Featured Courses | LeisureCourses.net - short courses & residential study breaks in great locations - Part 20
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Botanical Illustration
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesBotanical Illustration is precise detailed work, a combination of art and science. This studio based watercolour course is for all ability levels; no experience of art or botany is required, just commitment. We aim to enjoy working in an atmosphere of relaxed industry. Students will work at their own pace on the subject of their...
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Nordic Noir & Nordic Film
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesScandinavia has been a great recent international hit in terms of both its influential films and its crime literature. We will look at such successful films as Together (Sweden), Trollhunter (Norway), and Oscar winners Babette’s Feast (Denmark) and The Man without a Past (Finland). Our dip into literature will include Stieg Larsson (Girl with a...
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Finland & Iceland: Art, History & Culture
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesWe will discuss Finland’s battles with Russia, and the Kalevala, a 19th-century epic poem of myth and legend. Sibelius will supply haunting music and there is striking art from Albert Edelfelt, Gallen-Kallela and Hugo Simberg. In Iceland we will look at the world’s oldest parliament, its volcanoes and geysers, the music of Sigur Ros and...
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Denmark: Art, History & Culture
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesWe look at Denmark’s proud history, and the way that its empire shrank over the centuries, including its naval battles with Britain. Art will include Denmark’s ‘Golden Age’ from the early 19th century, and the paintings of two great women artists, Bertha Wegmann and Anna Ancher, as well as the brilliant P. S. Krøyer. Music...
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Beautiful Brick & Sublime Stone: How Building Materials Have Shaped Britain’s Architecture
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesThe rich variety of building materials is one of the most striking things about British architecture. Look around you in any town and you’ll see stone church spires, red brick houses, shop fronts decorated with tiles, perhaps an older timber-framed house, an Edwardian theatre with an ornate plastered facade, or a market hall with a...
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Sweden: Art, History & Culture
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesWe examine Sweden’s place in the history of Scandinavia, involving unions with Finland and Norway, and battles with Denmark and Russia. Art will feature many fine landscapes and the portraits and nudes of Anders Zorn. More recent Sweden will include the Moomins and the Ikea phenomenon, and music will feature Swedish Rhapsody by Hugo Alfvén...
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A Nordic Adventure – The Art, History & Culture of Scandinavia
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesFive day courses, all complete in themselves, but amounting to a week exploring the broader group of countries collectively known as the Nordic Nations: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. Each day we will examine the art, history and culture of each of these countries and on we will delve into Nordic Noir and Nordic...
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The Joy of Spanish
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesThis is a week for people who love Spanish and Spain, who know enough Spanish to have a conversation and find the prospect of five days speaking, listening and learning Spanish irresistible. The focus of the course will be intense language sessions during which participants will be encouraged to speak and discuss; items from the...
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Collage Workshop: Paper Into Art
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesCollage is a quick, versatile and easy way of creating and developing visual ideas. The work can stand for itself or become a springboard for a more sustained and ambitious piece of work. In this workshop you will be introduced to a variety of techniques and approaches before being let loose on your own individual...
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Antiques Repair Workshop
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesThis practical and enjoyable five day course will give you an opportunity to participate and learn from an expert ‘everything you ever wanted to know about furniture but were afraid to ask’. You will spend each day in the tutor’s own workshop in Wellington where specific problems will be overcome and techniques demonstrated. In addition,...
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Hidden Landscapes, Hidden Treasures of the West Country
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesOff the beaten track and boasting stunningly beautiful landscapes, each of the areas to be visited during the week possess a unique set of characteristics and a wealth of evidence of human occupation over the last five thousand years. Each day you will visit, hear and see about events, places, buildings, monuments, people, the geology...
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Norway: Art, History & Culture
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesWe look at the history of Norway from the days of the Vikings onwards, including its fight for independence and the ‘Heroes of Telemark’ in WW2. Inspirational pictures of the mountains and fjords will be supplemented by art that reflected Norway’s growing Nationalism in the nineteenth-century, not forgetting Edvard Munch. We will also look at...
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Dillington Summer School Week Two
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesWeek Two offers a programme of full week courses but there is an opportunity to take time out from these and join a day with Dr Jan D. Cox on his Nordic Adventure or Chris Pollard on Spanish Cinema on Wednesday (subject to availability).
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Spanish Cinema: The 1980s
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesThe 1980s were a fascinating decade for Spain. Franco was dead, the repressive regime had been dismantled and for the first time in its history, Spain breathed a climate of artistic freedom. In the cinema, the 80s were a decade of dramatic change. The 'New Cinema' was led by the iconoclastic Pedro Almodovar and for...
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The Music of Spain
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesAlthough it is true that Spain did not contribute much to the classical or symphonic tradition of European music there are nevertheless great riches to discover. Its choral polyphony is arguably the greatest ever written and the music of Granados, Albeniz and Manuel de Falla presents a whole new sound world that is Spain in...
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The Art of Joaquin Sorolla – Spain’s Greatest Impressionist
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesJoaquin Sorolla is the least known great painter in Europe. In part this is because his style was eclipsed by the modern art of Picasso, Miro and Dali and few of his pictures ever made it into the national collections of northern Europe. Indeed, it has been claimed that there isn’t a single Sorolla painting...
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The War of the Roses
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesGreat buildings, growing prosperity, and a nasty taste for violence – that’s the paradox of fifteenth century England. Lost confidence in King Henry VI, and an ill-advised challenge from his cousin Richard of York, then terrible consequences including the deaths of both men. We will take a fresh view of the conflict, from its inception...
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The Genius of Handel
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesThere is a lot more to Handel than his justly celebrated oratorio Messiah or The Water Music. This short course will examine his life, time and achievement. Lavishly illustrated with images, music and anecdotes, we will explore the whole range of his output and demonstrate his complete mastery and genius. Importantly, we will see that...
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The Fiestas of Spain
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesTo many Spain is synonymous with fiestas and no one celebrates better than the Spanish! Through music, video and images we look at some of the great religious, historic and culinary fiestas that define this diverse and utterly captivating country. To understand the fiestas is to understand the people.
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Gustav Holst – The Man & His Music
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesDespite the huge success of ‘The Planets’, Gustav Holst has always been hard to pin down. His fascinating life story is full of abrupt changes of direction, multiple influences and a vast breadth of inspiration. English folk music, oriental mysticism, the doctrines of William Morris – it’s all there, expressed in terms of glittering orchestration,...
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The Life & Art of Vincent Van Gogh
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesVincent's short life and artistic achievement is remarkable by any measure. Largely self-taught, we know that his individual vision of the world was born from his intense humanity and a passionate belief that painting could make a difference. In this course we will look deeply and critically at his extraordinary life, his work and legacy...
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The Rise & Fall of Facism in Spain & Portugal
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesThe illegal uprising by the army against the elected governments and the bloody civil war that followed was a prelude to World War II. Remarkably, when racism was defeated elsewhere, the right-wing dictatorships endured in Spain and Portugal. With Europe developing new economies and institutions it was inevitable that the end would come. When it...
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Cervantes & Don Quixote
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured Courses2016 is the quatercentenary of the death of Spain’s greatest writer. It is remarkable that Cervantes’ literary creation has endured across the centuries and throughout the world. We will explore the author’s life and times and examine the various themes of the novel. We will also consider the representation of the story in music and...
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Viva España
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesA mini festival of individual subjects celebrating the vibrancy of Spanish history and culture. All complete in themselves but amounting to a week discussing and revelling in all things Spanish. Topics during the week range from art, music, literature, politics and history. Further detail for each day is shown under the Day Courses section.
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Be A More Confident Painter
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesThis five day course is designed to challenge painters with some experience. The emphasis will be on watercolour, especially for preliminary work but finished studio pieces could be in any medium. Take time in the glorious surroundings of Dillington, to unwind and take a critical look at your own work. Be honest, are you stuck...
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Private Houses & Gardens of Devon, Somerset & Dorset
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesDespite the large number of Houses and Gardens, which open their doors to the public (over 1500 in the UK), there are over twice this number, which are rarely, if ever, open to the general public. As with last year’s programme, which was dedicated solely to the private houses and gardens of Devon, this year...
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The Music of Tudor England
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesThink of the Tudors and one thinks of the Reformation, that devastating upheaval. For musicians it proved hard to cope, as the rapturous elaborations of earlier times had to give way to simple purity. But Secular music also evolved, and became more personal and revealing. John Taverner and Thomas Tallis will take centre stage in...
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The Georgians – Their Art, Architecture & Entertainment
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesEverybody knows something about the Georgians but not everyone knows how foundational the period remains to our own time and culture. The Hanoverian succession was not easy although once established it created an enduring dynasty. This two-day course will explore the architecture, the society, briefly the politics, the art, literature and the music. We will...
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Dillington Summer School Week One
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesWeek One offers you a selection of courses from which to create your own special holiday with a difference. Choose to spend the week out and about with Mike Hope, take part in one of the longer courses or put together a programme of shorter courses or self-contained days.
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The Twenty Second Dillington – Classical Guitar Summer School
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesThis popular event, which celebrates its 22nd anniversary, offers classical guitarists a unique opportunity to participate in a varied programme of music making, with plenty of time to develop playing and music reading skills. In an atmosphere of mutual support, your confidence will grow whilst performing in ensembles both large and small. Highlights for 2016...
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