17:17

Seventeen years in seventeen weeks.

Many of us carry blocks around making art. The spontaneity and absorption we once knew as children can be crowded out by procrastination, people-pleasing, or the pressure to get things right.

17:17 is a course for adults who want to rebuild a relationship with art.

Over seventeen weeks, we explore the first seventeen years of artistic development, from early sensory marks to the emergence of adult creative identity.

All children pass through seven recognised stages of art-making. Revisiting these stages as adults reconnects us with the distinct functions each one holds—from playfulness to precision. This process helps us understand our creative orientation, recover instincts that may have been lost, and begin again with greater purpose, freedom, and resilience.

What to expect

An introduction to each stage of art development and how it continues to echo in adult creative life
Guided visualisations to reconnect with the child-artist within you
Two weekly live sessions (with replays), combining teaching, guided art processes, and reflective discussion
Sketchbook and studio tasks designed to help rebuild trust in your own creative rhythm
Studies of historical artists who reflect the different stages of development in their work
Daily journalling prompts and creative invitations
A supportive online community for sharing artwork and reflections between sessions

You’ll leave with

A clear sense of your own creative orientation
A sketchbook and body of work that reflect your personal recovery process
Practical tools for sustaining creativity beyond the course
A strong foundation for lifelong practice, rooted in the Line & Loop framework

If you're interested in finding out more, I’ll be hosting an online presentation where you can find out more and ask questions.

In the presentation, we’ll explore:

Why artistic spontaneity tends to narrow as we grow up, and how to reopen it
Which childhood stages may have been interrupted, and how they echo in adult creative blocks
How small, consistent practices rooted in early art-making can restore meaning and momentum

KEEP ME UPDATED

'Every child is an artist.

The problem is how to remain

an artist when we grow up'

Pablo Picasso

How 17:17 Began

17:17 was shaped by over a decade's experience of teaching art to both children and adults, and by observing how differently they respond to creative challenges.

In my children’s classes, I offer both structured projects and time for free drawing and painting. What has always struck me is how easily they move between the two. Children don’t tend to judge their project work harshly or tie it to their self-worth; and they jump straight into their own drawings and paintings without overthinking.

Adults, by contrast, often arrive with complexity and caution. Even in guided, skill-building tasks, many carry a quiet pressure to get things exactly right and may feel despondent if they ‘fail’. And even when they gain confidence in a class setting, starting something under their own steam at home can feel overwhelming or even impossible.

Through conversations with adult learners, I discovered that beneath that hesitation, there’s often a story: an early moment of shame, judgement, or discouragement that made art feel risky. I recognised that pattern because it was also part of my own experience.

17:17 brings together developmental theory, lived experience, and steady weekly practice to support adults in rebuilding a creative life that feels emotionally safe, personally meaningful, and aligned with their own artistic orientation.

About Me

Hi, I’m Ali, and I live in the beautiful seaside town of Folkestone with my husband, Matt, our children, Kit and Henry, our golden retriever Scout, and our cats, Mittens and Patchy.

After reluctantly ending my art education at 16, I returned to my studies in my late thirties, completing a degree in Art History at the University of London, followed by drawing, painting, and printmaking at the Royal Drawing School in Shoreditch, and Portraiture at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in Chelsea. I also earned a PGCE in post-compulsory education from the University of Greenwich.

I’ve been an educator on and off for over thirty years. Before starting my own art tutoring business from my home studio, I taught in a wide range of educational settings both in the UK and abroad, including my time as Course Director at Kensington and Chelsea College.

I now feel comfortable calling myself an artist, but for nearly two decades I lived with a kind of creative paralysis. I signed up for classes and stopped going. I bought sketchbooks that stayed empty. I believed every drawing or painting had to be frame-worthy - or else, what was the point? The act of making had become so complicated for me that I gave up many times over.

Returning to art wasn’t a breakthrough moment, but a slow and often reluctant process of loosening those knots and building creative resilience. Working with children had a profound effect on my understanding of what art actually is - how it serves many purposes, how doing leads to more doing, and how it’s a lifelong journey, not a destination.

17:17 grew out of my own experience. It offers the kind of structure I wish I’d had - something steady, gentle, and focussed enough to help others recover their creative rhythm more quickly than I was able to.