Instagram story viewer> @francesahatch> Posts

Frances Hatch

@francesahatch

3.1K

followers

1312

following

Plein air painter - lives by the sea - studio on the Isle of Portland in Dorset - member of The Royal Watercolour Society

POSTS STORIES REELS

RWS WORKSHOP

YESTERDAY @rwsgallery @royalwatercoloursociety
Creating Coastal Landscapes: Colour, Texture & Natural Materials
gorgeous work🔆
3 primaries + gathered cliff materials from the Devon & Dorset coast.

🌊= allowing the alchemy resulting from the mixing of the two to weave its magic =🕸️

@rwsgallery @royalwatercoloursociety

congratulations everyone:
Martika, Sarah, Martha,
@rachelng_art @mako_sundayartist @anniemcgeoch Rachel, Annie, Francine @martika.mixed_media_art by @francesahatch

WORKSHOP: Creating Coastal Landscapes: Colour, Texture & Natural Materials
with @francesahatch RWS
Saturday 31st October 2026

Explore the colours, textures and natural materials of our coastal landscapes in this hands-on workshop with artist Frances Hatch.

You’ll start by working through a series of simple colour exercises, discovering the possibilities of the paints you have brought with you, selecting a limited palette for the day. Through colour mixing, you’ll explore how this limited palette can be used to create the subtle colours and tones found in the natural world.

You’ll then take your experiments further, using geological materials gathered from cliffs along the Dorset coast, including earths, chalks, clays and sands, to create pigments and textures that can be incorporated into your paintings.

Working from these colour and material prompts, you’ll develop a coastal landscape painting inspired not only by what you see, but by memories, associations and imagination. Rather than simply reproducing a view, you’ll discover how colour, texture and natural materials can conjure a sense of place.

Suitable for those with some experience of water-based media.

This workshop will take place at @rwsgallery on Whitcomb Street, just off Trafalgar Square.

🔗 More information and tickets are available through the link in our bio by @francesahatch

WORKSHOP: Creating Coastal Landscapes: Colour, Texture & Natural Materials with Frances Hatch

31 Oct @ 10:30 - 16:30 GMT
3-5 Whitcomb St.
London WC2H 7HA, UK

join me if you fancy a coastal adventure in London. We will use a few watercolour pigments and mix with earths and clays sourced along the beaches.
@royalwatercoloursociety by @francesahatch

COLLABORATION: ELISABETH BLETSOE:
I took Elisabeth's poem Votives to St. Wite 🌊* with me when I spent a few days working in Charmouth last week... familiar lines and words suggested themselves and insinuated them into my drawing... I'll bring the work with me when I come to the museum to speak with Elisabeth (who hasn't seen them yet) This is just one way that the Elisabeth's words embed themselves into my work... a richly reciprocal exchange over 20 years. Do book if interested. Link via @dorsetvisualarts
This is a collaboration between Dorset Visual Arts and Sherborne Museum @sherbornemuseum Its collection is packed with possibilities for artists. Elisabeth is the Curator and she'll be guiding us around. It's a free event... but don't forget to book because space is limited and so are the tickets.
@sherbornemuseum
🌊* published in 2010 for The Re-Enchantment, a national arts project exploring our relationships to place, 2010-11. by @francesahatch

Delighted to see my piece last night amongst such diverse interpretations of the theme. Thanks to Adrian Green and ALL the museum team @salisburymuseum - to @parkerharrisco and all the selectors for bringing the show together! A real feast: and it's now open to the public.

👏 factor in a visit to the museum while you are there👏

AND there's the Magna Carta over in the Cathedral... by @francesahatch

TWO GLOSSY BLACKS MEET along Charmouth beach
A pair of Ravens are never far away. Untended bags are opened- contents investigated and evaluated and tossed around.
The dog was uncommonly glossy but nothing like Raven's shaggy shine.
#pleinairpainting #raven #hangingaround #noticing #drawing by @francesahatch

CHARMOUTH warm October ... in progress by @francesahatch

Drawing in Charmouth today... #concertinasketchbook #clay #charcoal #watercolour #jurassiccoast

Revisiting Charmouth's rich palette... collecting materials for @royalwatercoloursociety workshop on 31st October in RWS Gallery just off Trafalgar Square. Link in bio to join in. Bookings live. by @francesahatch

TAKING THIS FRAGMENT BACK TO WHERE I FOUND IT
(I often paint on surfaces. I find on site- whether I work with this or not remains to be seen... but I'm pondering the possibilities)

I'm packing for 4 days in Charmouth (near Lyme Regis in Dorset)
Lots to think about... including decisions about material & supports: I'm taking with me this fragment found a few years ago on the beach.

which way up ?
develop?
(the back is quieter but still very beautiful)
leave it as it is?

It has already been partly digested by the sea.
with a history before that ...
maybe a few years in a boat?
certainly painted over and over again
shaped and laminated in a factory
made with more than one tree?
years of growing into a tree
a seed...somewhere

no blank canvas this🙃

#pleinairpainting #driftwood #jurassiccoast #siteresponsive #reciprocity by @francesahatch

RESTLESS EARTH (detail) was made on the cover of a wonderful tome called The Restless Earth by R. Gheyselinck. First published in 1939 by The scientific Book Club of 111, Charing Cross Road, London.

I found it in a charity shop and because it resonates utterly with my experience of the world, I literally wanted to paint on it and with it. Fragments of the pages are collaged into the paint inside other pieces. The scientific language of the time was poetic.
A slit in the back board means that the spine of the book will forever remain visible.

It's a special piece recording a remarkable evening: Freshwater Bay near West Bay. The green and red lights of the harbour flashing in the background. And the moon rose in the cusp of Burton cliffs. Just for that moment (brief relationship between the two is captured here) and lit the cumuli. this is the beginning of the Chayes Beach so the shingle is very small. Loads of that got stuck into the paint as well.🪸
part of:
🍄 THE RWS AUTUMN EXHIBITION 🍁The gallery is full of lovely things by @royalwatercoloursociety members. Open 11-6 every day. Next door to Tate Modern. Do pop in🕸️
@banksidegallery
Ive also delivered new unframed work for the browsers🌱

If you can't make it to London, you can see everything online via link in bio
🍂swipe to see the book cover and the place🍂

the final slide is new purple wintery sprouts of Sea Kale Crambe Maritima ... by @francesahatch

WORKSHOP: Creating Coastal Landscapes: Colour, Texture & Natural Materials
with @francesahatch RWS
Saturday 31st October

A day of experimentation, colour and creative exploration.

Through colour-mixing exercises, you’ll experiment with watercolour alongside pigments made from earths, chalks, clays and sands gathered from the coast. You’ll develop a coastal landscape painting inspired by place, memory and imagination.

This workshop will take place at @rwsgallery on Whitcomb Street, just off Trafalgar Square.

~ More information and tickets are available through the link in our bio. Limited availability ~ by @francesahatch

🌊See link in bio to read via Substack or Mailchimp (whichever you prefer)
🌱Subscribe if you'd like to receive the next Studio News... I write a few times a year.
☀️I reflect on an aspect of practice and let you know what's coming up🌊🌱☀️ by @francesahatch