Name: The Couldrey Painting and Poetry Course, led by Artist-Teacher Helen Edwards
Start: 2026-02-20T10:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-02-20T12:00:00+00:00
Location: Abingdon County Hall Museum

The Couldrey Painting and Poetry Course, led by Artist-Teacher Helen Edwards

This six-week course inspired by Oswald Couldrey – arguably Abingdon’s most famous artist and poet of the 20th century – offers a journey through drawing, poetry, photography and contemporary painting techniques.
Running every Friday from 20 February to 27 March, 10am to 12pm in the Museum Kempster Room, there are 10 places available for this course.
Booking is essential, a place costs £180 which includes materials.
Contact the Museum reception to book and make payment – 01235 523703
or email [email protected].
Initially, Helen will guide you through Couldrey’s exhibition which is on display at Abingdon Museum for the first three months of 2026. Together you will then go on to further study and critique his paintings and poems in a session of discussion and discovery. Equipped with a new-found knowledge of Couldrey’s style and his creative techniques it will then be your turn to take to the streets of Abingdon. In an homage to the artist – who influences Helen’s own colour palette and style of composition – you will study the historic town’s architecture and meandering streets, and begin the process of creating your own responses. Using his poems to help your aesthetic response, you will photograph, draw and paint the contemporary town through a Couldrey-style lens.
This will help to develop your understanding of perspective through drawing, your composition skills and how colour pallets influence the artist. You will then be working with contemporary painting techniques that will further enhance your skills and build on the range and style of media you use in your art.
The course will culminate in writing your own poems inspired by your artwork and the town of Abingdon.
*Good cameras are not necessary, a phone camera will be fine.
Helen J S Edwards studied BA Fine Art and later completed an MA in Artist-Teacher Practice at Oxford Brookes University.