10.00am – 4.00pm
£78 inc tasty home made lunch, fresh coffee, cream tea etc
Material Charges: £12 everything is provided

'Oak Gall Ink and Unfolding Landscapes' with Tim Watson    Beginners and intermediates.

We're very excited to have chanced upon this talented local artist who not only 'lives, eats and breathes' the Cumbrian fells by running across them at everyone opportunity, but also manages to represent them on paper in many surprising and beautiful ways!

This particular course with Tim is exploring the contours and character of the unfolding Landscape using Tim's own handmade Ink ~ using the Oak Galls he has gathered on his travels!

Oak Gall Ink was historically the earliest ink of choice, used on parchment, vellum, and all things legal. The Magna Carta, the American Declaration of Independence and Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice were all written in Oak Gall Ink.

Tim will introduce this unusual medium, which for him has become a firm favourite over recent years, showing different techniques, effects and ideas on paper.  A step by step demonstration will then follow using the camera and screen, meaning students can paint alongside from their desks, altogether. After completion and over the afternoon students can try out all they've learned using other reference material and photos with Tim's support. Several options will be available in both watercolours and acrylics for bursts of colour if required.

Dates for this course - see the table below to book:

Thursday 21st Aug 2025

Please bring:  Please bring £12 cash for the tutor on the day to cover Tim's 'special formula' handmade Oak Gall Ink, dipping pens, suitable paper, aswell as the larger brushes for making washes, the boards and various options for 'colour pops' if required. You may take home your ink in a bottle at the end of the workshop. Please also feel free to bring any favourite photographs or reference materials.  Please also bring an apron or old shirt to protect your clothes.

The venue can provide jam jars, white china plates for mixing and kitchen roll. The optional extras for students to bring are their own Watercolour palette if preferred, various small watercolour brushes, personal ink dipping pens, something for note taking, plus any of your own sketches or photos as reference. 

  NOTE:  The below examples are all close ups of larger works by Tim. All details can be seen on his website timwatsonartist.co.uk

About the Artist  Oak Gall Ink   I have used ink for sketching outdoors for years and also for producing finished pieces of work. Previously Indian Ink was my chosen medium. On finishing the renovation of our studio and gallery, Brightside Barn, some spark happened that led me to experimenting and finally producing my own oak gall ink! The earliest recipes for oak gall ink come from Pliny the Elder, and are vague at best but it became the standard ink formulation used in Europe for the 1400-year period between the 5th and 19th centuries.
Many famous and important manuscripts have been written using oak gall ink, including the Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest, most complete Bible currently known to exist, thought to be written in the middle of the fourth century. The Doomsday Book, Book of Kells, many of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings, the American Statute of Independence are but a few surviving documents. Making it is a very enjoyable process with each batch being slightly different in character. Indeed finding the oak galls is the biggest challenge and I have many friends on the look out for them.