Service Description

This 4-week course is for painters who've completed our Painting for Beginners course or have equivalent experience and want to improve their acrylic and oil painting further. If you haven't painted in a while and feel paint-shy, this is for you too! It's a wonderful opportunity to choose your own subject matter and really develop your work in depth over time. This course focuses on you, and not you fitting into a big group. In our first session, we'll go through your interests together and tailor the course content to suit both the particular group and your individual needs. From there, we'll focus on skills, ideas and techniques. We will be exploring composition and more advanced colour relationships to broaden your paint-handling and your use of mediums. Throughout the four weeks, the emphasis stays on your interests: how you learn, how you develop your own approach, and how you progress as a painter. Our teaching is focused but offered in a relaxed, supportive setting for experimenting with new materials and techniques. We will also introduce and discuss the works of other artists along the way, helping you use their influences constructively. Sharing ideas and supporting one another is very much part of the course. Some of What We'll Cover: * Colour theory and colour mixing skills * Paint application techniques, fat over lean, impasto, glazing and more * Wet-into-wet blending * Working with painting mediums, e.g. linseed oil, impasto medium, acrylic gel. * Building up opacity and transparency * Composition. Foreground/background relationships, focal points and use of space * Use of appropriate brushes and how to organise your palette * Exploring and developing your own subject matter Our small-group format means painters of differing experience and interests can work side by side, each pursuing their own materials and subjects, while still receiving plenty of individual guidance and feedback across the four weeks. What to Bring: 1. Paints. Oils (traditional or water-mixable) and/or acrylics. Trying oils for the first time? We'd recommend water-mixable oils, as they're far easier to use at home and don't require solvents such as turpentine. 2. A selection of brushes. 3. A painting surface: canvas or canvas paper. We will be giving you advice on brushes and materials going forward. If you have any questions, just give us a call or drop us an email.