APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN

Nettle Grellier (Turps Correspondence Course 2019/20)

Applications are now open for Turps Art School’s Correspondence Course 2020/21

“Imagine you are in a very, very remote place and post takes a couple of months to arrive. Or you are above the arctic circle! You send images to an esteemed colleague and await response. The response comes months later. You are unable to ask questions of what you just read because it's a letter, no Internet, no phones. What then happens is that you slow right down, you listen to and digest every last drop of sense in that letter. You sniff it, you sleep with it under your pillow and you constantly re-read it until you suck every last ounce of anything useful from it. You then make work and any accompanying comments that are posted off with your next work upload will be very deeply thought about. That's it, period! Babbling, garbling impatient 'I must know now' hysteria has ruined people's ability to absorb and reflect. In doing this course you have enabled a slightly different process to take place. You learn from what you already know. The mentor is a guide. You do the work. It works! Read, reflect then make!”

Marcus Harvey, Director

Turps Correspondence Course is an innovative distance-learning programme of online mentoring facilitated through critical, supportive written reviews by a dedicated mentor. The course is aimed at painters based anywhere in the world and at any stage in their career who want to develop or reinvigorate their work, whether recently graduated from art school or those without any formal arts education.

Since 2012, it has offered over 500 artists a fresh perspective on their work within the context of current painting discourse. Once enrolled, many painters will continue on the programme for 2 or more years, developing close connections with both the mentoring team and their peer network through peer-led initiatives and social media connections.

Turps Correspondence Course painters have gone on to feature in New Contemporaries, John Moores Painting Prize and the Marmite Prize for Painting, and it has also enabled painters to successfully apply for and be accepted onto MA and MFA programmes across the world.

More information about the course can be found here:

https://www.turpsbanana.com/ccgeneral

FAQs available here: https://www.turpsbanana.com/ccfaqs

Correspondence Course Fees: £1,750

Correspondence Course Application Deadline: 31st August 2020

Lara Cobden (Turps Correspondence Course 2019/20)

HOW TO APPLY

To apply please complete the application form via the Turps website before the deadline: https://www.turpsbanana.com/art-school

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Turps Art School does not award accredited educational qualifications but offers an opportunity for artists to further their understanding and exploration of painting and re-energize their work through dedicated critical response from practising artists.

Correspondence Course mentors currently include: Marcus Harvey, Phillip Allen, Andrea Medjesi-Jones, Sarah Pickstone, Katrina Blannin, Geraldine Swayne, Benjamin Senior, Neal Tait, Ansel Krut, Katie Pratt, Phil King, Sofia Silva, Emma Talbot, Emma Biggs, Matthew Collings, Luke Dowd, Hannah Murgatroyd, Adam Hennessey, John Greenwood, Jake Clark, Scott McCracken, Andrew Grassie, Barbara Nicholls, Dan Hays, John Bunker, Martin Westwood, Matt Lippiatt, Roisin Fogarty, Stuart Elliot, Tim Renshaw.

Rachel Jeffers (Turps Correspondence Course 2019/20)

“My time in Turps Correspondence Course has been an exercise in learning to trust my own voice. I came to my first review braced to defend the ideas behind the paintings I was making - a dynamic I was accustomed to from previous art school settings. I was surprised when my mentor paid no attention to the ideas I had been prepared to defend. Instead, he talked about the paintings themselves - as paintings - on their own terms. The three-month review/response structure had the effect of turning what might have been my defensive initial reaction into a deeper questioning of myself and the choices I was making. This experience ultimately brought me back to where my heart really is as a painter, taking the focus away from background ideas and giving me a sense of permission to dive in and make work that stemmed from a joyful engagement with the medium itself. The focused dialogue has helped me be more accountable for each choice I make within the paintings. I find that I am producing work that feels more authentic to who I am as a person, and that I am able to grapple with the paintings in a much deeper way than before.”

Rachel Jeffers (Correspondence Course 2019/20)