traditional realism, this course focuses on capturing the mood, movement, and atmosphere of the sea through bold brushwork, dynamic composition, and experimental techniques. Using a range of reference materials—including photographs, sketches, and imagination—you'll explore how to convey the energy of crashing waves, the calm of open water, and the drama of coastal light. The course will encourage abstraction and personal interpretation, combining acrylics with tools like palette knives, sponges, and even mixed media to push your practice further. Each week will introduce a new theme or challenge, such as painting changing skies, creating depth in water, or using colour to suggest emotion. Through group discussion, one-to-one feedback, and tutor-led demonstrations, you'll be supported in developing a confident and individual seascape painting style. By the end of the course, you will: - Produce a series of 2–3 expressive seascape paintings that demonstrate a confident and personal interpretation of the sea using acrylics. - Apply at least four painting techniques, such as layering, impasto, glazing, and alternative mark-making, to create texture and depth in water and sky. - Use a minimum of six colour mixes to convey different sea and sky conditions, showing control over temperature, tone, and harmony. - Incorporate abstraction or expressive distortion in at least one painting to move beyond realism and explore mood - Design and complete one final large-scale seascape, using sketches or preparatory studies to inform the composition. - Develop and implement a marketing plan using at least 3 different channels (e.g., social media, email marketing, and local events) to promote their products.)

Booking your place and fee information

Booking your place and fee information If you are in receipt of certain benefits you will be offered the course for free, however if you have a financial barrier which may prevent you from enrolling on the course, please visit our webpage for further information https www.inspireculture.org.uk skills learning funding your courses Complete our INSPIRE ONLINE ENROLMENT FORM for each person attending the course. To enrol on one of our courses, you must have been living in England and have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years. Some exceptions may apply if you are living in England with evidence of the right to remain and are from an EEU EEAU country (completion of a questionnaire will be required). As we no longer receive funding for our ESFA funded courses for learners living in the devolved areas listed below, full cost fees would apply to these courses if you live in these areas: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Greater London Greater Manchester Liverpool City Region Newcastle Upon Tyne, North Tyneside and Northumberland Tees Valley West of England West Midlands West Yorkshire