Study Groups
Monthly online study groups for those who are exploring natural colour making and seek to be part of a supportive creative community. These are small informal peer groups meeting up to share explorations, ideas, and questions.
Format:
Groups meet up monthly for a two hour meeting on Zoom. The monthly two hour zoom call is an informal open space for emergent discussion and conversation. Members are invited to share questions with the group, explorations, and artwork in process or completed. This is supported by ongoing conversation and photo sharing online.
Purpose:
Connection with a global community of natural colour makers (dye, ink, paint, pastels, growing, foraging, etc).
An opportunity to share your work and insights.
To get feedback around your creative explorations.
To hear about what others are exploring, and be inspired by this.
Commitment:
These are ongoing groups, where you can build relationships and support each other as you develop your creative practice throughout the seasons. To join the group, you have to commit to join a term of six monthly sessions. There are two terms per year.
General Study Groups
Timing: Wednesdays 9.30-11.30am (BST)
Term Dates: 1st Wednesday of each month: Oct 7th, Nov 4th, Dec 2nd 2026
Jan 6th 2027, Feb 3rd, March 3rd 2027
Payment: £75 for 6 months for six sessions.
These sessions are not recorded. The group is limited to 12 people
Facilitated by Annie Hogg
Annie Hogg is a visual artist based in Co. Tipperary, Ireland, where she lives and works with Archy, a Hound.
Her work explores power relations and resources. Aiming to see both human and other than human responses and outcomes in human led situations.
She works with natural materials in traditional and innovative ways within her studio based practice predominantly through sculpture and installation, and has recently begun to incorporate social engagement, sound and moving image.
After receiving a BA in sculpture from Aki College of Art, The Netherlands, she worked on environmental campaigns, studied organic horticulture returning to a full time creative practice in recent years. These tendrils remain important within her visual language.
Annie enjoys delivering engaging workshops, talks and lectures on materials and processes within her own practice and the greater realm of natural colour and material use.
Timing: Wednesdays 6.00pm - 8.00pm (UK time) (11.00am-1.00pm PST)
Term Dates: September 16th, October 14th, November 18th, December 16th, January 13th, February 17th
Payment: £75 for 6 months for six sessions.
These sessions are recorded. The group is limited to 12 people.
Facilitated by Carolyn Sweeney.
Carolyn Sweeney is an artist and art teacher based in Portland, Oregon. She uses mineral and botanical color on paper, mostly foraged from public roadways and the compost piles of neighbors. Carolyn has a BA in Fine Art from Whitman College and later studied textiles at Oregon College of Art and Craft. It was in the midst learning to weave and spin that Carolyn first encountered natural color, using natural dyes for her textile projects. After having a child she went back to working on paper, and started making botanical inks from her natural dye plants. From there she discovered mineral pigments and making her own watercolor paints. She now uses a variety of handmade artist materials- watercolors, lake pigments, pastels, egg temperas, soy wax crayons, and others that defy neat categories. She is also a beginning papermaker, and paper nerd.
Carolyn’s own art practice seeks to center these natural materials as co-creators, finding inspiration in the relationships between humans, plants, and the very earth beneath our feet.
Timing: Wednesdays 6-8pm (BST)
Term Dates: 1st Wednesday of each month: Sep 2nd, Oct 7th, Nov 4th, Dec 2nd 2026
Jan 6th 2027, Feb 3rd, 2027
Payment: £75 for 6 months for six sessions.
These sessions are recorded. The group is limited to 12 people
Facilitated by Isobel Denton
Issy is a textile artist specialising in traditional practices creating natural inks & dyes for textile & paper applications. She works from her studio in West Yorkshire under the name of ‘abitmoreink’. She became interested in dyes, and dyeing techniques whilst originally working in theatre, film and television, as a costumier. For the last 3 years she has been creating an extensive dye garden - growing plants for use in her own practice. Presently, she is focussed on developing a 3D sculptural work using various traditional craft practices and making paper using plants such as flax and other materials she either grows, or forages locally. In addition to her own practice she regularly delivers workshops at various venues. She also works with many arts based organisations and in schools, to create pieces for exhibitions that explore the narrative of natural dyeing and related processes.
‘I'm focused on growing my dye plants, as I have a large dye garden. I'm more of a generalist when it comes to using the materials I grow and a general experimentalist. Sustainability is at the core of my practice, and more recently my work has been exploring paper-making and sculptural forms. I’ve just co-created an exhibition with children from @makerworldhudds called Biophilic Sculptures as part of the Woven Festival, made entirely from sustainable materials—recycled paper and textiles, naturally dyed with plants from my garden.’
Learn more about Plants & Colour Study Groups. During 2020 lockdown, Flora Arbuthnott of Plants & Colour gave a call out for a new Study Group series based around plants and colour, obviously enough! We began as we continue today, with each term or round running for a 6 month period and meeting once a month for a two hour Zoom call. Having signed up out of interest to connect with like-minded folks, I could not possibly have fore seen then just how important these monthly meet ups were to become to me.