One-day silk painting workshop led by textile artist Hilary Simon, exploring the gutta resist technique on silk and inspired by the Frida exhibition.
Hilary Simon is leading a one-day silk painting workshop at Tate Modern on Saturday 5 December, from 10.30 to 16.00. It's held in the McAulay Studio in the Natalie Bell Building, Level 0, Bankside, and it's built around Frida: The Making of an Icon, the exhibition that runs from 23 October 2026 to 3 January 2027.
The day starts with an introduction to silk painting and a visit to the exhibition, where you'll get to study the works up close. From there, the focus shifts to the gutta resist technique — a way of creating richly coloured designs on silk by using gutta gum to keep colours from running into one another. You'll work with French Dupont dyes, salt, and layering, and Simon will be on hand with demonstrations and one-to-one guidance throughout the session. By the end, you'll leave with a hand-painted silk panel that you can either frame or turn into a scarf.
Simon is a textile artist and curator who has shown solo worldwide, and her designs have appeared on book covers, greeting cards, pottery and rugs. She's run workshops across the UK, America and Mexico, at West Dean College, the Fashion and Textile Museum and Centro de las Artes de San Agustin in Oaxaca. The session is suitable for beginners and artists of all abilities, so you don't need to have picked up a brush before to join in.
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Tickets are £175, or £150 for Members, and that includes entry to Frida: The Making of an Icon.
