A novice painter finds the artistic heritage of St Ives somewhat daunting initially, but expert tuition in a dream artists’ studio soon gets the creative juices flowing. There was the briefest moment late on Sunday afternoon when, standing back from the easel, paintbrush in hand, I almost felt like an artist. What I had produced was by no means accomplished but I was beginning to see what it could become.
![[The view from Porthmeor Studios.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b007bd9b91b94aedbdb19dcffcde0c62c1a728a6/0_159_4763_2858/master/4763.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
It may sound like a modest achievement, but before signing up for a weekend Discover Painting course at St Ives School of Painting I had not put a brush to canvas since my GCSEs almost 30 years ago. Even at school I tried to avoid painting, so I knew the weekend would push me out of my comfort zone.
![[A Close Up View Of An Artist’s PaletteMixing colours with a paintbrush on a wooden paint palette. From above view.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/03c552195a23503a74e09714a409938a8681ac13/0_0_8192_4915/master/8192.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The pre-course nerves were compounded by the setting. Aside from chronic over-tourism, which the small Cornish town suffers all summer, St Ives is best known for art. Peter Lanyon, Ben Nicholson, Patrick Heron and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham are among scores of notable painters associated with the town, now home to both the Tate’s westernmost outpost and a museum and sculpture garden dedicated to Barbara Hepworth.
![[St Ives beach offers painters plenty to consider in terms of light and colour.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e953b69983f374d05d34e6464b4d25014220dc00/0_306_3456_2074/master/3456.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The School of Painting, set within the famed Porthmeor Studios, is a long-established part of that heritage – and all the painters mentioned above worked here at some point. It’s the dream artists’ studio: high ceilings, walls stacked with paints and palettes, and large, angled Atlantic-facing windows flooding the place with light.
My nerves were clearly shared by the eight others on the course, a mix of men and women aged between about 30 and 60. As we introduced ourselves on Saturday morning, we each owned up to varying levels of ineptitude. In contrast, Ilker Cinarel, our artist tutor, was all confidence on our behalf. We were not there to create a finished piece, he said. We were there to play, and to learn about processes of painting. Our imagined masterpieces would have to wait. It was a sentiment he would come back to several times over the two days, whenever he noticed we were taking things too seriously.
