Led by Julia Blaker, Mixed-Media Artist with heritage and cultural context from Asterion & Co.
Every house carries a quiet accumulation of stories — moments lived, routines repeated, seasons witnessed, lives unfolding behind familiar walls. This one-day masterclass invites you to explore your own home not as a literal subject, but as a vessel of memory, feeling and belonging.
Inspired by Julia Blaker’s evocative painting Ghosts of Winters Past, this course encourages you to move beyond representation and into interpretation, using collage, acrylic paint and mark-making to create a layered portrait that reflects how your house feels, rather than how it simply looks.
Spend Tuesday 17th March 2026 creating in our reimagined 16th-century Somerset farmhouse, where tradition and creativity meet, with a seated three-course lunch included.
During this one-day mixed-media workshop, you’ll create a finished A3 artwork on canvas, working from a photograph of your own home that you submit in advance. From this single image, we prepare a personalised image pack for you — printed at A3 — offering multiple visual interpretations of the same house. This gives you rich creative options to cut, layer, reference and respond to as you work.
By the end of the day, you’ll have completed and signed a mixed-media artwork that holds your own relationship with place.
Working alongside Julia, a Somerset-based artist known for her bold, folk-influenced compositions and layered use of paint and collage, you’ll be introduced to her creative process and approach to visual storytelling. Julia will demonstrate how she builds structure, mood and energy through layering, mark-making and colour, supporting you individually as your own piece takes shape.
Asterion & Co. will open the day with a short contextual talk exploring the tradition of house portraiture — from painted symbols of land, identity and status, through the arrival of domestic photography. You’ll also be gently encouraged into a playful, intuitive mindset, letting go of precision and perfection before the making begins.
At the close of the creative session, there will be a framing discussion to help you choose how best to present your finished piece. Your canvas will be mounted within a mount and frame all included in the package.
This workshop on Tuesday 17th March 2026 includes:
A short heritage-inspired learning session on house portraiture, memory and photography
Hands-on guidance in mixed-media collage and painting with Julia Blaker
Your personalised A3 image pack, created from one photograph of your home
All materials, including A3 canvas and professional training
Refreshments throughout the day
All abilities are warmly welcome. Whether you’re new to creative work or experienced, you’ll have a thoughtful and immersive day of making, this course offers a balance of learning, craftsmanship and quiet reflection.
Workshop Details
Date: Tuesday 17th March 2026
Time: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Location: The Old Vicarage, Leigh-on-Mendip, Somerset
Pricing: £245 for one person, 10% discount applied for two or more guests booking together (discount applied at checkout)
Includes: All materials, tuition, refreshments, a seated lunch, personalised A3 pack, an A3 canvas signed by you, and professional framing.
Spaces are limited to eight guests to ensure a calm, spacious and well-supported studio environment.
About Julia Blaker
Julia Blaker is a Somerset-based artist whose work explores domestic forms, memory and atmosphere through bold colour, simplified shapes and layered surfaces. Working across painting and collage, her practice draws on folk art traditions and the natural built world to create pieces that feel both familiar and quietly uncanny.
Read more about Julia in The Asterion Journal.
Your Hosts at Asterion & Co.
This course is hosted by the Asterion & Co. team at The Old Vicarage in Leigh-on-Mendip — a beautifully reimagined 16th-century farmhouse and working studio where heritage, making and shared learning shape the rhythm of the day.
This workshop forms part of Asterion & Co.’s Heritage-Inspired Learning™ — an approach developed by founder Neil Crump that places contemporary practice within its wider historical, cultural and material context. Rather than separating making from meaning, the framework weaves lineage, research and hands-on learning into a single, grounded experience.
Asterion & Co. brings together artists, growers and craftspeople to explore traditional skills through contemporary practice, supported by research-led context and thoughtful hospitality.
Throughout the day, the team will be on hand to offer guidance, care and insight, ensuring the experience reflects Asterion & Co.’s commitment to craftsmanship, regeneration and doing things well.
Led by Julia Blaker, Mixed-Media Artist with heritage and cultural context from Asterion & Co.
Every house carries a quiet accumulation of stories — moments lived, routines repeated, seasons witnessed, lives unfolding behind familiar walls. This one-day masterclass invites you to explore your own home not as a literal subject, but as a vessel of memory, feeling and belonging.
Inspired by Julia Blaker’s evocative painting Ghosts of Winters Past, this course encourages you to move beyond representation and into interpretation, using collage, acrylic paint and mark-making to create a layered portrait that reflects how your house feels, rather than how it simply looks.
Spend Tuesday 17th March 2026 creating in our reimagined 16th-century Somerset farmhouse, where tradition and creativity meet, with a seated three-course lunch included.
During this one-day mixed-media workshop, you’ll create a finished A3 artwork on canvas, working from a photograph of your own home that you submit in advance. From this single image, we prepare a personalised image pack for you — printed at A3 — offering multiple visual interpretations of the same house. This gives you rich creative options to cut, layer, reference and respond to as you work.
By the end of the day, you’ll have completed and signed a mixed-media artwork that holds your own relationship with place.
Working alongside Julia, a Somerset-based artist known for her bold, folk-influenced compositions and layered use of paint and collage, you’ll be introduced to her creative process and approach to visual storytelling. Julia will demonstrate how she builds structure, mood and energy through layering, mark-making and colour, supporting you individually as your own piece takes shape.
Asterion & Co. will open the day with a short contextual talk exploring the tradition of house portraiture — from painted symbols of land, identity and status, through the arrival of domestic photography. You’ll also be gently encouraged into a playful, intuitive mindset, letting go of precision and perfection before the making begins.
At the close of the creative session, there will be a framing discussion to help you choose how best to present your finished piece. Your canvas will be mounted within a mount and frame all included in the package.
This workshop on Tuesday 17th March 2026 includes:
A short heritage-inspired learning session on house portraiture, memory and photography
Hands-on guidance in mixed-media collage and painting with Julia Blaker
Your personalised A3 image pack, created from one photograph of your home
All materials, including A3 canvas and professional training
Refreshments throughout the day
All abilities are warmly welcome. Whether you’re new to creative work or experienced, you’ll have a thoughtful and immersive day of making, this course offers a balance of learning, craftsmanship and quiet reflection.
Workshop Details
Date: Tuesday 17th March 2026
Time: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Location: The Old Vicarage, Leigh-on-Mendip, Somerset
Pricing: £245 for one person, 10% discount applied for two or more guests booking together (discount applied at checkout)
Includes: All materials, tuition, refreshments, a seated lunch, personalised A3 pack, an A3 canvas signed by you, and professional framing.
Spaces are limited to eight guests to ensure a calm, spacious and well-supported studio environment.
About Julia Blaker
Julia Blaker is a Somerset-based artist whose work explores domestic forms, memory and atmosphere through bold colour, simplified shapes and layered surfaces. Working across painting and collage, her practice draws on folk art traditions and the natural built world to create pieces that feel both familiar and quietly uncanny.
Read more about Julia in The Asterion Journal.
Your Hosts at Asterion & Co.
This course is hosted by the Asterion & Co. team at The Old Vicarage in Leigh-on-Mendip — a beautifully reimagined 16th-century farmhouse and working studio where heritage, making and shared learning shape the rhythm of the day.
This workshop forms part of Asterion & Co.’s Heritage-Inspired Learning™ — an approach developed by founder Neil Crump that places contemporary practice within its wider historical, cultural and material context. Rather than separating making from meaning, the framework weaves lineage, research and hands-on learning into a single, grounded experience.
Asterion & Co. brings together artists, growers and craftspeople to explore traditional skills through contemporary practice, supported by research-led context and thoughtful hospitality.
Throughout the day, the team will be on hand to offer guidance, care and insight, ensuring the experience reflects Asterion & Co.’s commitment to craftsmanship, regeneration and doing things well.
