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CLASSES

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The Elements classes are repeated around once a year.

All other classes are one-off classes that are not repeated. Films of many past classes (as well as brushes) are here: https://www.theperfectbrush.co.uk/shop 

2025 is the year of Magic in miniature painting, magic in different guises. Magic permeates the 1001 Nights as a central theme. We delve deeper into aspects of magic: astrology, horoscopes, oracles, tricks, diagrams, medicine, cintamani, illusions, cards, games and more. We see magic in the form of marvels and oddities, including Qazwini’s Wonders of Creation Aja'ib al-Makhluqat wa Ghara'ib al-Mawjudat (عجائب المخلوقات وغرائب الموجودات) and finally Animals, which are natural marvels in themselves. We include the animals of that other nested frame tale, the Kalila wa Dimna. We see the last of the TALES series. We finish the last of the Characters series (culminating in a Mermaid!) and there are some new mini series including a Paper Toy Theatre mini series and a Weaving mini series. There is a Cards mini series as well as a charming Marginal Extras mini series. You can then incorporate these design and making skills into your own artworks. This is probably the last year of teaching so intensely and broadly and in the years to come we will refine and hone, doing fewer and more focused things. Please note that we will not be practising actual magic (this is forbidden in some countries); we are inspired by historic and contemporary magic especially vis-à-vis the Nights and study the functions of magic and its contexts. And of course: making beautiful and magical works of art!

 

As ever, the annual Elements series runs again this year, this time in reverse order (let’s see what magic happens then!). We sprinkle these classes with pareidolia and see anthropomorphic rocks, clouds, water and fire (which is magical alchemy - turn base metals into gold - learn the basics of gilding). Think of mimetoliths, the Face on Mars, ‘picture jaspers’ and the Man in the Moon himself (or the rabbit in the moon - who’s looking?). If I am able to get a suitable studio set-up, we see the return of oil painting classes in the later months - although this may possibly be the year after. (In terms of an exhaustive curriculum we’ve covered fauna but not flora: 2026 is finally about trees, plant life and the garden!) 

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