Van Gogh landscape painting at The Art House

Home to over 50 creatives, The Art House offers a plethora of workshops spanning charcoal portraits to Japanese woodcuts and much more besides. This Van Gogh landscape painting class, however, has particular resonance when it comes to the pandemic that has changed our lives so irrevocably since early last year.

In June 2020, as the nation struggled under its first set of major restrictions, staff and friends of The Art House decided to try and make lockdown a little brighter…by distributing sunflower seeds to groups and organisations across the city. The idea was conceived when CEO and Artistic Director Sydney Thornbury decided to plant hundreds of sunflowers around The Art House building on Drury Lane to ‘spread some positivity and show gratitude to all our front-line workers’ – inspiring Nick Cockayne, a friend of The Art House, to buy thousands of two enormous sacks of seeds for the local community. Also including a mural by artist Ellie Way, the result was a ‘sunflower spectacular’ in July and August that raised spirits throughout Wakefield.

Many likened the project to a citywide Vincent Van Gogh painting, as sunflowers were of course the Dutch artist’s trademark; painted in the Post-Impressionist style for which he became a global figurehead. This day-long workshop will focus on another of his signature subjects, landscapes, teaching you the painterly techniques you need to create your own Post-Impressionist vista.

The class is suitable for beginners, or those who’d like to progress from drawing to using paints in their landscapes. Some materials will be provided – including easels, basic drawing materials and paper to work on – but you’ll need to bring some canvas paper or a canvas board, oil or acrylic paints and an optional photograph or image to work from.