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Explore Abstracts I
6 October to 16 November 2025

This chunky, six-week long course was first released in 2023 and is now offered once again as a scheduled, ‘live’ course running from 6 October until 16 November.

All lessons in this course are pre-recorded, edited to be delivered in easily digestible portions and comes with closed captions.

Course Fee £587 GBP

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Early Bird 20% Discount ends soon

Use code EARLYABSTRACTS at checkout, valid to midnight PST on Saturday 13 September

Arboretum

Expand your creativity and develop a stronger sense of colour, pattern and form with this dynamic, alternative course covering both drawing and painting with a definite focus on trees.

£195.00 GBP

Imaginarium

Imaginarium is a powerful alternative drawing-focused course inspired by the world around us. There are eighteen projects designed to kickstart creativity and promote original and inventive thinking.  Imaginarium focuses on imaginary forms and the development of doodles, drawings and designs to become a vocabulary of shapes that can be used in your art practice and future projects.

£287.00 GBP

Colour Collage I

Would you like to master the technique of layered painted paper collage? This course is packed with four modules detailing the processes that will allow you to explore painting techniques, develop your sense of colour and create in a more expressive way.

£287.00 GBP

Creative Leap Natura

Natura is an alternative drawing and painting art course inspired by forms found in the natural world designed to kickstart creativity and promote original thinking. The course is delivered in detailed videos demonstrating the processes using water based mediums.

£287.00 GBP

Explore Still Life 1 Self-Paced

Would you like to indulge in some creative ‘me time’? One of my most popular courses ever, Explore Still Life 1, isn't available on my course page any more - it's now reserved for those that know about it or when I share it with special groups of people so congratulations on finding it here. It last ran live in September 2024 and although my intention is to launch an Explore Still Life 2 in the not too distant future, there's just too much in this one to simply retire it. Join me on an adventure filled with colour and dynamic art projects to inspire and enthuse. 

£357.00 GBP

Beautiful Blues

Beautiful Blues is a project dedicated to the medium of aquarelle crayons  and pencils and the colour blue. In this lesson I am demonstrating how to create stylised florals in a variety of blues derived from the colour aquamarine.  Techniques in aquarelle pencils and water-soluble crayons will demonstrate how to play with depth of colour and achieve colour values with an emphasis on translucency and opacity. Come and explore a number of technique options using limited materials, from drawing to creating paint washes and incorporating stamping techniques. 

£27.00 GBP

Let's Paint Cats

I created Let's Paint Cats to a quick online workshop I did for Sketchbook Revival. It's a a mini-course with nine watercolour and ink processes all with creative cat portraits as theme. 

£47.00 GBP

Creative Circle

Make time for art, get your creative juices flowing and enjoy exploring possibilities starting with a simple circle. Over the period of five days I will show you different ways to create your own circular wreath incorporating your unique shapes, drawing style and painted marks.

£47.00 GBP

Fabulous Fish

Prepare to be inspired. Fabulous Fish consists of nine projects. Esté will demonstrate ways to help you to create dynamic fish drawings using her Creative Leap method, these will be turned into interesting artworks in watercolour and acrylic inks. Suitable for all levels of experience, this course is just the ticket to get your creative juices flowing.

£47.00 GBP

Four Seasons

Welcome to Four Seasons, a mini-course inspired by trees, colours and the beauty of Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. I love trees as subject to use in art and would like to invite you to join me on this five day mini-course I developed in order to explore colour and creative processes.

£47.00 GBP

Sunset Trees

If you'd like to explore more techniques, I created an hour long masterclass as a follow on painting project that adds to the lessons in Four Seasons. Come paint with me a grouping of trees on a layered watercolour background in muted colours. This masterclass includes two video lessons: a short tutorial on mixing neutral colours and a second in-depth artwork project of a grouping of trees in a sunset landscape.

£27.00 GBP

Imaginary Butterflies

This mini-course consists of four video lessons where I will show you how to create interesting layered butterflies with numbers as drawing anchor points and dynamic watercolour techniques using #coloricombo colours as focus.  

£47.00 GBP

Paper Vases

In this mini-course I'll show you different ways to create sleeved paper vases in watercolour, gouache and acrylic ink. You'll explore the many possibilities using limited colour combinations. Get colour inspiration from #coloricombo weekly prompts.  

£47.00 GBP

Coloricombo 2022

Access the archive of Coloricombo prompts from 2022 here. Each week (and sometimes more often) I released a colour prompt featuring an artwork or image, a bit of background and a selection of carefully curated colours that you can use in your own practice.

£15.00 GBP

Coloricombo 2023

As of January 2024, all of the weekly colour prompts from 2023 are now available to purchase for only £15. I've also moved Coloricombo 2024 across to Substack. Access is FREE, click here to ensure you're signed up. If you were previously signed up, you'll be moved across automatically.

£15.00 GBP

Elizabeth D

I wake up every morning excited to see the days lesson. The techniques you are sharing are wonderful! I am so excited to try them out and feel I can take my art work to another level with all that you are sharing. Thank you!

Carin S

Thank you, Este Macleod, for such an inspirational and well-designed course. As a retired educator, I recognize the importance of and the amount of time that goes into planning and building skills. 

Carolyn L

Third year taking an Este course. They are magical. Este is a great instructor. You can have virtually any skill level and find joy in what you create. Art is a journey and Este is one of the great finds in my art exploration.

About Esté

"Making art is what makes me feel alive"

I started teaching online courses in 2015. Exploring different creative processes, art materials and working with colour is something I relish and I'm always on the lookout to see what mediums and techniques I can share.

Some of my more intense courses have taken years to develop: I take pride in the content and offering value to my students is a priority.

Sharing knowledge

Everything I teach is based on the knowledge I've attained over three decades as a professional artist and designer. I use this experience to inspire others to fully understand techniques, learn new skills, deepen colour sense and develop their own unique artistic voices.

"Teaching is something I'm passionate about"

I come from a family of academics who recognised my artistic obsession when I was a young child. This feeling hasn't changed, being an artist is my life's work, it is part of my DNA. 

My studies were in Textile Design, followed by Fine Art Printmaking, with a BA (Hons) in Ceramics and Glass and an MA in Contemporary Jewellery Design added later.