Soft Studio: July Two-Week Online Painting Block (Tuesdays)

After running some lovely in-person painting evenings in some of my favourite Dublin coffee spots over the last six months, I am even more keen on spreading the joy of having a personal creative practice to quiet the business of our hectic lives, give ourselves a break, and just flow. I wanted to bring that same relaxed, studio energy into an online space, so you can join from wherever you are in the world.

Over two weeks (two hours each Tuesday evening), we’ll meet on Zoom and paint together. I’ll be painting with you so you can see exactly what I’m doing, and I’ll be talking you through some of the process, while also leaving some quiet time for us each to get lost in our own paintings. We will all be painting from the same reference images (one each week - more on that below), and we’ll be touching on colour-mixing from a curated palette, shadows, and how to actually look at your subject.

There are no expectations to create a masterpiece - just a couple of hours to relax, get into the flow, and look closely at what’s in front of us. Whether you haven’t touched a paintbrush since school, or are someone who loves painting but struggles to find the time, this is a soft place for you to play, and you are very welcome to join.

Session 1 | Tuesday 14th July, 7-9pm: Focusing on colour-mixing from a limited primary palette, working on blocking in our backgrounds, and how to start bringing what we see in front of us onto the canvas.

Session 2 | Tuesday 21st July, 7-9pm: Moving into a more close-up observation of light, shadow, and shape. Leaves, in all their varied glory, are a really wonderful way to explore this, so we’ll each be working on a botanical painting as an introduction to understanding these skills.

Choose Your Experience

To make this as accessible and stress-free as possible, there are two ways to join these studio evenings.

Tier 1: Digital Access Only (BYOP - bring your own paint!)

Perfect if you already have painting materials at hand, or prefer to go gather your own. You’ll get full access to both sessions (which will also be recorded if the original times don’t suit or something pops up), plus digital reference images of our painting subjects.

Tier 2: Digital Access + Hand-Packed Painter’s Kit (free Ireland shipping included)

If you’d rather skip the art shop queues or don’t know where to start, I am your personal studio shopper! Over the next week, I’ll be hand-packing these little kits with everything you’ll need for our two weeks of painting, and shipping them straight to your door in a sturdy box.

Inside your custom kit, you’ll find:

• 2 x Canvas Boards

• 1 x Set of Paintbrushes (I’ll be choosing the shapes I think suit these weeks best, both for blocking in and then fine details)

• 1 x Set of Custom-Filled Acrylic Paint Tubes: I’ll be sourcing a palette of professional-grade acrylics that suit our themes, including the core primaries, a deep tone for shadows (which you’ll learn to mix without black!) and a double portion of Titanium White for our softer, lighter hues and highlights.

• 2 x Disposable Palette Sheets: Clean, wax-paper surfaces for easy colour-mixing

• 2 x Printed Reference Photos: One for each week, so you won’t have to click between tabs to find your painting subject when we’re all on Zoom together!

⚠️Please Note: As I will be purchasing, packing, and posting them by hand, Painter’s Kits must be booked by July 7th. After this date the option will be removed from checkout, so please do book early if you’re going for this option.

I’m so looking forward to sharing the studio space online! I’ll be in my trusty painting dungas with a cup of tea in hand, so put your comfies on, grab your bevvy of choice and let’s move paint together. Can’t wait to see you there! Ciara. X