Saturday 18 October and 15 November 2025
10.30am - 3.30pm

Monthly artist-led workshops in the heart of Surrey

Join us each month for Inspired at Watts — a creative workshop series led by professional artists. Each session offers the chance to explore new materials, techniques, and ideas, taking inspiration from our woodland surroundings, historic collections, and changing exhibitions. Whether you're an experienced artist or just starting out, these sessions are a space to experiment, learn, and be inspired.

Work with experienced artists, taking inspiration from natural finds of the season and the woodland setting of Watts Gallery. With a different theme each session – whether it be nature and the woodland at Watts Gallery observing natural materials such as leaves, feathers and plants or being inspired by our collections.

You will have the opportunity to explore a variety of media and experiment with different techniques to create a collection of observational or experimental studies. Enjoy combining elements of drawing, writing, painting or collage, and printing on your sketchbook pages to capture the essence of time and place.

Spaces are limited, so book your place now and start your creative journey with us. All materials are provided.

Upcoming sessions:

20 September
Tutor: Anna-Marie Lamond

Join artist Anna-Marie Lamond and discover the beauty of repeat patterns inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. Taking inspiration from Mary Watts’ Celtic designs and William Morris and the decorative traditions of the period, this workshop will guide you through the process of designing and creating your own repeating motifs.

The workshop will begin with sketching sessions inside Mary and George’s historic home, drawing on its rich interiors for inspiration. Back in the studio, you’ll learn a simple folding technique to transform your sketches into repeat designs.

Add colour and detail to your finished pattern using watercolour, coloured pencils, or your preferred medium, and take home a unique piece of decorative art.

18 October
Tutor: Mags Orson

Explore the expressive power of line through a focused still life drawing session. In this workshop, you will look closely at objects and materials, using different types of line to describe shape, texture, and form.

Working directly from a still life set-up, you’ll experiment with a variety of drawing and other media to discover how each brings its own character to line – from delicate, precise marks to bold, gestural strokes.

By the end of the session, you’ll have a series of drawings that reveal how line can capture depth, weight, and atmosphere.

15 November
Tutor: Megan Georgia Smith

Taking inspiration from our current contemporary exhibition Peter Brookes: Political Cartoonist of The Times, join artist Megan Georgia Smith to explore notions of caricature, exaggerative techniques, and distortion to create portraits with personality. As part of the session, we’ll visit the exhibition and sketch from the iconic work of Peter Brookes, whose sharp, satirical portraits will provide the basis on which to develop your own gritty, expressive visual language. Armed with a good dose of humour, Megan will support you to play with form through the use of acrylic paints, watercolours, pens, and inks.