Escape to the art hut in the hills
IF YOU'RE LOOKING to escape the daily hustle and bustle and to indulge your creative side then check out Comrie Art Hut, a new venue for art courses and retreats located in beautiful Comrie, Perthshire.
Run by local artist and tea expert Beverly Wainwright, the hut welcomes anyone with an interest in being creative and in the arts. A variety of courses are on offer from week long artist bookmaking and drawing courses to weekend mosaics. Beverly has worked as an artist for most of her life.
"After studying geology at university, I worked as a potter in East Lothian for several years before starting a family. I then moved into photography, working for a small local paper but going on to running photography businesses.
"I took a career break and worked as a VSO volunteer in Sri Lanka, working as a business adviser with farmers in a remote rural area. During this time I met the owner of a tea estate in the mountains. When I finished my voluntary post I was offered a job to develop livelihoods and turn around the struggling fortunes of a tea estate.
"I spent six years living and working at Amba Estate, learning about tea growing and production, set up a small tea factory, and a tourism operation providing stable employment in a very poor rural area. Since then I have set up several tea factories and helped new tea businesses develop new teas.
"The Art Hut is the former Scottish Tea Factory in Comrie where I processed tea from tea plants grown in Scotland by Scottish growers. I ran this as a micro tea factory for six years, however tea is so rare in Scotland that it wasn't commercially viable for me to keep running it, although I'll continue to do consultancy work to help fund the Art Hut.
"I wanted to start a new business in the tea factory building and after taking art courses at Bridge House Art in Ullapool and Leigh School of Art, running courses and workshops in the hut seemed a great idea.
"I'll be working with different artists and makers from around Scotland. The space is light, peaceful and welcoming and is situated at Comrie Croft, which is a well-known mountain biking centre with accommodation, shop and café in the summer months. The summer and autumn programmes will expand over the next few years as will the variety of courses on offer."
For information about courses and retreats - https://comriearthut.com/book-a-course
