Kate Boucher
5th - 7th May
£415
Dark Matter (The Open Studio Edition): an exploration of charcoal through landscapes dear to you.
Suitable for all levels. This three-day workshop is a reimagining of Kate’s long-running Dark Matter course — keeping its bones but flexing its muscles. It’s designed for students who want to explore charcoal drawing in a way that’s personal, responsive, and quietly radical.
We begin with a short warm-up on the first morning: a chance to get reacquainted with the materials, test out different types of charcoal, and loosen up with simple mark-making. This is the foundation of Kate’s own studio practice — a way to reset the eye and hand, whether you’re new to charcoal or returning after time away.
From there, the course opens out. You’ll work from your own photographs — landscapes that matter to you — and use them as a starting point for drawing. Kate will guide you through techniques for building expressive marks, layering tone and texture and developing a visual language that’s entirely your own.
There will be demonstrations, shared exercises, and short bursts of structured activity (like rotating between three drawings in timed intervals to refresh your perspective). But the heart of the course is in the one-to-one support: each student follows their own path, with Kate offering insight, challenge, and encouragement along the way.
This is not a course about drawing just any landscape. It’s about drawing landscapes you care about and learning how charcoal can help you say it.
Lunches and refreshments included. Days run from 10am to 4pm (ish)
About Kate
Kate Boucher is an artist whose work explores landscape and memory through charcoal. She studied at Chelsea School of Art and completed an MFA at West Dean College. She is a QEST Scholar and the author of two books: Drawing with Charcoal (2021) and Making Charcoal: A Practical Guide for Artists (2024), both published by The Crowood Press.
Kate’s charcoal drawings often map and re-map landscapes familiar to her, in a thoughtful dialogue between the charcoal, the act of drawing, and her memories.
As a tutor, she is known for her instinctive, student-centred approach, specialising in inclusive, responsive workshops that support neurodivergent learners and celebrate individual strengths.
Reviewers have described Drawing with Charcoal as “a stunning book… showing how to create a drawing using charcoal’s subtle, complex and bold qualities to best effect” and “clear, generous, and quietly inspiring,” praising its nuanced approach to an often-underestimated medium.
Kate currently lives and works in North Wales.
kateboucher.com
Instagram @misskateboucher
