Painting Techniques & Processes — Courses in London & Online
Our range of creative, hands-on painting courses suit all levels of student experience and are there to encourage creativity and the development of painting skills for all. Taught by professional artists who bring their wealth of experience and specialist knowledge to enrich the student experience and to put the subject into historical and contemporary context.
Courses on offer include Start Painting - for absolute beginners, through Painting 1 and Painting 2 for the development of skills and knowledge. We also offer more intermediate courses with our contemporary painting studio and abstract painting courses, where students can further explore themes and their own painting projects.
Our fully equipped painting studios provide students with everything they need to get started, build confidence and create exciting work.
Courses available both in-person and online
At City Lit, you can choose to study in-person or online. Our fantastic in-person courses are taught in our attractive campus, located in the heart of Covent Garden, central London. Here, our students can benefit from a variety of services and resources, including our café and state-of-the art equipment.
Our online courses are tailored to give you a social and interactive online learning experience, allowing you freedom to study from anywhere and with like-minded fellow classmates from all over the country without the need to travel. Use the Location filters on this page to choose your preferred learning method. See our guide to online learning for more information about accessing our live online courses.
For more information about courses available, please contact our Visual Arts team at visualarts@citylit.ac.uk
- Painting: colour mixing
Course start date: Tue 9 Jan 2024 (and 3 other dates)Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chris HoughA concise study of colour usage. Investigate colour perception and how colour interacts. Explore a range of observational and expressive painting projects, relate colour theory to practice and develop confidence using colour. An emphasis on colour mixing using acrylics and oil paint.Full fee £189.00 Senior fee £151.00 Concession £123.00 - Contemporary painting studio Course start date: Thu 11 Jan 2024 (and 5 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Lucinda OestreicherDevelop your own ideas in painting with reference to the work of contemporary artists and experimental processes on this higher level course. Ideal for students who have completed ‘Painting 1’, ‘Painting 2’ or equivalent painting courses. Please note that this course uses water-based oil paint as well as acrylic paint.Full fee £899.00 Senior fee £719.00 Concession £584.00 - Ways into abstract painting Course start date: Fri 12 Jan 2024 (and 4 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Mario Lautier VellaEncounter different approaches to making abstract paintings while developing your skills in using a variety of painting materials. With reference to the work of a variety of abstract artists explore the visual language common to both representation and abstraction, eg. colour, composition, tone and paint application.Full fee £339.00 Senior fee £271.00 Concession £220.00 - Painting and drawing dialogues: performance and the body Course start date: Mon 15 Jan 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chris Hough, Tony Hull, Monika KitaDrawings and paintings can capture the body’s movement in their surface, alongside registering an image. By focusing on the ‘performance of making’ new perspectives will inform a more individual approach to your work.Full fee £409.00 Senior fee £327.00 Concession £266.00 - Painting 1 Course start date: Thu 18 Jan 2024 (and 6 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Tony HullPainting 1 offers an introduction to the basic principles and skills associated with painting. Focus on differing approaches to observational and imaginative work, whilst learning how to organise a palette, mix colours and create different textures.Full fee £409.00 Senior fee £327.00 Concession £266.00 - Painting 2 Course start date: Mon 22 Jan 2024 (and 4 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Amanda BrackenBuilding on techniques and approaches covered in the Painting 1, this course enables you to work with more depth and a stronger emphasis on experimentation. This is suitable if you already have some experience in painting.Full fee £409.00 Senior fee £327.00 Concession £266.00 - Colour theory for artists and designers Course start date: Thu 25 Jan 2024 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Amanda BrackenCombining theory and practice, experimentation and intuition, this introductory course for Artists and Makers, is designed to improve your sensitivity to colour. Through structured exercises develop confidence and skill in mixing, imagining, organising and applying colour.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £167.00 Concession £136.00 - Saturday painting studio Course start date: Sat 27 Jan 2024 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Amanda BrackenDevelop your own ideas in painting with reference to the work of contemporary artists and experimental approaches to painting. Ideal for students who have completed ‘Painting 1’ or equivalent painting courses.Full fee £299.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £194.00 - Artists eye: painting natureCourse start date: Mon 5 Feb 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Kate HardyModule two - Artist’s Eye: Painting Nature.
Learn painting while learning about contemporary and historical artists, including Eileen Agar, Giorgio Morandi, Georgia O’Keefe, Fernand Leger, and Kara Walker in this four week course.
We will make paintings inspired by artists whose subject is nature, be guided by their choices of subject matter, and learn from their methods of paint application, colour mixing, and composition.
Acrylic paint can be used for all projects and in one project we will work from collage. This short course can be taken alone or in conjunction with the other modules.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information. - Painting landscapesCourse start date: Mon 12 Feb 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Diane MartinWatercolour is an ideal medium to capture the nuance of landscape through the effects of light, shade, space, distance and colour. This course will introduce the basic techniques required for this traditional genre.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £167.00 Concession £136.00 - Oil painting projects Course start date: Sun 18 Feb 2024 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Alex HannaOil paint is a uniquely luscious and sensitive medium, which can be used to create expressive and complex images. This course is for oil painters with some experience who want to develop their own individual painting projects, with expert tutor guidance.Full fee £409.00 Senior fee £327.00 Concession £266.00 - Looking at artists: colour and compositionCourse start date: Tue 20 Feb 2024 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Benjamin SeniorThis course will give you guidance on how to choose, mix and arrange colours successfully. We will explore approaches to harmony and composition through a series of small scale watercolour exercises which can be collected for future reference.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £39.00 - Painting and drawing dialogues: working with secondary sources Course start date: Sat 24 Feb 2024 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chris Hough, Tony Hull, Monika KitaDiscover how the ‘once-removed’ quality of found images like film stills can change your response to the world around you, as well as expanding the interpretive potential of painting and drawing.Full fee £409.00 Senior fee £327.00 Concession £266.00 - Painting and drawing dialogues: looking back at self Course start date: Mon 26 Feb 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chris Hough, Tony Hull, Monika KitaWe all have a unique way of looking at the world, shaping what we see to fit our reality. Explore how painting and drawing can magnify unconscious distortions and how memory and the imagination come to embody ‘the Self’ in image-making.Full fee £409.00 Senior fee £327.00 Concession £266.00 - Painting from plants and flowers
Course start date: Mon 26 Feb 2024 (and 2 other dates)Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Hilary RosenExplore a variety of creative approaches for painting flowers from observation. Discover the rich history of this genre while taking inspiration from artists who use flowers as their subject matter.Full fee £209.00
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