This course is for both figurative and abstract artists. You'll be introduced to the principles of abstract art and the connection between representational art and abstraction. You will examine new visual languages, different methods of applying (and removing paint) and learn to hone your compositional eye. You will gain an understanding of how to organise space and colour, how to make more evocative and less literal gestures, and look in more detail at the general terminology and language of abstraction. Your tutor will support you fully throughout the course in both group sessions and one-to-one support, providing very regular feedback, critique and constructive advice. Although the course has a general theme and approach there is no fixed or prescriptive methodology and individuals are encouraged to blend their own experience with all aspects of this course.

This course is suitable for those who have little or no experience with oils and wish to improve their technical skills with students gaining a basic understanding of how to work in oil paint and the practicalities of using oil painting materials. You will gain the confidence to work in oils and your tutor will help you start to develop a technical skill that can be used successfully to convey your visual ideas. Your tutor will support you fully throughout the course in both group sessions and one-to-one support, providing very regular feedback, critique and constructive advice.

Using 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. Throughout this course we will analyse 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 to using or viewing the body that artists have adopted. You will explore the language of paint and its dialogue with found images, migrating photographic and cinematic tropes and techniques to painting (zooming, blurring, cropping, pixelating etc.) and 're-materialising' the body in your work through visceral paint application.

This course is an intended revision course for students with experience of portrait painting. It examines fundamental aspects of portrait painting to ensure you have a comprehensive understanding of the techniques and skills required. You will analyse form and colour, consider again the handling and mixing of colour, and how it applies to portrait painting. Your tutor will support you fully throughout the course in both group sessions and one-to-one support, providing very regular feedback, critique and constructive advice.

Investigating colour as form will enable you to think about colour theory and explore a synthesis of processes, structure and surface.

This course will help you discover what it is about painting that motivates and inspires you. You will explore how to develop ideas from initial drawings, paint studies and other exploratory processes; how to refine your ideas, and how to develop coherent and resolved paintings. You will be encouraged, through discussion with your tutor and fellow classmates, to adopt a disciplined creative thinking dialogue in your painting practice, which will enable a more informed approach to your work. We’ll look at the work of contemporary painters and explore where your own work sits in the context of current painting practice.

Investigating colour as form will enable you to think about colour theory and explore a synthesis of processes, structure and surface.