CREATIVE SHIFT 2026
What is CREATIVE SHIFT ?
CREATIVE SHIFT is a 12-week artist development course designed to help you deepen your understanding of yourself, your creative process, and the many elements that shape your work. Through a blend of reflective enquiry, practical studio exercises, and live discussion-based sessions, the course invites you to develop a greater awareness of how you work, what’s important to you creatively, and where you might want to take your practice.
Rather than teaching techniques of how to paint like somebody else, CREATIVE SHIFT helps you to build a stronger connection to your own visual language, decision-making, materials, curiosities, patterns, and creative instincts - so that your work begins to feel more intentional, aligned, and deeply your own.
Host: Sally-Anne Ashley
12 WEEKS (10 Modules/2 rest weeks)
A structured journey of exploration + growth
WEEKLY MODULES
Content to watch, read + reflect on
LIVE DISCUSSIONS
Connect + reflect with the community
PRACTICAL EXERCISES
Prompts to support insight + creative development
12 MONTHS ACCESS
Revisit the content and resources at your own pace
Many artists spend years making work without ever being given the opportunity to properly reflect on how they work, why they work the way they do, or what may be shaping the decisions they make in the studio.
CREATIVE SHIFT was created to make space for that deeper inquiry.
Through reflection, discussion, practical creative exercises, and ongoing observation, the course invites artists to develop a deeper understanding of themselves, their process, and the work they feel drawn to make.
“It is not a painting course, it is a course about discovery of who you are and why you create.”
Julie Lower
“Creative Shift is a course that helps you consider the WHY, WHAT and HOW of your art practice…”
Linda Nettle
How CREATIVE SHIFT works
CREATIVE SHIFT unfolds over 12 weeks, with new content released each Monday throughout the course (10 modules + 2 intentional rest / integration weeks). Each module combines reflective inquiry, practical creative exercises, and studio-based prompts designed to help you explore the weekly themes within your own practice.
Alongside the weekly modules, there are two live group discussion sessions held on different days and times each week to help accommodate participants across different time zones. These sessions create space for conversation, questions, shared experiences, and deeper exploration of the ideas arising throughout the course. Many artists discover that hearing others articulate experiences similar to their own helps normalise many of the thoughts, uncertainties, patterns, and creative questions they may have previously carried alone.
The two rest / integration weeks allow time to pause, absorb, revisit, and notice what may be unfolding naturally within your work and creative thinking. Participants are encouraged to move through the course in a way that supports their own pace, circumstances, and creative rhythm, with full access to all course materials and recordings remaining available for 12 months.
Across the 12 weeks, we explore the many elements that shape and influence a creative practice - from inspiration, materials, and visual language through to play, pause, curiosity, creative rhythms, and staying connected to your work over time.
It’s All About You
Beginning with self-reflection and awareness, we explore who you are as an artist, where you are now, and the many experiences, influences, and beliefs that may be shaping your creative practice beneath the surface.
Inspirations & Influences
Exploring the artists, materials, places, memories, aesthetics, experiences, and visual references that genuinely resonate with you - helping you recognise what continues to pull your attention and curiosity over time.
Visual Elements
Developing a greater awareness of the visual elements appearing throughout your work, and how colour, shape, texture, contrast, composition, rhythm, and repetition contribute to your evolving visual language.
Materials & Processes
Looking more closely at the materials, tools, processes, and working approaches that support, challenge, influence, or shape your experience in the studio.
The Importance of Play in Your Practice
Exploring the role of play, experimentation, curiosity, and creative freedom within the studio - and how moments of openness and unpredictability can often lead to new discoveries and deeper creative connection.
Notice What You’re Noticing
Learning to pay closer attention to the patterns, themes, instincts, repetitions, curiosities, and visual threads that continue to appear throughout your work and creative life.
Following Your Nudges
Exploring the quieter instincts, curiosities, and creative pulls that often try to guide us forward - and learning how to recognise, trust, and respond to them more consciously within our practice.
Using Pause as a Tool in Your Practice
Exploring the value of slowing down, stepping back, observing, and creating space within a creative practice - recognising how pause itself can become a powerful part of the process.
Staying Connected to Your Practice
Looking at the many ways artists sustain connection to their work over time, even through changing seasons of life, shifting energy, uncertainty, or periods of creative fluctuation.
Building Your Personal Framework
Bringing together the reflections, discoveries, observations, and learning from throughout the course to begin developing a more conscious, supportive, and personal framework for moving forward within your creative practice.
Voices from CREATIVE SHIFT
Reflections shared by artists who took CREATIVE SHIFT in 2025
“What shifted for you during this 12-week experience?”
ANNE TIWARI
“It gave me a greater sense of comfort with who I am and where I am right now, and a more focused idea of where I want to go and what I want to pursue at this time.”
JANE SHERWOOD
“My work moved forward leaps and bounds and I began to understand the process of my creativity on a much deeper level.”
LINDA STOUT
"I now feel entirely like I am a real artist and I don’t need to apologise or explain my art. It is art!"
KERSTIN SCHNIEDER
“I’ve learned that it is absolutely ok to make my art practice priority in my life, even if I didn’t have a classical art education. So I think my imposter syndrome is finally shrinking”
Who CREATIVE SHIFT is for
CREATIVE SHIFT is for artists and creatives who want to:
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develop a deeper understanding of themselves, their work, and their creative practice
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explore their relationship with creativity more consciously
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build greater awareness around their process, patterns, instincts, and decision-making
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reconnect with what feels meaningful, important, or creatively alive to them
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reflect more deeply on the work they are making and why they are making it
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experiment, question, notice, and stay curious within their practice
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develop more clarity, confidence, and intention moving forward
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strengthen their connection to their own visual language, materials, ideas, and creative voice
Many artists join CREATIVE SHIFT after years of technical learning, only to realise they are searching for something different - a space for deeper reflection, inquiry, discussion, and creative understanding.
You do not need to work in a particular style, medium, or level of experience to take part. Participants include painters, textile artists, mixed media artists, printmakers, photographers, illustrators, ceramicists, and creatives working across many different disciplines.
CREATIVE SHIFT tends to resonate most strongly with artists who are open to reflecting, exploring, questioning, noticing, experimenting, and engaging honestly with their own creative process.
Join the waitlist for CREATIVE SHIFT 2026
Practical Information / Frequently Asked Questions
When does CREATIVE SHIFT begin?
CREATIVE SHIFT 2026 begins on Monday 7th September 2026, with the first course module becoming available on that day.
The first live group discussion session will take place on Thursday 10th September 2026.
How long do I have access to the course?
Participants will have access to all course materials and recordings until 31st August 2027.
Are the live sessions recorded?
Yes - all live discussion sessions are recorded, so you can revisit them or watch in your own time if you’re unable to attend live.
Do I need to attend live?
No - although many participants find the live discussions to be a valuable part of the experience, it is absolutely possible to move through the course in your own time using the recordings.
What kind of artist is the course suitable for?
CREATIVE SHIFT is open to artists and creatives working across many different disciplines, including painting, textiles, mixed media, photography, printmaking, illustration, ceramics, collage, and more.
The course is less about a particular medium or style, and more about developing a deeper understanding of your own creative process, practice, patterns, and direction.
How much time should I allow each week?
As with many reflective and creative practices, the more you engage with the course, the more you are likely to take from it.
As a minimum, I would recommend allowing around 2–4 hours each week to watch the course material and engage with the exercises and reflections. However, participants are encouraged to move through the course in a way that supports their own pace, circumstances, and creative rhythm - which is also why access remains available for a full year.
Is CREATIVE SHIFT suitable for beginners?
Yes - particularly for those wanting to develop greater awareness and understanding around their creative process from the beginning of their journey. At the same time, many participants join CREATIVE SHIFT after years of creative practice, often arriving with deeper questions around process, direction, materials, confidence, decision-making, or creative identity.
The course tends to meet people wherever they are within their practice.
What materials do I need?
A notebook, sketchbook, or journal will probably become one of the most valuable parts of your CREATIVE SHIFT experience.
The course also includes practical studio exercises and creative prompts throughout, although no specialist materials are required. Participants are encouraged to work with the materials and creative tools they already naturally use within their own practice.
CREATIVE SHIFT is not about learning to work like me - it is about developing a deeper understanding of your own creative practice.
Is this a technical painting course?
No - CREATIVE SHIFT is not a technical painting course or a paint-along style programme.
Rather than focusing on teaching a particular style or technique, the course is designed to help artists develop greater awareness, understanding, reflection, and connection within their own creative practice.
How is the course delivered?
New course modules are released each Monday throughout the 12-week course and are delivered through pre-recorded video content. Alongside the weekly modules, we also come together for two live group discussion sessions each week on Thursdays and Saturdays, creating space for deeper reflection, conversation, questions, and shared discussion around the weekly themes.
What if I’ve taken CREATIVE SHIFT before?
Many artists return to CREATIVE SHIFT more than once, with returning participants becoming an increasingly valued part of the course experience each year. Because both creative practice and life itself continue to evolve over time, many artists find themselves engaging with the course very differently when returning to it again. Some arrive with new questions, fresh areas of focus, or changing creative priorities, whilst others simply want to revisit the process from a new place within their practice.
The course itself also continues to evolve each year through my own ongoing studio practice, reflections, and the experiences shared by previous participants.
You can find additional FAQs and practical course information here.
Enrolment & Waitlist
CREATIVE SHIFT 2026 begins on Monday 7th September 2026.
Enrolment will open later this summer following a free online CREATIVE SHIFT experience taking place in August.
Joining the waitlist is the best way to stay informed about dates, early access, and upcoming announcements.
The investment for CREATIVE SHIFT 2025 was £895, with payment plans also available.
While final details for 2026 are still being confirmed, I currently intend to keep the course at a similar price point wherever possible.
Returning Creative Shift alumni will also receive a discounted returning participant rate for 2026.
Waitlist members will be the first to hear about enrolment opening, the free August experience, and any early booking opportunities.
A Final Thought
CREATIVE SHIFT is not about becoming a different artist.
It is about developing a deeper understanding of yourself, your creative process, and the many elements shaping the work you feel drawn to make.
Over 12 weeks, the course invites you to reflect, notice patterns, ask questions, experiment, reconnect, and engage more consciously with your practice - whilst being supported by a thoughtful and encouraging community of fellow artists.
If you feel drawn towards this kind of exploration, I would love to welcome you into CREATIVE SHIFT 2026.