Archive of 2016 | LeisureCourses.net - short courses & residential study breaks in great locations - Part 12
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Creative Writing Workshop: “The Child is Father to the Man…” (Wordsworth)
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesWhat are the most important influences which make us the adults we are today? Nature, nurture or our education in the widest sense? During this day we will explore the many areas of education we had as children: the teachers who inspired us with a love of learning and conversely those who sadly made us...
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Music & Revolution
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesDuring this weekend we shall explore the work of four great composers whose careers, and the very different paths they took, illustrate clearly the impact of the huge changes that came about in Russia in the early twentieth century. They are: Serge Rachmaninov, who fled his homeland just before the Revolution in 1917; Igor Stravinsky,...
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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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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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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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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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Stumpwork Pansies & Violas
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesInspiration for this course comes from the beautiful costumes and books of Elizabeth I, where the emblem of the pansy and viola was widely used. Raised work techniques work extremely well for these lovely flowers, which come in a wealth of colour combinations. Try something new and learn how you can incorporate real flowers in...
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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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Verdi and the Force of Density
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesThe hammer blows of cruel fate drive the plot of this dramatic tale, one of Verdi’s longest, richest and most incident-packed operas. We explore the tragedy befalling Leonora and the men in her life - her lover Alvaro, and her vengeance-obsessed brother, Carlo. But mostly we focus on Verdi’s superb score with its plethora of...
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Meeting Me on The Cloud
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in Featured CoursesDo you feel that you would like to keep up with family events and share your news online but are daunted by just how to start using social media, and nervous of who’s out there? Keep up to date with friends and family, news, research, reviews and more; social media is more than just a...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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 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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Classical Guitar Summer Festival – Serenade – Frontiers Trio
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in MusicMark Ashford (Guitar), David Le Page (violin) & Nick Stringfellow (Cello). Programme includes works by Vivaldi, Paganini, Piazzolla & Albeinz.
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Classical Guitar Summer Festival – Prague Guitar Quartet
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in MusicMarek Veleminsky, Vaclav Kucera, Matej Fremi & Patrick Vacik. Programme includes works by Britten, Prokofiev & Stepan Rak.
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Classical Guitar Summer Festival – From Serbia with Love – Branco Stoysin
Listed on February 18, 2016 by Dillington in MusicWith special guest Peter Reuffer (Guitar), Programme features Branco's lyrical guitar compositions and Folk music from Serbia.
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