Art and Colour - all 5 days in-venue in Winchester (save £10 by booking all 5 days together)

Please select this event if you would like to book all 5 days of the 2026 Jean Bolton Memorial Study course presented by The Arts Society Hampshire and Isle of Wight Area in-venue in Winchester.

The course is entitled Colour in Art and is as follows:

Colour has a profound impact on our perceptions, attention, experiences and emotions making it a powerful element in life and in the arts. This series of lectures seeks to explore the role and impact of colour in different periods of history and geographical locations as well as identifying the sources, composition and development of artistic materials. We will also explore the symbolism, meaning and spiritual significance of colour. Examples will demonstrate the power of colour to attract and focus attention, express and impact emotion, intensify experience, and communicate non-verbally. The series will also explore the varying status and importance of colour verses drawing and line and variations including: vibrant v. muted, oil pigments v. egg tempera, watercolour and fresco and the development of materials over the historical periods. In some sessions attention will also be given to the particular role of Venice as a supplier of pigments and source of important developments. Links between the concept of colour in visual, musical and auditory art forms will be made in some sessions. The 5 study days will cover the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods in Western European Art together with the Nineteenth century in Western and Eastern European Art.

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Thursday 29th October 2026

Dr Sally Dormer – Art and Colour in the Middle Ages

“Nothing like it could be seen in England either for the light of its glass windows, the gleaming of its marble pavements, or the many-coloured paintings which led the eyes to the panelled ceiling above”. William of Malmesbury’s description of Prior Conrad’s mid-12^th-century Canterbury Cathedral choir confirms the medieval taste for interiors saturated with colour. To evoke the multi-coloured, jewel-studded, splendours of Heaven, as described in the Bible, the walls, ceilings and vaults of churches were sheathed in colourful paint or mosaic, sculpture was painted in a palette of bright hues, and windows filled with coloured glass. High-status secular interiors, furnished with vibrant textiles, also sang with colour, and high-status ecclesiastics and laypeople alike revelled in wearing flamboyant, vivid, garments. Medieval audiences would be disappointed and dismayed by the restrained minimalism of contemporary upmarket interiors and designer outfits!

This study day will consider colour in medieval art from three perspectives, materials, symbolism, and an obsession with blue. Medieval technical treatises detail the breadth of materials used to embellish walls, panels, pages, fabric and leather: minerals like malachite; organic matter extracted from plants, insects and molluscs; and substances as diverse as lead and urine from which pigments were manufactured. Modern technology enables precise identification of these colorants and pinpoints their origins. Colour certainly pleased the medieval eye, but it also conveyed symbolic spiritual and temporal messages: purple signalled imperial or royal power, red was associated with Church feasts of martyr saints; and white embodied purity. Blue was the most revered and celebrated of all, regarded as symbolising the heavenly. Christ’s robes, and those of his mother, the Virgin Mary, were typically coloured blue, and various blues dominated church interiors. Expensive sky-blue sapphires sourced from Sri Lanka and deep purple-blue lapis lazuli imported from Afghanistan were enjoyed by those with deep pockets, while cheaper grey/green blues made from indigo, copper, or cobalt-oxide, were employed by those of more modest means.

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Friday 6th November 2026

Dr Paula Nuttall - Renaissance Colour: Innovation, Theory and Practice

What distinguishes Renaissance colour from that of the Middle Ages? Although pigments were mostly the same as in the earlier period, the expectations of painting, and its colouristic potential, changed significantly between 1400 and 1600. Responding to the new emphasis on the ‘imitation of nature’ i.e. the lifelike representation of light, form and space, artists such as Van Eyck and Piero della Francesca explored new ways of employing and applying colour, aided by technical developments, notably oil painting. Concomitantly, the evolution of art theory prompted new approaches to colour, beginning with Alberti in 1430s Florence, through to Leonardo’s almost colourless tonal unity (sfumato) and its polar opposite, the ‘unnatural’ colour of Mannerist painters such as Pontormo; and the highly consequential sixteenth-century Italian debate on the merits of ‘colour’ versus ‘drawing’, exemplified by the paintings of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian.

We shall also consider Renaissance colour in a wider context, including the relationship between pigments and trade, and Venice’s special status as a hub. How did people experience colour in the everyday, for instance in churches, in a period that saw a shift from lavish late Gothic polychromy to colouristic restraint? How was colour used to make social distinctions through dress? How did painters use colour in composition? How do pigments react and change over time, affecting how we see Renaissance paintings today?

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Friday 13th November 2026

Dr Kathy McLauchlan - Innovations in Colour: European Painting and Sculpture, 1800-1900

Session 1. Colour versus Line

Art academies traditionally saw art in hierarchical terms – according to subject-matter, function, materials and method. In theory at least, colour was deemed to be ‘inferior’ to line – its sensuality and materiality set against the intellectual rigour of line. In French academic teaching of the 19^th century, drawing still took priority over painting. It was, as Ingres put, “the probity of art… the expression, the inner form, the composition, the modelling.” Line gave a composition its structural clarity and moral truth. Colour came a poor second, and at its worst might be a distraction. Ingres, together with other leading academicians, saw their traditional values as under threat from an alternative approach to art, one that emphasised spontaneity, expression and experience over abstract ideals. Delacroix in particular rejected precision in contours and finish, but used vibrant, contrasting colours and a richly textured surface to communicate effects and feelings, and create “a bridge between the soul of the artist and that of the spectator.” The line/colour debate associated with Ingres and Delacroix grew into one of the recurring themes of 19^th-century French art.

Session 2. The Colour of Sculpture

Archaeologists and historians of the 18^th century were increasingly aware that classical sculptors made use of colour. Their claims cut against an ideal of pure, harmonious form traditionally associated with the white marbles of antiquity. But the evidence was clear, and growing numbers of modern sculptors responded by carrying out their own experiments with colour. Canova sought to impart a more lifelike appearance to his work by applying wax finishes and touches of pink and gold. Later artists were less subtle, determined to regenerate their art and free themselves from traditional associations between sculpture and whiteness – “white poems of marble…the despair of modern art.” (Gautier, 1855) Late 19^th century sculptures might combine a wide range of material: semi-precious stones, applied pigments, enamels, ivory, bronze and marbles. Degas’s Little Dancer of 1881can be linked with this movement. Other sculptors were less interested in naturalism than in symbolic meaning. Some of their work - notably that of German artist Max Klinger – has an extraordinary and disturbing power.

Session 3. Symphonies in Colour

In the late nineteenth century, many western artists turned away from using colour to represent the appearances of objects and motifs in nature. Instead, they saw colour as means towards visual harmony in art. Aesthetic values took precedence over realism, with critics and artists alike drawing analogies between colour relationships on a painted surface and musical composition, rhythm and melody. This idea dominated the work of artists associated with Aestheticism, above all the American painter James McNeill Whistler who gave musical titles to many of his works: notably Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl and Nocturne in Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge. Such works called on their viewers to concentrate on the subtle arrangement and gradation of colour over all other considerations. For Whistler, the subject as such was extraneous to a painting’s true purpose – its value as a beautiful object, and its potential to express the subtlest nuances of atmosphere and mood.

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Friday 20th November 2026

Clare Ford-Wille – From Caravaggio to Caspar David Friedrich: Colour in Art in the 17^th and 18^thCenturies

Colour has a vital part to play in our understanding and enjoyment of painting and sculpture. The study day will explore how colours were made and used by artists and sculptors from 17^th to the late 18^th centuries and the sheer variety of colour is outstanding from the rich ranges of browns, yellows and reds in the work of Rembrandt to the solid blocks of colour seen against a very dark background in the work of Caravaggio. Colour is vital in the understanding of a composition, the subject and meaning of a painting or sculpture, whether used in fresco, tempera, oil, pastel, or watercolour. The placing of distinct colours throughout the composition can direct the eye and intensify the impact upon the spectator. Colours, such as red and green or blue and yellow, can be symbolic or can identify figures such as Mary Magdalene or St. Peter, in order to clarify a religious narrative for the viewer. Careful placing of subtle and varying colours in brushstrokes which, when seen from the correct distance, can appear as gold tassels, silver embroidery or facial expression in the work of Frans Hals, Velazquez, Rubens or Rembrandt. How were colours and their application used to create these effects?

During the 17^th century colour was used to powerful effect even in sculpture, such as that of Bernini, as not only could his cutting of the marble produce dramatic light and shade, but his use of fresco combined with stucco, coloured marbles and gilded wood produced unforgettable colour, for example in the Ecstasy of Santa Teresa, as well as the riot of colour in the ceiling frescoes of 17^th century Rome by his contemporaries. Rubens was a master of colour in all his work, but particularly in his remarkable oil sketches, where just enough colour was provided to show his intentions, so that the sketches could be created in finished works by his assistants.

Dutch artists used colour to create a reality of northern daylight in the realism of Dutch landscape as in the work of Hobbema or the cloud effects in the work of Jacob van Ruisdael. Nowhere is this better seen too than in the work of Vermeer. Still life can be a wonderful miraculous vehicle in the use of colour whether in the work of Jan Brueghel the Elder, Chardin or the ebullient flower pieces of de Heem.

By the 18th century, with the advancement in chemistry, botany and minerology, new colours began to be discovered, such as Prussian Blue or Mauve. Pastels which could be made in a huge range began to be used to wonderful effects in the work of Chardin and Liotard. Colour was transformed in the light sunny tones in the decorative paintings of Boucher or Fragonard. Interior decoration was similarly transformed in the frescoes of Tiepolo and his son.

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Thursday 26th November 2026

Dr Rosamund Bartlett - From the Red Corner to the Green Stripe: The Colours of Ukrainian and Russian Art

Overview:

This day of lectures will explore the kaleidoscope of colours in Ukrainian and Russian painting, music and applied arts. There will be a particular focus on Modernist experimentation, on Kandinsky's investigation of colour and form in The Blue Rider, for example, Sonia Delaunay's evolving use of colour as rhythm and structure, and Malevich's "New Painterly Realism of Colour". We will also discuss the sacred significance of red in icons, Moscow's polychrome majolica, Scriabin's synaesthesia, and the fusing of invention with traditional decorative motifs which inspired the bright palette in Maria Prymachenko's paintings.

1. Red Squares, Red Icons and Moscow Majolica

An investigation of the significance and use of red, including discussion of how Red Square and the "red corner" acquired their names, the predominance of red in Novgorod and Moscow icons, and the distinct tradition of Ukrainian "red icons". We will also look at the 17th century craze in Russia for polychrome majolica tiles, which soon covered entire walls of monasteries and churches, including St. Basil's, and how that tradition was revived in the early 20th century by Savva Mamontov, who used irridescent Art Nouveau architectural ceramics to transform the facade of the new Metropole Hotel.

2. Kandinsky and The Blue Rider

Kandinsky went to study art in Munich at the age of thirty, after training as a lawyer and undertaking an ethnographic expedition to a remote part of northern Russia. By 1910 he had graduated from Art Nouveau to Expressionism and was creating innovative theatrical works combining colour, sound, language and movement. This lecture explores the path-breaking work of the international avant-garde group "The Blue Rider" he founded with Franz Marc in 1911. Joined by leading modernists such as Paul Klee, August Macke and Gabriele Münter, the group sought through experiments with colour and form to explore spiritual questions relating to all the arts.

3. Colour in the Ukrainian and Russian Avant-Garde

With reference to native traditions exemplified by the folk painters Hanna Sobachko-Shostak and Maria Prymachenko, and tracing a line from the early to the late 20th century, we will first seek to identify a "Ukrainian palette" in Sonia Delaunay's use of colour as rhythm and structure, Alexandra Exter's abstract colour experiments, and Oleksandr Bohomazov's vibrant canvases. We will then turn to the Russian avant-garde to explore Scriabin's synaesthetic associations of colour with music, Malevich's "New Painterly Realism of Colour", Olga Rozanova's abstract "colour-paintings" and the radical theory of "expanded vision" developed by the painter and composer Mikhail Matyushkin, beginning with his involvement with the 1913 Futurist opera Victory over the Sun and culminating in his 1932 Colour Manual.

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Fees

Tickets are £165 per person for the whole course of 5 days in-venue in Winchester.  Tickets to individual days cost £35, but by purchasing the 5-day bundle you receive a £10 discount overall.  Each day includes 3 superb lectures plus morning coffee/tea and a light lunch with wine/soft drinks. The venue is quite small so tickets are limited. 

Recordings of each day will also be available for 7 days after each event.

The days will run from 10.30am - 3.30pm.

The course is open to anyone - you do not have to be a member of The Arts Society to attend. Feel free to pass the details of any of our events on to others you think may be interested.

All proceeds from this event go to support art projects in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Area,

For more details of our events please go to https://theartssocietyhantsiowarea.org.uk/Special/Special.aspx

Once you have purchased your ticket you will receive confirmation by return.  The organiser will send a reminder with further relevant information on the Monday before each event.