Watercolour Workshop with award winning artist Mark Entwisle

This workshop day forms part of our programme for Devon Open Studios 2026.

Our exhibition features a wonderful selection of oil and watercolour paintings by Mark, many inspired by locations at Ashley Court. This workshop offers a unique opportunity to paint in the very setting that inspired these works, alongside the artist himself, and to learn directly from him about the methods and materials he uses to create them.

Following an introduction, Mark will give an artist demonstration, covering colour mixing, skin tones, complementary colours and paint application. The focus will be on observation, gesture and presence rather than perfection. He will then offer one-to-one guidance and advice as participants develop their own paintings throughout the day.

10.00am to 4.00pm
£100 per person

Morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea are included.

About the Tutor

Mark Entwisle was born in 1961 in Jordan, where his father was stationed as an RAF pilot. At the age of seven, he moved to England.

Mark studied printmaking at Cambridge College of Art and Technology before completing a degree in Illustration at Brighton. He then worked as an illustrator for 15 years, with clients including Penguin, Random House and the National Theatre. During this time, he also began exhibiting his work, holding his first exhibition at Beaux Arts Bath in 1990.

Mark has received numerous prestigious awards and exhibits regularly, including selections for the BP Portrait Award, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The Discerning Eye, and the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize. He also teaches part-time at the National Portrait Gallery.

Widely regarded as one of London’s leading watercolour artists, Mark has extensive experience teaching students of all ages and abilities.

“Mark looks long and hard and with great clarity at his subjects but manages somehow to suggest the immediacy of a glance. Scattered objects carry weight, not symbolic but emotional, so that what seems incidental becomes telling. Then there’s the light. He’s interested in it, not just as a vital source, but as an additional character, which again makes his paintings so present. He captures the fleeting moment the light hits the glass or face and makes it vivid and integral; alive.”-Tamsin Oglesby

Selected Awards and Exhibitions

• NatWest Art Prize, Shortlisted (1987)
• Hunting Art Prize (1998), Winner (2000), Exhibitor (2003)
• The Discerning Eye (1998, 1999, 2001)
• Founders Prize (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2020)
• Mentors Prize (2019)
• Laing Art Prize (1999)
• Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2001, 2003, 2006, 2020)
• BP Portrait Award (2000, 2001; Commended 2002)
• Threadneedle Art Prize (2010)
• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize (2013)
• Sunday Times Watercolour Competition (2016, 2019; First Prize 2020)
• Wells Art Contemporary (2018)
• Royal Society of Portrait Painters (2020)