This course will be primarily about painting directly from life, trying to find in paint a metaphor for the experience of being in a particular place in a particular light.

Painting in direct response to nature can sharpen one's perception and make one more alive to the beauty of the world, and better able to judge what is on the canvas. Since experience is unique so will each painter's response be and tuition will be mostly one to one and in front of the motif, in the landscape, the town or in the beautiful studios, wherever people have found the subjects they want to paint. There will also a demonstration in the studio on colour and mixing etc and the course is suitable for people with a lot of experience or none.

Frances Mann trained at Camberwell School of Art and Crafts, she was on the part-time staff there for eight years teaching drawing and the history of drawing in the Conservation and Art History Department. Since moving to Suffolk she has run many landscape painting courses, on occasion in conjunction with her husband Sargy Mann. Her work has been shown at Cadogan Contemporary, most recently in April 2007.