David Cranswick

Day 5 of Alchemy of Colour Workshop at The kings Foundation School of Traditional Arts, Open program. What I offer in these workshops is a direct experience into the heart of creative experience and consciousness, sowing seeds in the heart and mind of students that they may grow and mature in their own unique ways. @schooloftraditionalarts @kingsfoundation

A one day Oak gall ink and quill making workshop at The Kings Foundation School of traditional Arts, London, next Friday from 10.00am to 4.40pm. The traditional tools and materials carry within them an energy that connects with and participates in traditional wisdom, reconnecting us to the deeper wisdom underlying all craft traditions. @schooloftraditionalarts

William Nicholson, 1872-1949, one of Britains greatest painters. Such a privilege to have this rare exhibition of his work at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. Seeing the energy of his brush marks, his exquisitely controlled tonal relationships and chromatic harmony’s is something one very rarely comes across in paintings today. My admiration for this artist is beyond words. I highly recommend everyone to see this once in a lifetime exhibition which finishes on the 10th May. @schooloftraditionalarts @westdeancollege

Five day workshop exploring the golden age of Dutch and Spanish still-life painting materials and techniques. Through the use of underpainting and glazing, light is refracted from within the paint layers, giving a quality of ‘inner light’ to these paintings. Technique is the doorway into the language of paint; through the interplay of colour and tone, the subject of the painting gradually reveals itself from within they dynamic mystical interplay of light and dark through which colour is expressed. @schooloftraditionalarts @westdeancollege @kingsfoundation @education.christies

Ink is symbolic of the ‘Word’ from which all manifestations arise, it is the primordial darkness, source of all light. In this video I am preparing black ink from the ink sac of the cuttlefish. Join my one day workshop at The Kings Foundation School of traditional Arts on 8th May, learn how to make one of the oldest ink recipes from oak galls and to prepare and cut your own quill to draw or write, using the ink you prepared from nature. @schooloftraditionalarts @westdeancollege

As I contemplate the cows looking at me from the end of my garden, I’m reminded of casein, one of natures most ancient mediums, made from milk protein and out of which comes one of the most beautiful and enduring of all paint mediums. Some of the earliest cave paintings were created using milk as their medium. More recently the Italian renaissance artist, Mantegna, created exquisite paintings using this same medium created from milk. Nature provides us with everything we need for painting and living. Such paintings created with this beautiful medium remind one of art’s intimate and enduring relationship with nature, and through which her deepest secrets are revealed through colour and paint. Next casein workshop will be at The Kings Foundation School of Traditional Arts, London. 28th September - 2nd October 2026. @schooloftraditionalarts @westdeancollege @education.christies

Nature is the apothecary of the arts. Not only painting, but medicine and music are all derived from nature. Music, as well as medicine, both express the mystery of the seven planets through the seven centres of energy in the body, reflected through the seven tones. Nature is the source of beauty, wisdom and life’s renewal. @schooloftraditionalarts @westdeancollege

Day 5 of the Alchemy of Colour workshop at The Kings Foundation School of Traditional Arts, Open Program, London. Looking at the traditional painting mediums found in nature and used over the past 4,000 years. In the second part of the day students made 15 sets of 12 different mineral and plant pigment. This workshop forms the foundation upon which creativity can grow in different directions, taking one deeper into a participatory and unified relationship with nature and oneself. @schooloftraditionalarts @education.christies @kingsfoundation

Day 3 of Alchemy of Colour workshop at The Kings Foundation School of Traditional Arts, Open program. Exploring historical plant and insect pigments used in painting; extracting dyes and precipitating them to create lake pigments. These dyes transform into coloured crystals, creating amongst the most beautiful colours in the history of art. Sadly, most of these are no longer available, having been replaced by cheap synthetic colours. However all of these colours are readily available in nature if one has the skills and knowledge of how to extract them. All art begins, not as packaged products in art shops but in nature, in the earth and landscape in which we live and breathe. @schooloftraditionalarts @kingsfoundation @education.christies

The Alchemy of Colour workshop at The Kings Foundation School of Traditional Arts, London. Day 2 of workshop. Grinding and extracting pure pigments from rocks of Malachite, Azurite, Chrysocolla and Cinnabar. These historic colours, used by master artists throughout the world from ancient times till the 18th century, are no longer available in art shops nor made available to art students. They have been superseded by cheaper synthetic colours which lack the subtle beauty of the earths natural pigments and colours. With the onset of factory production in the 18th century, knowledge of these unique pigments favoured by the old masters have disappeared. The re emergence of traditional craft practices in the 21st century is now beginning to awaken people to forgotten beauty of these extraordinary colours. @schooloftraditionalarts @christiesedu @kingsfoundation

Day 1 of the Alchemy of Colour workshop at The Kings Foundation School of Traditional Arts, Open Program, London. The traditional craft practices have nothing to do with a “how to do it” program which is so popular in the world today. Traditional craft practices, through their symbolic language and rituals, bring us to deeper levels of knowledge and experience revealed through the different stages of the work. Traditional craft practice act as a doorway to inner awakening through which one participates in the mystery of Creation. @schooloftraditionalarts @kingsfoundation

Cheese festival at Cowdray Park, West Sussex. Delicious cheese from around the uk made by small cottage industries; these cheeses go beyond anything you will find in the supermarket. I purchased 6 different varieties of cheese including cheddar, Stilton and Parmesan. Cheese is not only a delicious food for eating, historically it lies behind many great historical paintings. Cheese is of one of the world’s most beautiful and ancient paint mediums. Casein is a milk protein made from curd cheese, when mixed with lime it becomes one of the strongest and enduring paint mediums in the history of art. It is thought that some of the earliest cave paintings were made using milk protein. Paintings decorating the ancient tombs of Saudi Arabia, going back over 2,000 years, were made using milk protein. In 15th century Italy master painters such as Mantegna used milk casein to create masterful works. Milk symbolises the nourishment of the Great Mother, the creative nourishment sustaining all of life. Join my next Casein workshop at The Kings Foundation School of Traditional Arts, on 28th September to 2nd October. Not only will you learn how to make a delicious curd cheese, but with this cheese you will discover the beautiful qualities of casein paint as practiced throughout history. @schooloftraditionalarts @cowdrayestate