Drawing London: A Hands-on Art Workshop

Chris Clarke has taught Art all his working life and for over thirty years taught at Westminster School in the heart of London right by Westminster Abbey. He was trained at Bath Academy of Art famous for training teachers in a particular way that has visual communication at it's centre. A self taught Art Historian Chris believes the work of other artists as well as looking at the world around us should inspire our own efforts seeing their work in relation to our own.He spends his time between working in London and working in Sussex where he has his studio.His own work done in various media is very much rooted in the urban and rural landscapes where he lives and he is much influenced by the work of British artists of the twentieth century, for example Ben Nicholson, John Piper and David Jones. Like most artists sketch books are where his ideas first see the light of day and he is keen that all his students use these note books as a record of those first encounters with our response to the subject before us,and as a reminder of the places and people we see which may reappear in the final art pieces we create.

Will Lunn organised his first exhibition, including two internationally renowned artists, aged just seventeen. He has previously worked at a number of London galleries, before he set up Sumarria Lunn Gallery with Vishal Sumarria at twenty. After Sumarria Lunn, at twenty-five he opened Copperfield, an independent contemporary art gallery just south of Tate Modern. He is a graduate of the Courtauld Institute of Art and prior to becoming a curator and gallerist, he has been exhibited both in England and abroad as an artist working under another name. He sees his work as a curator as an extension of that practice - bringing pre-existing objects with pre-existing concepts together in a space to create new meaning.

Worldwide traveller, Camelia Shakti has an MA degree in History and a Post Graduate degree in Landscape Design. An experienced and talented story teller and a passionate explorer of city, mind and landscapes, Camelia works as a yoga artist and designs pop-up yoga playgrounds using petals and seeds. Her designs function as events and have been featured among other places at the V&A Museum of Childhood and Regent's Royal Park. Having explored the aesthetics of horticulture and the practicalities of gardening, she has worked as horticultural consultant for the biggest garden centre in the UK and volunteered on garden projects around the world focusing on environmental approaches to landscape design and maintenance. She has been visiting Kew Botanical Gardens for the past 7 years and is happy to share and bring context of this magical space that houses the biggest collection of live wild species from around the world and beautiful architectural gems that reflect the history of the Industrial revolution, the growth of capital and the transformation of thought and practise into the Age of Reasons, through the Enlightenment and into contemporary efforts in conservation and genetic research. The story that Kew helps us unravel is one of identity and how Britain became a country of gardeners.