APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN
Tim Millen (Turps Correspondence Course 2020/21)
Applications are now open for the Turps Correspondence Course 2021/22
‘Imagine you are in a very, very remote place and post takes a couple of months to arrive. Or you are above the arctic circle! You send images to an esteemed colleague and await a response. The response comes months later. You are unable to ask questions of what you just read because it's a letter, no Internet, no phones. What then happens is that you slow right down, you listen to and digest every last drop of sense in that letter. You sniff it, you sleep with it under your pillow and you constantly re-read it until you suck every last ounce of anything useful from it. You then make work and any accompanying comments that are posted off with your next work upload will be very deeply thought about. That's it, period! Babbling, garbling impatient 'I must know now' hysteria has ruined people's ability to absorb and reflect. In doing this course you have enabled a slightly different process to take place. You learn from what you already know. The mentor is a guide. You do the work. It works! Read, reflect then make!’
Marcus Harvey, Director & Co-Founder of Turps
Turps Correspondence Course is an innovative programme of online mentoring facilitated through critical, supportive written reviews delivered by a dedicated mentor. The course is aimed at painters who want to develop or reinvigorate their work, whether recently graduated from art school, mid career or those without any formal arts education.
The course is designed and structured to be delivered entirely online so that painters, based anywhere in the world and at any stage in their career, can participate and receive informed, critical feedback from a mentor who is practising painter selected by Turps. There are 5 review points throughout the year when you will be required to upload images of your work and a short statement or ‘letter’ to your mentor. Your mentor will then review what has been uploaded and write their response. It is a very different type of feedback from more conventional face-to-face tutorials but we believe this is what makes the correspondence course such an appealing and sought after professional development course.
Since 2012, it has offered over 560 artists a fresh perspective on their work within the context of current painting discourse. Once enrolled, many painters continue on the programme for 2 or more years, developing close connections with both the mentoring team and their peer network through participant-led initiatives and social media connections.
Turps Correspondence Course painters have gone on to feature in New Contemporaries, John Moores Painting Prize and the Marmite Prize for Painting, and it has also enabled painters to successfully apply for and be accepted onto MA and MFA programmes across the world. Applicants must have a personal email address, access to the Internet and reasonable facilities to document work digitally. For more information, see our FAQ.
Participants will be expected to upload works, drawings, works in progress, sketchbook pages etc. for the duration of the course. It is important this is an ongoing process that best describes their output as this will allow the mentors to track developments and compile their observations at dedicated feedback points.
More information about the course can be found here: https://www.turpsbanana.com/cc-overview
FAQ: https://www.turpsbanana.com/cc-faq
Correspondence Course Fee: £1,750
Correspondence Course Application Deadline: 30th June 2021
Michele Silk (Turps Correspondence Course 2018-21)
HOW TO APPLY
To apply please complete the application form via the Turps website before the deadline: https://www.turpsbanana.com/cc-applications
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
Turps Art School does not award accredited educational qualifications but offers an opportunity for artists to further their understanding and exploration of painting and re-energize their work through dedicated critical response from practising artists.
Correspondence Course mentors currently include: Adam Hennessey, Andrea Medjesi-Jones, Anne Sassoon, Andrew Grassie, Ansel Krut, Barbara Nicholls, Benjamin Senior, Bernice Donszelmann, Chris Gilvan-Cartwright, Colin Smith, Covadonga Valdes, Damien Meade, Dan Hays, Dan Howard-Birt, Dave Leeson, Emma Biggs, Emma Talbot, Geraldine Swayne, Gig Depio, Hannah Murgatroyd, Henry Ward, Jake Clark, Jane Harris, Jeffrey Dennis, Jennifer Coates, Joanna Kirk, Joe Packer, John Bunker, John Greenwood, Juan Bolivar, Katie Pratt, Katrina Blannin, Kirsten Glass, Kyung Hwa Shon, Luci Eyers, Luke Dowd, Martin Westwood, Matt Lippiatt, Matthew Collings, Michael Szpakowski, Neal Tait, Phillip Allen, Phil King, Raksha Patel, Roisin Fogarty, Sam Windett, Sarah Pickstone, Scott McCracken, Simon Willems, Sofia Silva, Stuart Elliot, Tim Renshaw, Tom McGlynn, Virginia Verran
Angelina Davis (Turps Correspondence Course 2020/21)
‘I applied for the course to re-enter a creative and critical community, to begin a conversation that would assist me in articulating my practice and give me the confidence to discuss my work on my terms. I wanted to connect with a community of painters. My experience of the Turps Correspondence course so far is that it has felt inclusive and generous but full of rigour, intelligence and humour. It couldn’t be more different to my MA back in 1996 which felt like a long and unproductive battle to justify myself as a painter.... Coming onto the course I had no preconceptions. My first review was articulate, intelligent and startlingly accurate in its assessment of both what the work was attempting and where I might focus my attention. It was generous and unexpected, discussing my work at length and in terms that were entirely appropriate to the way that I had made it. I felt that I was being taken seriously, by someone who knew what they were talking about, who understood painting. It has given me a sense of momentum and the second review affirmed the choices that I have begun to make, whilst daring me to be braver and more direct. I hadn't realised how much I had missed the conversations that painting generates with other painters, I had been having those conversations with my own paintings for many years and needed to look up from what I was doing. It has been exactly what I needed. I nearly didn’t apply. I am now planning to continue onto a second year of the programme. ’
Angelina Davis (Turps Correspondence Course 2020/21)