Summer courses 2025

Join Deborah Campbell on this 5 day textile art course where you will explore the beautiful environment around Comrie and working from the natural world you will create your own very unique fine art textile through observation, experimenting with different methods of printing on fabric and combining these with free motion machine and hand embroidery. You’ll learn different printing techniques using a gel plate combine with handmade printing blocks and plants to print beautiful textures onto a selection of different weights of fabric including sheers which will then be layered to bring depth of colour & pattern to your work. You will also learn how to use your sewing machine as a drawing tool to and be encouraged to use different methods of hand stitch as a way of mark making. If you love textile art but sometimes look at the bundles of fabric you’ve collected over the years and wonder how or what to create? Or you are just simply looking for some inspiration to move you forward and give you focus then this course is perfect for you. It’s a great opportunity to bring neglected or recycled fabrics back to life and give them a new creative purpose.

Deborah Campbell studied at Glasgow school of art and has worked as a freelance artist and maker for many years, collaborating with architects, interior designers and makers from varying disciplines. She worked as a part-time art & design lecturer for seven years, which eventually led her to developing workshops using print and textile as an art form to enhance  the creative craft experience. Her own practice is very much influenced by Scotland’s coastal landscape. Mixed media drawings and paintings  inspired by the  natural landscape Are used to develop ideas  further  in the studio to create her original and inspiring textile artworks. 

Discover your creative side With textile art!

Join Deborah on this creative week where you will have to opportunity to work in the medium of textile art and let your creativity flow. 

Science Magic is a dive into hands-on exploration of local fibres and natural dyeing. Wool, plants and fungi from the Scottish Highlands meet your creative mind and heart as we dye and create our own sustainable materials..

We will be covering wool/fibre sourcing, processing and spinning alongside natural dyeing using historical and modern sources. Time in the studio will be in hand with outdoors sessions foraging for materials in the surrounding countryside. Learn how to dye your own skeins of wool, bundle dye, and try your hand at processing and handspinning fibre.

Day 1

Introduction to natural dyeing: materials, processes, mordants/modifiers, things you can dye. After this introduction we will go out and forage for dyestuffs. Bringing gathered materials back to prepare for hot dye pots and solar dye baths.

Day 2

Blending pre-dyed local wool and other natural fibres using the blending board, drum carder and hand carders for different effects. Introduction to hand-spinning the fibre on drop spindles. dyeing skeins in hot dye pots using foraged materials and dye extracts

Day 3

Indigo & woad dyeing (blues!), overdyeing skeins of yarn from the day before to create a wide range of shades using different effects. Choose your own adventure- individual help with hand-spinning, more dyeing, more wool blending, needle felting, whatever strikes your fancy to spend a couple of extra hours doing. 

Take home

Your dyed skeins (enough for a medium to large project), blended wool for spinning or felting, a solar dye jar that can be reused, dyer’s journal.

Samantha Farmer, textile artist

With roots in classical music, professional beauty and a lifelong obsession with the tactility of fabrics and yarns, Samantha makes pieces to wear, to display, and to make your own. 

Samantha received her Bachelor of Music from Western Washington University, Master of Music from DePaul University, owned a successful hairdressing business with roots in session and photographic hair and makeup work, and is now chasing her lifelong dream of creating textile art using sustainable, foraged and reclaimed materials.

Working from local landscapes, we will explore painting and mark making to create abstracted landscapes and  finished works that give us “a sense of place”.

We will spend  the first part of the week at various locations in the local area to create sketchbook “journeys and impressions” as well as longer observational drawings.

During the last two days, back in the studio we will translate ideas, memories and observational material into paintings using acrylics and mixed media.

We will explore how the process of painting and mark making can inspire and develop ideas towards abstraction. This week is a chance to experiment and to enjoy working on location as well as in a studio.

By the end of the week you will have completed a range of sketches, drawings and finished pieces to take home. Suitable for beginners and more experienced artists wishing to build their own working practise.

Beverly has studied art courses at Leith School of  art, Edinburgh and Bridgehouse Art School in Ullapool where she completed her portfolio course. Her first business was ceramics and her studio was in East Lothian. She has  worked in photography and with a group of artists in Barcelona to produce portraits for sale around the world. She currently runs Comrie Art Hut where she teaches short courses in still life and abstract mixed media processes. The art hut is used for her own art practise over the winter. 

Charity McArdle has been teaching for thirty years and has been a practising artist since 2016.  Her practice is mainly in landscapes and portraiture and she has sold work in the UK, Europe and Australia. She has exhibited widely in Scotland.  You can see Charity’s work here: https://www.charitymcardlefineart.com/ 

This week-long course is a chance to escape into nature both physically and artistically. We will be drawing in the beautiful local area, using a range of approaches to visually transcribe what we see onto paper.

Building a knowledge of tone, colour, mark-making, layering and composition through a range of exercises, students will be able to use this series of drawings to inform a final painting or series of acrylic paintings.

Suitable for beginners or emerging artists. Charity will provide a comfortable, nurturing environment in which you can grow artistically. Each artist will be encouraged in their own artistic journey based on their personal response to the landscape. This is a process-driven course and tools learnt here, alongside in-depth discussion, will support the artists’ further development. 

This is truly a week to focus on you and your practice in the truly stunning local area and venue at Comrie.