Art with Ali Folkestone

I was absolutely thrilled to see my oil painting ‘The Rec’ hanging on the wall at the prestigious NEAC annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London. It is an amazing show, well worth seeing! Open until June 20th ❤️

Amazing mini still lifes from my Only Oils group! This project was really fun. If you’ve always wanted to learn oils but haven’t known how to start, please join my brand new 12 week course ‘Oil Painting ABC’ starting in September. We’ll begin at the very beginning and by the end you’ll have enough skill and confidence to carry on alone or progress to one of my weekly Only Oils groups. The cost is £300 for 12 two hour sessions (just £10 per hour for the tuition and £5 weekly for materials) There is 20% off if you join before the end of June, and you can pay in two instalments. Booking now open on my website www.artwithali.co.uk 🌸

🎨I am delighted to invite you to Oil Painting ABC, an introduction to the rich and rewarding world of oil painting. Designed especially for beginners, this course will guide you through the essential techniques and skills needed to start painting with confidence. Over twelve relaxed and supportive sessions, we’ll explore colour mixing, brushwork, blending, layering, and simple composition, while learning how to work with oil paint safely and effectively. My aim is to help you build a solid foundation so that you feel comfortable continuing your oil painting journey, whether that’s in one of my ongoing classes or in your own creative time at home. All materials are provided, so there’s no need to purchase anything before the course begins. I use excellent-quality, widely available student-grade paints and a variety of painting surfaces, allowing you to experiment and discover what works best for you 🎨

Something I often see with adults I teach is that art gets saved for ‘later’. It becomes something to return to when work is finished, when life settles, when there’s finally enough time to do it ‘properly’. Some of my retired students have wanted to make art since school - the interest never really left, but it became tied up with the idea that it needed time, space, and a certain level of commitment. It started to feel like something they had to devote themselves to, rather than something they could simply DO.

Once that idea takes hold, it’s very easy for art to fall out of reach.

What tends to shift things isn’t suddenly finding more time, but changing the scale and expectations. Ten, twenty, thirty minutes with a sketchbook is enough; a pen or coloured pencils - a page filled with pattern, colour, fragments of observation or memory.

When art fits into the day like this, it stops competing with everything else. It becomes part of the fabric of things rather than something that sits off to the side waiting for the right moment. The focus moves away from improvement and towards function - what the drawing is doing for you that day. Sometimes it steadies you, sometimes it distracts you, sometimes it brings you back into contact with your surroundings.

These small low-stakes sketches build something over time - not in the sense of a finished body of work, but in the way they change your relationship to the page.

Art doesn’t need a clear run at the end of your working life - it can sit exactly where you are, as you are. If this feels familiar, and you’d like a simple way to begin again with some structure, consistency, and support, please join the 7:7 Sketchbook Journey this summer! I’d love to have you. For more information, visit https://www.77sketchbookjourney.com❤️

In this fun, hands-on workshop, the children will use vibrant oil pastels to create expressive paintings, choosing from a range of animals for inspiration. They’ll explore layering, blending and mark-making techniques while learning to simplify shapes and capture character. Each child will leave with a colourful, confident artwork snd new skills. As always, a range of craft activities will be available during breaks. All materials included!

I’ve teamed up with the amazing Frances from Happy Healthy Yoga to bring you Nurture & Create, a retreat day offering a nourishing blend of Yoga Nidra, nature and artistic exploration in the peaceful setting of the Manor Barn Canterbury. In the morning, Frances will be guiding you in intention setting, mindful movement and deep relaxation. After lunch and a gentle walk in nature, I will be leading a series of process based, exploratory mark-making activities designed to reconnect you to your natural state of creative curiosity and confidence. By the end of the day, you will feel calmer, more grounded and more connected to yourself. Lunch and art materials are include in the cost. No experience of yoga or art necessary! Please book via my website www.artwithali.co.uk 🌸

Brushstrokes for Beginners
A friendly 10 week crash course for absolute beginners. We focus on the foundational skills of painting across oils, acrylics and watercolours, building confidence step by step.

Only Oils
A relaxed weekly session devoted entirely to oil painting. Suitable for those with some previous experience, the class explores colour mixing, paint handling and the particular richness and flexibility of oils, with demonstrations and guidance to help you develop your own approach.

Weekly Watercolours
A weekly class exploring the expressive possibilities of watercolour. Each session introduces techniques such as wet-on-wet, layering and controlled washes, while working from a variety of subjects including landscapes, still life, animals and flowers!

In one of my workshops recently someone laughed and said they had “all the gear and no idea.”

What they meant was that they had accumulated beautiful materials over the years - sketchbooks, paints, brushes - yet most of it had never been used. Their barrier wasn’t a lack of interest, space or time, it was the feeling that they weren’t ‘qualified’ to begin. They had accumulated supplies but not permission!

That is one of the things the 7:7 sketchbook journey is designed to change. We face that first blank page together and begin to enjoy our materials for what they are - not precious, untouchable artefacts, but tools for experimentation and self-expression.

The beta launch of the 7:7 Sketchbook Journey is coming this summer.

For more information visit:
www.77creativerecovery.com