PETER LANYON: A Birds Eye View

PETER LANYON: A Birds Eye Perspective

Live Online Class: Tuesday 30th September 2025 6pm BST

+ 14 Days Recording Access

Taught by Lucy McGeown

Consider how to embodied the experience of landscape in this playful workshop exploring perspectives and techniques inspired by renowned abstract landscape painter and glider Peter Lanyon.

“Lanyon saw earth and air in constant flux from his cockpit and somehow described the experience on canvas. It is no understatement to say that he reinvented landscape painting by taking to the skies.” Laura Cummings,2015

Peter Lanyon’s rebellious and original approach to painting landscapes makes him one of the most important artists to emerge in post-war Britain. His work merged the abstract and figurative, sweeping across the canvas in wide and deep brushstrokes to capture the energy of the Cornish coastline.

Part of the St Ives Penwith Society of Painters made famous by his more famous contemporaries Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, Lanyon brought an experiential and embodied approach to his work. He took up gliding, giving him a fresh perspective on the landscapes he had moved through on foot and in vehicles since he was a child. He combined these multiple visual perspectives with ideas drawn from the geology, history, industry, culture and myth of the places he painted.

Lanyon’s layered and fluid works explored the worlds of sea and sky, aiming to convey the subjective experience of being in and part of a place. Despite his early death from injuries sustained in a gliding accident at the age of 46, he left behind a considerable body of work that gives us new ways of approaching landscape art.

In this class we too will take a birds-eye view, working with still and moving images to draw the changing landscape with energy and vigour. We will gain an understanding of how shifting perspectives, combined with cubist and modernist methods, can provide new and exciting ways of depicting well-known and well-documented landscapes.

Materials you will need:

• 8 sheets of white paper (80 gsm or watercolour paper will work best)
• Paints: Any you have - Acrylic, Oils or Watercolour

This class is suitable for all levels!

Everyone is welcome to join this Pay-What-You-Can class

Tickets:

We suggest an amount of £20. However, we understand that may not be possible for everybody. Please be honest and pay what you can afford so that we may continue to offer our sessions on this basis whilst also giving our tutors a sustainable wage.

There is also a ticket option to "Pay It Forward" to support us and our students! We offer classes for free to those who can't afford the minimum amount (If this is you please email us to join for free). This continues to ensure our classes are available to everyone!

Once booked:

You will receive a confirmation email and be able to access information on how to join the event via your eventbrite "Online Event Page" You can access this by signing into eventbrite or creating an account using the email address that you booked with.

In the Class:

You can't be seen or heard in our classes, your audio and video are automatically turned off and there's no way these can be turned on. You can talk to us and others in the class in the chat box!

We love to see your drawings or anything else our classes inspire! You can share them with us by tagging us on instagram (@londondrawinggroup) or emailing us if you don't have socials.

About the Tutor:

Lucy McGeown

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hello@londondrawinggroup.com

And that's it!

We're really looking forward to you joining us.

Love,

LDG