You know how to paint. But somewhere along the way the fire went quiet, and now you're staring at a blank canvas wondering where the version of you who painted with abandon actually went. This is four weeks of painting intuitively alongside me, in real time, as I build a collection from scratch. Work through it at your own pace, but in sequence, because each lesson leads naturally to the next. No prescribed outcomes, no copying my style. Just you, your instincts, and paint, finding out what happens when you follow the work wherever it wants to go.
Kristina T
In January 2022 I painted an entire collection live, in real time, with a group of artists watching and working alongside me. Every decision, every happy accident, every moment of doubt and breakthrough, all of it recorded. That became Ignite Your Art. You get to watch it unfold exactly as it happened, and make your own collection alongside me as you go.
We start before the paint comes out. Together, we explore how to find your inspiration, your colour palette, and your direction. Then we paint.. By the final week, as I finish and share my collection, you'll be doing the same with yours at your own pace.
Artists who come to Ignite arrive feeling stuck, disconnected from their work, wondering if the excitement they used to feel about painting is just gone. They leave with a completed collection, a renewed sense of what their art can be, and something harder to name but more important: the confidence to follow their instincts on the canvas without waiting for permission.
Lucy got new work into an exhibition by the end of February. Mel, who'd been painting for over 40 years, found herself painting with more focus, more intent and more confidence. Kristina explored brighter colours and new approaches to abstraction she'd never tried before.
That's what a few dedicated weeks of painting alongside another artist, experiencing exactly what you are, actually does.
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"It certainly did ignite my art, enabling me to get new work into an exhibition by the end of February that I otherwise just wouldn't have had."
- Lucy
"It turned out to be so much more than a 'learn how to paint' course. I'm painting with more focus, more intent and more confidence." - Mel
"There is something mesmerising and heartening about watching Gabriella paint. This course gave me the confidence to tackle issues in my paintings, to go in bravely and make drastic changes." - Antonia
"It came at a moment when I felt stuck and uncreative. It was such a joyful course and had me explore new approaches to abstraction." - Kristina
"The colour exercises were a particular favourite and are still inspiring my work after the course." - Angela
YES, if:
You've been painting for a while and you're ready to loosen up, get braver, and find out what happens when you stop trying to control the outcome. You're drawn to abstraction, intuitive painting, or landscape, or all three. You're comfortable with acrylics and you're a self-starter who'll show up for yourself even without someone chasing you. You love watching other artists work and find it genuinely motivating. And you're ready to come away with an actual collection of your own.
NOT FOR YOU, if:
You work in oils and have no interest in acrylics. You're a complete beginner with no painting experience yet. You're looking for a figurative or representational course. You need regular accountability check-ins to keep you moving, because this is self-paced and I won't be chasing you, though I am always available when you reach out. Or if sitting with 40 minutes to an hour of watching someone paint feels like too much.
Welcome Week - Finding Your Direction
Before we touch the paint we slow down and look inward. This week is about discovering what you actually want to make, exploring mark making, finding your colour palette, and using meditation and inspiration gathering to point you toward your own creative direction. It sets everything that follows up beautifully.
Week Two - Fire Up
We begin. Warm-up pieces on paper, experimenting with brushes, tools and surfaces, getting your hand and your instincts talking to each other again. I'm painting in real time, answering student questions as I go, making decisions, changing my mind, following the work. You do the same alongside me.
Week Three - Collection Building
This is where it gets really addictive. Each painting leads naturally to the next as your collection starts to take shape. You'll find yourself making bolder choices, trusting your eye, and surprising yourself with what's emerging.
Week Four - Clarity and Completion
As I finish and share my completed Sonder collection, you bring yours to a close too. This week is about editing, finishing, and standing back to see what you've actually made. It's usually the week people realise how far they've come.
Lifetime access. Work through it at your own pace, in your own time, and in sequence.
Lifetime access to around 30 videos of intuitive painting in real time. Work through it at your own pace, take as long as you need, and come away with a collection that's entirely, unmistakably yours.
I'm Gabriella, a painter based in North Norfolk. I've been painting for over 25 years as an illustrator and primarily as a fine artist from 2018 , with work shown at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and collected internationally.
Ignite Your Art wasn't built from a place of having arrived. I created it in 2022 when I was deep in the middle of working out my own practice, following my intuition and discovering what happened when I stopped trying to control where the work went. That process became the Sonder collection. This course reveals the heart of this process in real time.
I teach the way I paint. Honestly, generously, and definitely not pretending it's always easy.
I cover this in detail in lesson four of the welcome week, so you'll have a clear picture before we begin painting. I've also put together a guide to what I keep in my studio which you can browse here. The honest answer is you'll probably have most of it already. Start with what you have and see what you actually need as you go.
You can comment directly under each lesson as you go, and contact me personally via the chat box inside the course. There's also a small group you can join if you'd like to share your work and get feedback from me, and other participants. Due to time differences, I aim to reply within 24 hours, sometimes sooner. You'll find full details in the first lesson of the welcome week.
If you let me know within 5 days of signing up that this isn't right for you, I'll give you a full refund, no awkward questions. Beyond that I'm afraid I'm unable to offer refunds as the full course is immediately accessible from day one.
Not at all. You have to start somewhere and this is as real as it gets. I'm not perfect and neither will you be, but that's exactly the point. The more you paint this way the more confident and fluent you become. This course shows you what that process actually looks like from the inside.
If you work on this every day for four weeks you'll have a collection of abstract paintings, some you'll love more than others, which is always the way. But you can take it more gently, fitting it around your current commitments. Maybe you only want to make a collection of five to seven medium sized pieces over two months. You get to decide how much time you have and what you're aiming for. Keep showing up for yourself and you will achieve an abstract collection in the time you give yourself. Stop when you reach your goals.
Absolutely, I encourage it. Spend time in welcome week thinking about what actually interests you about painting abstractly. Is it pure colour relationships? Using still life as a springboard for composition? Colour and emotion with pure intuitive self expression? In welcome week you work out exactly what your subject is and then you go for it. The course works whatever direction you take it.
Somewhere in you there's a body of work that hasn't been made yet. A version of your painting that's looser, braver, more entirely yours than anything you've done before.
Ignite Your Art won't give you that. Only you can. But it will put you in the room where it happens, painting alongside an artist who's been exactly where you are, following exactly the same instincts, making exactly the same mistakes and discoveries, in real time, on camera, with nothing hidden.
Four weeks. One collection. Yours.