The Devil’s Jumps are five Bronze Age bell barrows located on the West Dean estate. These ancient burial mounds were built so that they align with the setting sun in midsummer.

Starting with an evening’s presentation, the following day consists of fieldwork, including walking six miles from West Dean College on Midsummer’s Eve to the ancient site to make reconnaissance drawings and paintings as the sun sets. The college minibus/taxi will transport participants back to the main site.

This preliminary fieldwork will then be developed into finished paintings in the studio, working in materials of your choice onto preprepared surfaces that suit your medium. This will occur in the Orangery: a big, light studio that offers the opportunity to be ambitious with quantity and scale for both preliminary and final paintings.

Throughout the course, you will be introduced to artists who have incorporated ancient monuments into their paintings, e.g. J M W Turner, John Piper, Henry Moore, Paul Nash, Harold Mockford and Ithell Colquhoun, all of whom bring to the attention a sense of time and space, and the weird and eerie by forging echoes of the past through painting the landscape. Their paintings are channels through which we can see the past, including the period their paintings were created. How will you interpret this ancient site in the twenty-first century? What will be your observations through painting?

For this course, you will need to be able to walk six miles. We advise comfortable walking equipment including a rucksack, portable art materials, water bottle, carrier bag to sit on or portable stool, warm clothing and camera. You will be leaving the College in the afternoon and you will be walking to the Devil’s Jumps carrying your art materials and equipment, along with your picnic supper (please bear in mind you can have a cooked breakfast and a cooked lunch on that day). This is an incredible place and, if the weather is fine, the spectacle of watching the sun slowly drop below the horizon, in line with the bell barrows, is a phenomenon. To the left of the sun will be a crescent moon; therefore, to bring attention to the fore, it is advised to be as quiet as possible so that you will be able to hear the owls calling one another and, if lucky, perhaps see deer and hares. You will be collected by minibus/taxi at around 8.30pm and taken back to the College when the sun has set.

The emphasis on the course is the slow act of walking and painting, as well as being in nature, mindful of continuity observed through the cycles of the sun and the moon.

What students need to bring

Your preferred drawing and painting materials, including:

• Materials for fieldwork
• Prepared surfaces to paint onto
• Sketchbooks
• Charcoal, putty rubber, ink
• Fixative, masking tape
• Preferred paint mediums, including watercolours plus travel set, oil colours including low odour solvents
• Brushes appropriate to paint medium
• Appropriate outdoor clothing for drawing outside
• Camera/tablet/iPad or phone

Available to buy

Available from shop:

• A good variety of art materials, including drawing surfaces and paper, a good selections of paints, sketchbooks, drawing materials, masking tape, fixative, paintbrushes and mediums

Additional information

Please wear appropriate clothing/aprons for the workshop or studio, this includes stout covered footwear i.e. no open-toes or sandals.

Arrival day
Residential students can arrive from 4pm, non-residential students to arrive by 6.45pm for registration
6.45pm: Welcome, followed by dinner (included)
8 - 9pm: First teaching session, attendance is essential

Daily timetable
Course teaching 9.15am - 5pm (lunch included)
Dinner: from 6.30pm (included for residential students)
Evening working: students may have access to workshops until 9pm, but only with permission from the tutor and provided any health and safety guidelines are observed

Departure day
Course teaching: 9.15am - 3pm (lunch included)
Residential students will need to check out of rooms by 10am

Please note, the tutor may make slight variations to the daily timetable as required

Terms & Conditions