Regulars at Higham will know my relief when I can tell you that, finally, the front upper windows are getting repainted and repaired. Our 1828 gothic revival building has parts that are inaccessible to ladders, and so full frontal scaffolding has been errected. Apparently last time this was done, they were allowed to use ladders!!!
The eagle-eyed amongst you may have already noticed that Higham now has an INSTAGRAM channel. Along with our FACEBOOK and TWITTER channels, we hope this provides those of you who wish to link to various things a little useful choice with how to do it. A number of our Tutors already use one or more
We are immensely proud when those who are Tutors at Higham have success in their own professional field. Highlighting the professional credentials of the wonderful artist and Tutor that is Ceri Allen is an honour for us, especially when we witness the incredible talent that she possesses. See for yourself on the Castlegate Gallery exhibition
Yes! We have finally managed to double glaze both the Bungalow Cottage and the Gatehouse Bedrooms. Those of you who have been with us a while may be aware of the challenges we have had in reaching this stage, but now, finally, decent quality windows have been installed in these two buildings. Subsequently this accommodation
Pottery and Zen at Higham by Claire Brooks The new Raku Pottery Workshop at Higham was a hot hit in February, as students Raku-fired by hand the pots they had made and glazed under tutor Chris Barnes. The 4.5 day course started with an introduction to Raku, exploring its philosophical roots in Zen Buddhism and
Those of you who have been in the past year will know how we had the end part of the Dining Room (the servery area) painting Red Sand at the bottom and Roman White at the top of the Dado rail. We have now extended this to the full Dining Room, repainting the ceiling (repaired,
As mentioned before, we have been keen to sympathetically redecorate our rooms bit by bit. We have recently had bedroom 19 redone. After converting this ensuite room into a single (rather than a small double) and having Simon our carpenter make oak veneered furniture and headboard for us for the now new single bed, we
This is not a Higham course, but we’ve been asked to share this event as many of us are interested in our four -legged friends. A Nation of Dog Lovers A TALK BY LINDA BLAIR AT WORDS BY THE WATER Theatre By The Lake, Keswick SUNDAY MARCH 10TH: 12.45pm Dog ownership is associated with a
Neil and co have made progress with the establishment of the pond seating area. As you can see on the left, a space has now been cleared and foundations laid for an outside matted area on which seating will be placed. Thought has been given to creating an area that will drain naturally, as well
Our decorator was suddenly available this week, so we have put them to work on Bedrooms 6 and 19. If you look closely in the top right window, you can see one of the decorators hard at work on the interior of the arched window in Room 6. As ever, we have chosen heritage shades,
Tutor Tiana Marie has prepared an excellent 2 minute video introduction to Ruskin (enjoy!): Details of Tiana’s course are here: PAINTING RUSKIN’S DREAMS OF CONISTON
Our new brochure of courses, covering the period from April to September 2019 has now been published and is available to view, download or request to be mailed from the Brochure page of this website. All new courses may also be viewed online, with links to their respective Tutors, who each have a Profile Page
Our Tutor Alex Jakob-Whitworth has recently been part of the filming of a short film about Dorothy Wordsworth (entitled “Journeywoman”), which premiered at the Kendal Mountain Festival. She sent a link to the video here – it is superb! Congratulations to Alex and everyone involved. Enjoy!:
Win this wonderful framed oil painting by artist Linda Birch.
We have been informed by Susie that they are retiring and therefore the successful Cockermouth Art & Craft Shop is for sale. Higham uses the shop as a matter of principle for our art materials and equipment and we value having such a resource close by tremendously. Susie has always looked after us very well,
A short 15 minute film (Reflections) that was shot in part at Higham earlier this year is going to be screened this coming weekend at the Theatre Royal in Workington (Saturday Morning 3rd Nov at 11am). It’s interesting to see bits of the features at Higham used. See how many bits you recognise! The 1
Eric Breese Eric is one of our students who returns again and again on one course in particular. He typifies what such things as go on at Higham can do to enhance life and we wanted to share this with you. We believe such things can only give us all encouragement to continue on our
Our Tutor Chi Zhang, in a video by Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council, speaks about moving to Scotland from China to study graphic design, living in Edinburgh, his work as an artist, calligrapher and teacher at the award-winning Confucius Institute in Edinburgh.
The Raffle for the Robert Dutton picture has now been drawn and the winner notified by email. The winning ticket number was [471 orange] . Thank you to everybody who supported our fund raising for the pond area by buying a ticket. In all, 469 tickets were sold at a pound each. Thank you, especially,
One of Jane Matthews’ students (name witheld to avoid embarrassment) shared this picture of a Goldwork piece she has finally finished. It is a splendid piece of embroidery and looks wonderful mounted in a frame. Often, the projects inspired by a course continue long after the course has finished. Many Students continue the activities back
A private donation was made for us to plant a tree and for a bench in memory of former Tutor Derek Hyatt [Guardian Obituary and Telegraph Obituary], who passed at the age of 84 back in 2015. It is not surprising why such a figure in the world of art should still be remembered after
Here he is, the successor to faithful old Hoskins who, after 13 plus years, has now gone to a retirement of lesser demand. The new boy comes from the Transit bloodline and has slightly fewer seats in the back – something we feel will provide a little more room. He certainly feels like a newer
The wonderful Tutor that is Heather Ritchie is featured on BBC this week: First episode of MAKE! Craft Britain http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09whc5t
Both of these films, being shown as part of Keswick Film Festival, are relevant to our French and Belgian Film courses. Thanks to our francophone tutor Sylvie Jefferson for spotting this. It’s great to have such foreign language opportunities up here! A Woman’s Life Friday 23rd February 2:30 PM – Theatre By The Lake Based
Two students (who came down from Skye, you know who you are – I won’t embarass you… yet! Mind you, devoted readers might put two and two together and work out exactly who you are) who attended Jan Beadle’s tabletop Loom Weaving course this week, brought with them some yarn spun from their own Herdwick
Kay Leech, who was awarded the first Friends of Higham Scholarship, has made a great start on her ‘journey’ through various courses. The outcome will be that Kay will produce artistic or craft work based upon her experiences of and learning from each course. Higham will host an exhibition later this year to showcase what
People have now started receiving their new printed brochures. Over 190 new Higham courses up till the end of September are now all visible on our website. The new brochure is viewable in all its glory and you can download your very own pdf copy, by visiting www.highamhall.com/brochure. We hope you find something to enjoy!
The lucky winner who won the original picture by Robert Dutton was a lady called Carol. She says she never usually wins anything. Well she has now! The raffle, with Robert’s painting as the sole prize, sold 361 tickets and raised £361. This money will go towards the improvement of the pond area in the grounds
Robert Dutton has kindly donated this wonderful picture to help us raise funds. So far, 220 tickets have been sold, and we are hoping to sell a few more. It really is a beautiful ORIGINAL framed pastel by Robert Dutton, and, unlike many other raffles, your chances of winning are very good, as we are
Artists will love to see Robert’s report on his recent course – examples of what work was produced, what they did etc. Gives a good idea of the standard of impressive work students can produce! Wow! http://news.rdcreative.co.uk/2017/09/summer-successes-at-higham-hall.html Thank you to Robert for all his hard work – this is certainly one tutor who throws himself
One of our most popular art tutors, Brian Smith, may be moving away from the local area soon, so if you wish to benefit from his popular WATERCOLOUR DAYS and ACRYLIC DAYS, you have him for day courses at Higham only until March! SEE BRIAN’S COURSES So, take advantage of Brian’s days whilst you can!
Higham Tutor Andrew Lacey has had a new book published last month called ‘The English Civil War in 100 Facts.’ Andrew introduces the book thus: In January 1649 the unthinkable happened: after a public trial the king of England was beheaded on a scaffold outside his palace of Whitehall. The world would never be quite
Just launched! Higham Hall Tutor Robert Dutton (a very popular and gifted artist who runs successful expressive mixed media art courses here at Higham) has LOTS of new paintings featured in this brand new book Artist’s Drawing Techniques – just recently published by DK Life (in association with Penguin Books) showing step by steps paintings in
If you are on our postal mailing list should have received your spanking new winter Brochure of courses through your door by now. If not, just let us know and we’ll send you one. You may also view and/or download a copy from our Brochure page. All courses etc for the winter period are now
It is will sadness that I have to share the news that Eileen passed away last month. Eileen inspired others to play the recorder and to enjoy music. She will be sorely missed by many who knew her and followed her for a long time. I had the privilege of knowing her just for a
At Higham we enjoy the diversity of many different Tutors who each bring their ‘take’ on how things are taught ad what is taught. Despite the variety of approaches, some advocating the deeper understanding of colour, some of generic drawing skills, some of underlying fundamentals etc., one unifying agreement is that what surface you use
Mark Bassey, our wonderful Jazz Composition Tutor was honoured by his class when a song was composed for him. Now, the lyric won’t likely trouble Cole Porter, but it demonstrates ingenuity and reflection of the reality: WE FRIENDS CAME FROM BRIGHTON OUR JAZZ SKILLS TO TIGHTEN LEARNING, PLAYING WITH NEW MATES THANK YOU MARK VON
One of our Tutors has written her own book to accompany some of her courses. Viv Philpot has produced a very nice colour publication, Sketching Your Holiday Memories, fully illustrated, taking would-be improving artists through the essentials in a very easy to digest and useful way. Not available commercially, Viv’s book supports the skills and
We recently unearthed some photos of the occasion, 17 years ago, when The Millennium Wall Hanging was created by course attendees at Higham. You may catch sight of some past tutors Elizabeth Prickett (Ruskin Lace), Julie Andrews (Patchwork) and Bridget Rylands (Embroidery) and a number of their students. The Millennium Hanging currently adorns the chimney
Just about got Monty to sit long enough in the new Curve to capture a shot of him with the new plaque, cunningly installed on a tree trunk by Neil the gardener.
Horray! Yesterday, 2nd May, we welcomed a group from the Friends of Alston Hall, some of our own Friends of Higham, our local Setmurthy Parish (St Barnabus’), Trustees students and tutors to the ribbon cutting of our new “Alston Curve”. It was a lovely afternoon and we enjoyed a little celebration to mark the building
Sally Bigwood’s longer extract may ring true for many artists: MESSY AND SERIOUS In recent years Elizabeth had favoured acrylic paint. The colours were bold and bright and passionate and it went on the canvas as smoothly as icing onto a birthday cake. Acrylics were expensive but now, thanks to Stefan’s influence, on each birthday
ELIZABETH’S MURAL Elizabeth waited until Edie and Deirdre left before she got to work. She sat on the side of the old bathtub and stared at the wall for some minutes before she walked up and felt the wall with a splayed right hand. Stefan had stripped off the faded wallpaper and the plaster was
Four months or so on an we’ve done it! The Bungalow Cottage has now been converted to 4 en-suite bedrooms – all ground floor, naturally! The new rooms are: Elva The former kitchen, now a single ensuite with private access to the outside and inside, using the existing fully accessible bathroom as its ensuite. Colour
One of our wood carving students, Eric Breese, has just been presented by Sharon his tutor with a special cake for his 90th birthday. If you look closely at the photo, you will see clues to the tools and work Eric has been involved with on his courses, as well as a sugarpaste representation of
This is an extract from a piece written by Linda Birch following a writing course she attended as a regular student here at Higham with Tutor Nicholas Corder. THE WIDOW’S TALE She caught the bus to town for the first time in forty years, it felt alien. A neat woman in her mid sixties
We are providing the opportunity for students who attend our various Writing courses to submit up to 200 word extracts of what they have produced. We can link to longer versions, if appropriate, but just simply wish to provide a showcase for our students. Work can be sent FAO the Principal and he’ll make it
Alston Hall was, until the beginning of last year, a sister college to Higham based in the Ribble Valley in Lancashire. We shared many tutors and, indeed, students, and strived to be true to the same aims of lifelong learning, at one time both being part of the, now defunct, Adult Residential College’s Association (ARCA).