Held over six weekends in the year, each two months apart, the Professional Landscape Programme offers landscape artists who are at the point of launching themselves professionally, the remarkable experience of a year of guidance and mentoring from leading artists in the field.
The programme is led by Anita Reynolds with Anthony Garratt & Jesse Leroy Smith co-leading. Visiting tutors include many of the leading landscape artists associated with the Newlyn School of Art. Artists who are part of the team for this course include; Rachael Reeves, Paul Lewin, Gareth Edwards, Imogen Bone, Luke Knight, Jessica Cooper, Marie-Claire Hamon, Dan Pyne among other artists. In addition, we will have a number of visiting artists from around the country attending the sessions, sharing their experience with the group, and engaging individually with each participant’s work.
All of the tutors have carved out distinctive responses to the landscape and exhibit their work in galleries nationally and internationally that support the genre. Visiting artists will also share how they have established their approach and illustrate the diverse ways they have supported their practice financially and creatively. They will offer fresh feedback to the participants and contribute to a unique and ambitious network across the country and beyond. All this will inform how you can seek out appropriate networks, contacts and opportunities.
Course Structure
The year provides one-to-one mentoring and group tutorials alongside professional development in a supportive and constructive environment. Work is created by those attending the course between sessions and brought in for the weekends to gain guidance from the tutors and art specialists. At times, on each weekend, there are up to six artists teaching the eighteen to twenty-one participants at the same time, giving an amazingly high ratio of contemporary artist tutors to students.
Each session has an overriding theme, we have trips to other locations, artists studios, artist talks and group discussions to reinforce the information and advice received during the two days.
Participants on the programme will each take part in one of two shows at Chapel House Hotel in Penzance with opening previews and a major final exhibition in an impressive space with a public gallery feel - Tremenheere Gallery near Penzance.
We are delighted to announce that in the Spring we will be heading back with the students to visit the Patrick Heron Estate. The gardens were the inspiration for Heron’s celebrated Garden Paintings of the 1950’s and 1990’s. Other highlights will include visiting artists’ studios and exhibitions. We will also have Gareth Edwards talking about his experiences of writing and launching his fantastic book entitled Painting Abstract Landscapes. Anthony Garratt will talk about his recent public installation project “The Melt”. Jesse Leroy Smith and Kate Walters will share how international art residencies have enriched their work and careers. And Anita Reynolds will profile the immersive walking projects she creates to inspire her shows and collaborations.These are just a few of the topics covered by tutors taking part in the Professional Landscape Programme.
During the Year we will cover:
The Theme of Landscape
As a genre, landscape painting is relatively new in terms of art history but its cultural impact is complex and diverse. We will explore its traditions and progressive movements and how contemporary artists are reinventing its meaning and relevance. With profound environmental challenges, it is central to our understanding of the world. Alongside how it conveys cultural identity through a sense of place, geology, climate and geography, it can also express human themes such as solace, mortality and freedom. Interpretations such as the picturesque versus signs of human habitation, or historical narratives versus the abstract and sublime can all be investigated.
We understand that some artists may need to explore other subjects or themes during the year and we can support and feedback on these works, but the programme is suited to those where landscape is their central source of inspiration.
Group Activities & Discussions
During each weekend there are group workshops and discussions designed to highlight topics such as curation, applying to Call Outs or funding opportunities. These sessions allow the artists to work collaboratively, to pool ideas and skills and have time to network and form supportive friendships. Many alumni have gone onto work together on collaborative projects and exhibitions.
Creating a Body of Work
We will support you to see more clearly how to develop a recognizable, individual language through factors such as gathering research material and exploring themes, and how we effectively paint outdoors and in the studio. We will look at how artists choose their media and materials, sometimes exploiting rapid spontaneous gestural work or refining a more mediative and layered approach. We can all share a wealth of knowledge regarding practical issues such as paint properties through varnishes, primers, supports to framing and underpainting to using found materials or pigments.
Professional Development
Throughout the year we will be asking key questions and helping you to develop an artist document. This will be fundamental in highlighting areas of your practice that are working for you as well as some that may need clarification and focus. We will help you to gain insights into the issues that can determine your own contemporary and meaningful interpretation of landscape in your practice.
Opportunities & Marketing
One of the topics covered on the programme is discussing the wide range of ways in which you can get your work seen by the public, from approaching commercial and public gallery spaces to artist-led shows. We look at website design, social media platforms, art competitions, residencies, promoting events in the press, open studios, grant-funded projects and site specific work.
End of Year Exhibition & Future Plans
This is a fabulous way to conclude the year, the group show is a celebration of our time together and you will be given guidance on how to plan, title, curate, fund and host the exhibition. The weekend will also include an opening event and visits from a professional photographer and a marketing expert.
We have found that the camaraderie of the groups on our year-long courses, both during the course and afterwards, has been of lasting benefit for those who attend the mentoring courses. Networking opportunities with artists, curators and arts leaders are invaluable to professional artists. We encourage students to look at a wide range of artists to whom they might relate to and to further understand the context in which they are working. Fundamentally, the rigorous feedback and support helps to build the confidence each participant needs to progress as a professional artist.
The final session at the gallery includes the opportunity for each student to talk informally with the group and any members of the public in the gallery. We have found this to be an extremely useful way to bring together the artistic journey of the course for each participant and help them to get the support they need to consider their path after completing the programme.
We offer everyone interested in applying for the course a free 45-minute one-to-one Zoom call with one of our lead tutors. Simply fill in our Application Form embedded below and we will contact you about arranging an informal interview. Alternatively, if you have any questions you can get in touch via Contact Us.
Programme price: £3,200.
Participants can pay for the programme in three equal installments. All payments must be made at least one month before the programme begins.
2025/26 dates have now been released, please see the sessions below;
Session 1 – Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th November 2025
Session 2 – Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th January 2026
Session 3 – Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd March 2026
Session 4 – Saturday 16th & Sunday 17th May 2026
Session 5 – Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th July 2026
Session 6 – Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th September 2026
To view our other Year Long Courses, please click here.
CONTOURS 2023/24 and the Instagram page for the programme.
Header image by Cawston Garratt.
Course thumbnail image by Rachael Reeves
Artworks in the course page gallery by Rachael Reeves, Anthony Garratt, Marie Claire Hamon, Gareth Edwards, Barry Cawston, Anita Reynolds, Paul Lewin and Jon Doran.
