Landscape Painting: Inspired by Bishoftu, Ethiopia

Gouache Painting Workshop (oil-painting–style finish)

Join us in London for a relaxing landscape painting workshop inspired by Bishoftu, Ethiopia, a town known for its crater lakes and peaceful natural scenery. The calm setting of Bishoftu encourages a slow, mindful approach to painting, focusing on light, colour, and atmosphere.

You’ll paint a pre-sketched landscape on prepared art board while enjoying a curated playlist of Ethiopian jazz, reggae, soul, and highlife. This beginner-friendly session is welcoming and stress-free, allowing you to focus on mood, composition, and brushwork rather than technical pressure.

About the Class

Join us for a cultural and creative evening at Chá-Fé!

We are excited to host a guided, step-by-step gouache landscape painting workshop with artist @, inspired by the lakes, greenery, and atmosphere of Bishoftu, Ethiopia.

Date: 25 January / Sunday

Time: 17:45–19:45 (2 hours)

Early Bird Ticket: £32 (before 20th JAN, not including fee from Eventbrite)

Standard Ticket: £38 (includes all materials & refreshments, not including fee from Eventbrite)

What Is Gouache Painting

Gouache (pronounced gwash) is a water-based paint known for its rich, opaque colour and smooth, matte finish. Compared to watercolour, it contains more pigment, allowing colours to appear bold and solid.

A unique quality of gouache is its ability to layer light colours over dark, making it forgiving and ideal for guided workshops. It is often described as having an oil-painting look without the heaviness of oil paints.

What You Will Learn

In this workshop, gouache will be used on prepared art board to help participants achieve a polished, finished landscape artwork. The image will be pre-drawn, guiding you through the process so you can focus on colour mixing, brushwork, and composition.

Whether you are new to painting or returning to art, this workshop offers a satisfying and approachable way to create a piece you’ll be proud to take home.

What’s Included

All painting materials are provided, including gouache paints, prepared art boards, brushes, and aprons. You’ll take your finished artwork home at the end of the session.

Coffee, tea, light snacks, and matcha are available for purchase before 6 p.m., with a 10% discount on drinks.

About the Artist

Alem Derege (b.1997) is an illustrator and fine artist based in London. She was born and raised in Bristol, UK and grew up surrounded by a variety of different cultures and incredible street art, including that of the legendary Banksy. Her parents immigrated to the UK from Ethiopia in the 80s, and her work is heavily inspired by her East African heritage. She has an MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies from SOAS University. In 2019 she was awarded the MSMR Architects travel scholarship and she subsequently travelled to Eritrea, a former Italian colony located next to Ethiopia. This trip had a pivotal impact on her work, acting as the inspiration behind her modernist-style prints.

Her work explores the topics of: pop culture, cultural traditions, colonialism and religion. She illustrated the children's book 'Exploring with Selam and Senai' (published in 2021) and was a trader at the popular Black Culture Market in Brixton. She has extensive experience hosting ceramics painting workshops, including for John Lewis, Amazon, Bumble, Meta and WeWork.

Limited spots available—this workshop is designed to be small and intimate to ensure a personalised experience.

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Cancellation of a course or session up to 5 days before it takes place will be refunded in full. Every place on the workshop is transferable — if you cannot attend, we would be happy for you to find a replacement.

For more information or any cancellation, please contact us via Instagram: @cha.fe.uk or email: [email protected]

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