The Art Academy offers an unrivalled selection of courses for individuals who want to develop their skills and ideas, whether they have no previous instruction, or are returning to art school to further develop their skills.
Our part time day courses are usually one day a week (10am– 5pm) in term time, lasting from two to ten weeks. We run courses in: painting, drawing, printmaking, photography & video and sculpture. Some have a specialist focus, while others are more broad-based. Students can take one stand-alone course, or a combination. Each course is a component which can be built into a longer-term, progressive programme of study.
Our tutors are professional artists chosen for their expertise in each area of study. With class numbers kept to a maximum of 15, the tutor has plenty of time to give individual and detailed attention to each student.
Material packs can be purchased with some of our courses. Please check the details of the individual class. You can also buy an Acrylic Painting, Oil Painting or Drawing Pack individually on our Materials Page.
Please note, our courses are only suitable and available for students 18 years old and above. We have a variety of courses specifically designed for under 18’s as part of our Young Artists programme.
| Name | Dates | Days | Fee | Availability | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anatomy | Fridays, 17th January - 27th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Sold Out | Show details |
| Developing Figure Painting | Mondays, 13th January - 23rd March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Drawing into Printmaking | Thursdays, 16th January - 26th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Sold Out | Show details |
| Exploring Current Trends & Styles in Portrait Painting | Thursdays, 16th January - 26th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Figure Sculpture: The Expanded Field | Tuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| How to Paint Portraits Successfully from Photographs | Tuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Hybrid Printmaking: experimental printmaking using multiple processes | Mondays, 13th January - 23rd March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Images in Contemporary Painting | Thursdays, 16th January - 26th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Images of the Body | Tuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Imaginative Composition | Fridays, 17th January - 27th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Sold Out | Show details |
| Measurement & Proportion in Drawing | Fridays, 17th January - 27th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Objects & Environments in Extended Reality | Mondays, 13th January - 23rd March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Paint - Process, surface, materiality | Tuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Painting in Practice | Tuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Portrait & Figure Painting | Saturdays, 18th January - 28th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Relief Printed Textiles | Tuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Sculpture in Practice | Mondays, 13th January - 23rd March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Sculpture – the language of form, techniques and materials | Thursdays, 16th January - 26th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Still Life | Thursdays, 16th January - 26th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| Textiles, Latex, Assemblage | Mondays, 13th January - 23rd March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| The Photographic Image | Tuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
| The Shape of Colour | Mondays, 13th January - 23rd March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Sold Out | Show details |
| Wood and Metal for Sculpture | Tuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020 | 10 | £500 | Places Available! | Show details |
[avia_codeblock_placeholder uid="0"]
MONDAY
[avia_codeblock_placeholder uid="1"]
TUESDAY
[avia_codeblock_placeholder uid="2"]
THURSDAY
[avia_codeblock_placeholder uid="3"]
FRIDAY
[avia_codeblock_placeholder uid="4"]
SATURDAY
[avia_codeblock_placeholder uid="5"]
MONDAY
Developing Figure PaintingFrom: £500.00Course CodeE1902P18TutorSusanne du ToitDatesMondays, 13th January - 23rd March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelIntermediateFee£500This course will introduce you to painting the figure, both nude and clothed. It will help develop your understanding of colour mixing, looking at proportion, considering negative space and finding shapes to help create a likeness and develop compositions. You'll learn how to create figure paintings by starting with drawing, how to paint fabrics and materials as well as the figure, and how to consider the background as an integral part of the painting.
Hybrid Printmaking: experimental printmaking using multiple processes£500.00Course CodeE1902PR10TutorKatherine JonesDatesMondays, 13th January - 23rd March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelBeginnerFee£500Material Costs£40 (See Daily Breakdown for Details)This course focuses on experimenting with a combination of techniques including simple block-print, etching, collagraph and mono-print to develop a print or series of prints. Printmaking both compliments and brings perspective to other areas of creative practice, so this course is ideal for painting and drawing practitioners who would like to gain a perspective of print techniques and re-engage with the drawn mark.
Objects & Environments in Extended Reality£500.00Course CodeE1902T004TutorNinon Ardisson, Rebecca AstonDatesMondays, 13th January - 23rd March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelAll LevelsFee£500This course is an introduction into creating Extended Reality (XR) including Virtual, interactive realities and is specifically focused on students utilising these technologies within the context of their own contemporary art practice. The course will focus on the idea of building open worlds, and how to develop those into interactive tools for visual storytelling. Students will be encouraged to consider how this new medium can engage in a meaningful way at the intersection of physical and digital realities, away from the idea of purely a spectacle or gimmick. Through a series of practical workshops students will learn the fundamentals of how immersive technologies function and gain a technical understanding of key software such as Unreal Engine in order to realise their own ideas. In the remaining sessions students will benefit from individual support and guidance from the tutors in order to develop a project of their choosing. This course is suitable for students with no previous experience of VR as well as those who want to develop their own practice.
Sculpture in Practice£500.00Course CodeE1902S50TutorJulian WildDatesMondays, 13th January - 23rd March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelAll LevelsFee£500Material Costs£15 (See Daily Breakdown for Details)Explore a wide range of sculptural forms, language, materials and processes with this course. Throughout, your tutor will provide individual support to help develop your own approach – whether you want to explore a wide range of materials and techniques, or focus on a particular area of interest. For students who wish to explore materials, or are unsure about which materials to use for their ideas, there is a core course. This core course follows a number of structured exercises that enable you to experiment with different materials and processes. When working from the model, the emphasis of the exercises are to create sculpture using a life model as reference, rather than doing a technical study of a model. You will also be encouraged to develop ideas through the introduction of a wide vocabulary of materials and processes that could inform figurative, abstract or concept led work. However, you do not have to follow the core course and can work on your own projects in this class. You will also be introduced to the machinery, materials and processes available in The wood and Metal Workshop under technician supervision (see timetable for sessions).
Textiles, Latex, Assemblage£500.00Course CodeE1902S53TutorHiromi Scintu, Lynne AbrahamsonDatesMondays, 13th January - 23rd March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelAll LevelsFee£500Material Costs£15 (See Daily Breakdown for Details)This elective provides an introduction to textiles within fine art practice. You'll use both traditional and modern approaches to textiles, including wet and dry felting, embroidery and the sampler tradition, latex and soft sculpture. Throughout the course, you'll explore how and why contemporary artists employ textiles within their practice.
The Shape of ColourSold OutCourse CodeE1902P15TutorCaroline ListDatesMondays, 13th January - 23rd March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelAll LevelsFee£500Material Costs£10 (See Daily Breakdown for Details)Investigating colour as form will enable you to think about colour theory and explore a synthesis of processes, structure and surface. You will be encouraged to consider how you develop a composition, specificity of colour choice and surface fracture (handling of the paint). You will be encouraged to experiment the interaction of colour throughout the course; it’s fluidity, chromatic value, scale and dynamic juxtapositions. The context and theory will be important in underpinning your initial exploration. Your relationship with the mechanics of painting will develop from collage experiments particularly focused on colour contrast and form, collages produced will be a spring-board for a series of abstract colour compositions. From Matisse to the colour field painters such as Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler and contemporary colourist such as Sarah morris, Tauber Auerbach, Selma Parlour and others.
TUESDAY
Figure Sculpture: The Expanded Field£500.00Course CodeE1902S20TutorLara Ritosa RobertsDatesTuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelAll LevelsFee£500Material Costs£20 (See Daily Breakdown for Details)This course explores the concept of the body from historical and cross-cultural viewpoints. You'll investigate the potential of an experimental multi-media approach, working with a life model, exploring modelling techniques, body casting, movement, performance, installation and more. You will be encouraged to develop your own interests through a personal project and final sculpture piece.
How to Paint Portraits Successfully from PhotographsFrom: £500.00Course CodeE1902P28TutorEdward SutcliffeDatesTuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelAll LevelsFee£500Material Costs£10 (See Daily Breakdown for Details)You'll explore the skills required to achieve effective results when working from photographs instead of from life. You will consider the problems of painting from photographs and ways of overcoming these, as well the advantages. The course will Introduce the skills needed to produce photorealistic images, but doesn’t limit you to painting in this way.
Images of the BodyFrom: £500.00Course CodeE1902P016TutorSadie LeeDatesTuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelIntermediateFee£500Using a range of contemporary source material, such as digital images, the moving image and images from social media, you'll consider and explore the representation of the contemporary body in painting. This course will introduce you to the analysis of different types of image and how they are viewed and consumed. Considering the work of contemporary and modern painters, you'll study a range of approaches artists have adopted to how they view or use the body. You will explore the language of paint and its dialogue with found images, migrating techniques from photography and film to painting (zooming, blurring, cropping, pixelating etc.) and 're-materialising' the body in your artworks through visceral paint application.
Paint – Process, surface, materialityFrom: £500.00Course CodeE1902P35TutorAlison HandDatesTuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelAll LevelsFee£500Material Costs£10 (See Daily Breakdown for Details)This course aims to explore, test, and discover the properties and potential of a range of traditional and non-traditional paints and surfaces. You’ll expand and develop your understanding of what paint can do, and the specific material qualities of numerous paints. You will investigate how various paints (including acrylics, spray paints and gloss paints) feel and handle, and how you can use different approaches with them.
Painting in PracticeFrom: £500.00Course CodeE1902P50TutorRhiannon SalisburyDatesTuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelAll LevelsFee£500This course will help you discover what it is about painting that motivates and inspires you. You will explore how to develop ideas from initial sketches, how to refine ideas and how to develop coherent work. You will be encouraged to adopt a disciplined creative thinking dialogue in your painting practice, which will enable a more informed approach to your work.
Relief Printed Textiles£500.00Course CodeE1902PR11TutorCarol Wilhide JustinDatesTuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelBeginnerFee£500Material Costs£40 (See Daily Breakdown for Details)You will focus on using intaglio and relief techniques to print onto textiles. The course will also introduce the use of finer textiles such as silk to rethink and reformulate the traditional two-dimensional printed image. Looking at artists from the Bauhaus such as Anni Albers, you’ll explore print as a means of creating a ‘total’ artwork that aspires to work with architecture and interrupt the flow of our perception through it. This course is ideal if you'd like to bring your communication, texture and colour skills to the print studio, to become familiar with a diverse and exciting range of media. Guided by one-to-one tutoring, you will expand your knowledge and develop a unique self-led project.
The Photographic Image£500.00Course CodeE1902T002TutorLevin HaegeleDatesTuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelAll LevelsFee£500Starting with the fundamental principles of photography, you’ll learn how to expose images correctly and develop a greater understanding of the medium in relation to today’s digital culture. This course gives you a thorough overview of all aspects of using a digital camera, including: aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focus, depth of field, lighting and everything you need to successfully take photos in a variety of environments. You’ll also be taught the fundamentals of Photoshop, with a focus on how the software can be used for retouching and collaging images.
Wood and Metal for Sculpture£500.00Course CodeE1902S003TutorCharles LangDatesTuesdays, 14th January - 24th March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelAll LevelsFee£500Material Costs£20 (See Daily Breakdown for Details)Whether you’re a complete beginner or you have some experience of working with wood and metal, this course will teach you to weld, cut, grind, manipulate and drill steel and cut, join and sand wood safely. Starting with these practical skills, you’ll then have the opportunity to work independently and creatively to develop sculpture in metal or wood.
THURSDAY
Drawing into PrintmakingSold OutCourse CodeE1902PR07TutorKatherine JonesDatesThursdays, 16th January - 26th March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelBeginnerFee£500Material Costs£40 (See Daily Breakdown for Details)Using print techniques related to monotype (drawing into a field of ink with a range of implements), etching and drypoint (drawing with a needle into media such as plastic or metal); and various reproduction, collage and transfer methods, you will produce a series of prints which have moved through stages of development from observational drawing through to print and back again.
Exploring Current Trends & Styles in Portrait PaintingFrom: £500.00Course CodeE1902P33TutorRobin-Lee HallDatesThursdays, 16th January - 26th March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelIntermediateFee£500A stimulating and informative exploration of some of the artists working within the discipline of portraiture today, this course will consider the concerns artists are addressing through their painting and the varying techniques they have adopted to do so. Students will be encouraged to respond to the work surveyed through a series of practical exercises where they will use a variety of technical approaches to create portraits from a range of different starting points. We will begin each week with a discussion about the artists whose work we will be looking at, considering the issues they are addressing, their subject matter, their source material, the techniques they are using and the relationship between these various elements in their work. The discussion will be supplemented by information via videos, articles, monographs and other art publications to further introduce you to the work of the artists discussed and to examine their approaches and subject matter. This will be followed by practical investigation through set tasks with a different focus each week, inspired by an individual or group (school) of artists.
Images in Contemporary PaintingFrom: £500.00Course CodeE1902P14TutorNeil MorleyDatesThursdays, 16th January - 26th March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelAll LevelsFee£500The proliferation of digital images in society has made the image more disposable and less open to visual critical discourses. This course will explore how the manipulation of pictorial space can create new and exciting directions in painting – by fragmenting, obscuring and intertwining images into the pictorial space and by using a series of techniques and conceptual approaches that question the normal conventions of background/foreground relationships.
Sculpture – the language of form, techniques and materials£500.00Course CodeE1902S13TutorBriony Marshall, Lynne AbrahamsonDatesThursdays, 16th January - 26th March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelAll LevelsFee£500Material Costs£20 (See Daily Breakdown for Details)This course is a thorough introduction to the language of sculpture and will enable you to investigate the use of form, space, texture, colour and other core sculptural elements. It will encourage the sophisticated use of basic sculpture materials and techniques, including clay, wax, plaster, wire, latex, textiles and found objects, as well as working from a model. The course will push you to experiment and broaden your repertoire and start to discover your own sculptural language.
Still LifeFrom: £500.00Course CodeE1902P017TutorNicholas McLeodDatesThursdays, 16th January - 26th March 2020Days10Times10.00am – 5.00pmExperience LevelAll LevelsFee£500Engage with still life painting in a fresh and exciting manner. You'll look in-depth at the work of both contemporary and historical artists for whom still life is a major focus, and discuss why the genre is still relevant today. You'll consider the use of objects for their symbolic value as well as their aesthetic properties, examining the abstract form, shape, colour and tone of the objects observed, and exploring how to use all this information to create interesting and contemporary paintings. Working in oil, you'll be encouraged to approach the act of painting with a balance of instinct and analysis, growing your technical understanding of a variety of mediums and materials, whilst also developing observational, critical and creative skills.
