The Drone in the Box
I have a Potensic Atom SE drone. Under 249 grams. 31 minutes flight time. Folds down small enough to fit in a cycling pack.
Damian Sémonin · Cornwall
Learn to paint. Make something real.
Three studios. Watercolour, acrylics, oils. 330 students across 700+ workshop places at the Cornish Craft Barn — and a third of them keep coming back. Twenty years teaching, PGCE-trained. If you want to learn to paint — really learn, not just follow along — you are in the right place.
From the journal
Studio process, plein air, teaching and the reflective side of the creative life.
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Be Yourself, Actually
The conversation worth having is the one where somebody drops the register because they've assessed the room and decided it's safe.
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You Own More Than You Think
The gap between buying a thing and using it is where the value leaks. You already own what you need — use it before you buy more.
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Draw Something Every Day. Seriously. Just One Thing.
The daily-drawing habit isn't about masterpieces. It's about keeping the hand and the eye in conversation — one small thing, every day.
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Your Brain Is Wired to Miss the Good Stuff. Art Is the Fix.
Attention is a filter, and by default it filters out the ordinary beauty all around you. Drawing forces you to look — and to actually see.
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Why Your Body Has to Move Before Your Creativity Can
Movement isn't a break from creative work — it's the on-ramp. Why a walk, a ride or a stretch unlocks the ideas that sitting still won't.
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What Teaching Art Has Taught Me About Learning Everything
A thousand students later, the lessons that transfer have nothing to do with paint — and everything to do with how people learn.
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Shiny Is Wet, Matte Is Dry
A simple watercolour tell that changes how you read a wash: the surface sheen tells you exactly when to push paint and when to leave it alone.
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Stop Seeing Colour, Start Seeing Value
The single biggest leap most painters can make: train your eye on value — the lightness and darkness — before you ever worry about colour.
Explore by Medium
Watercolour
Loose washes, light on water, and the quiet discipline of restraint.
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Acrylics
Bold colour, fast decisions, and building up layers with confidence.
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Oils
The everyday made beautiful — impasto, palette knife, slow looking.
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Mixed Media
Collage and paint, when one medium simply is not enough.
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Four ways to learn
From a weekly Art Club to a full creative-career programme.
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Art Club
Weekly sessions at the Cornish Craft Barn — relaxed, hands-on, genuinely fun.
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Workshops
Half-day and full-day sessions in Cornwall. All materials included.
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Online Courses
Learn to paint at your own pace, wherever you are.
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Creative Career
A programme for people serious about the transition to a creative life.
About Damian
First and foremost an educator, facilitator & artist. Serial entrepreneur focused on the importance of creativity and art in our lives — and helping others discover their creative potential.
Teaching art at the Cornish Craft Barn since 2018 — 330 students across 700+ workshop places, a third of them returning. Twenty years teaching, PGCE-trained. On the bike or on the water, the looking never really stops — it all feeds the work.
What I do and why
Journalling, ink & wash. Mental health, exercise, fresh air — clear the head, combined with art. What could be better?
Sharing Cornwall and the place I'm blessed to live and work in with the wider world — offering art inspiration from the photographs and locations I find.
What it is, who it's for… Is that you?
The toolkit for repurposing yourself, later in life, into a creative career — on your own terms. I didn't set out to build a company; I set out to get my time back.
It makes you three things at once: Art-Capable (the craft, lesson plans, a daily practice), Business-Capable (filling seats, winning venues at fair rents, pricing right, marketing without a team) and Time-Rich (the tools — a CoPilot among them — that hand the hours back, into the work).
It's not about AI — that's one pillar, not the point. The point is simpler and more human: the creative life should be livable.
From the studio
I've been coming to Art Club every week — Damian makes you believe you can actually paint, and then you do.
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