Painting Courses In London
At City Lit, we offer a variety of painting courses, from complete beginners with a focus on building essential painting skills, to more experimental approaches that include working at a larger scale or with a more abstract focus. Delivered in one of our bright, modern and relaxing painting studios, students will have access to all basic art materials and resources as part of their course.
Our wide range of studio-based courses and workshops offer students a practical, hands-on guide, from setting up your painting workstation, working with watercolour, acrylic or oil to more technical processes including experimental approaches and use of colour and working with painting mediums. We also offer a range of life painting courses and encourage students to work across and between the areas of drawing and painting to continually develop their ideas and work.
We host exhibitions throughout the year at City Lit Gallery where our students showcase their amazing work.
To arrange a conversation with our painting coordinator about your interests, options and courses available, please contact our Visual Arts team at visualarts@citylit.ac.uk
- Abstract painting weekend
Course start date: Sat 7 Feb 2026 (and 1 other date)Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Amanda KnightLearn how to develop original abstract ideas from simple starting points and build confidence using a variety of painting approaches in acrylics. Explore the power of line, colour and texture in a lively weekend of structured project work.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £167.00 Concession £136.00 - Ways into abstract painting 2 Course start date: Tue 10 Feb 2026 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rebecca AllenA follow-on course from Ways Into Abstract Painting. Explore colour, scale and mark-making in more depth to get the best out of your compositional ideas. Build skills in paint-handling, personal methods of developing abstract imagery, and confidence in discussing your work and themes.
Full fee £389.00 Senior fee £311.00 Concession £253.00 - Oil painting projects Course start date: Sun 22 Feb 2026 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rod JudkinsOil paint is a uniquely 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 £449.00 Senior fee £359.00 Concession £292.00 - Painting and drawing dialogues: looking back at self Course start date: Mon 23 Feb 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: 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 £449.00 Senior fee £359.00 Concession £292.00 - Painting from plants and flowers Course start date: Mon 23 Feb 2026 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sisetta ZapponeExplore 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 £299.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £194.00 - Developing watercolour painting Course start date: Tue 24 Feb 2026 (and 5 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sisetta ZapponeExplore the specific qualities of watercolour and the opportunities this adaptable medium offers to create dynamic painting compositions. Develop a fluency with brush work and layering of colour to develop compositional possibilities.Full fee £299.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £194.00 - Picture framing and mounting for beginners Course start date: Thu 26 Feb 2026 (and 4 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Esther HeyhoeLearn picture framing and mounting skills for the home or workplace. Using professional framing tools and equipment you'll be taught all the skills you need to work in a busy studio or alternatively how to set up your own small scale practice from home.Full fee £359.00 Senior fee £287.00 Concession £233.00 - Oil painting: techniques and mediums Course start date: Fri 27 Feb 2026 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Lindsay PickettOil paint is a medium with a long historical tradition, capable of heavy impasto effects and delicate transparent colour films. Working practically, in the studio, this course will expand your understanding of approaches to building a variety of surfaces in your paint working with mediums and expanding your use of texture and glazing This course is for all levels – both beginners and more experienced painters.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £167.00 Concession £136.00 - Ways into landscape painting Course start date: Sat 28 Feb 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jack Duplock
This practical course introduces a variety of approaches to expand your understanding of landscape painting.Full fee £389.00 Senior fee £311.00 Concession £253.00 - Oil painting: focus on portraiture Course start date: Sun 1 Mar 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Desmond HaughtonLearn to draw and paint portraits using traditional methods of observation, composition and mark making. Working from a variety of professional portrait models you will start with pencil and charcoal and progress on to oil painting.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00 - Artists eye painting projects: the green world Course start date: Tue 3 Mar 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Kate HardyMake paintings inspired by artists whose subject is nature, be guided by their choices of subject matter, and learn from their methods. Eye-opening projects to inspire painters at all levels of experience. This is a live on-line practical course.
Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £167.00 Concession £136.00 - Painting: mixing for skintones Course start date: Thu 12 Mar 2026 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
This course will teach you the skills you need to paint naturalistic skin tones when working from life which will make your figure and portrait paintings more convincing.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £167.00 Concession £136.00 - Painting 1 Course start date: Mon 20 Apr 2026 (and 4 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 £449.00 Senior fee £359.00 Concession £292.00 - Painting and drawing dialogues: working with found images Course start date: Tue 21 Apr 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: 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 £449.00 Senior fee £359.00 Concession £292.00 - Painting 3 Course start date: Fri 24 Apr 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Tony HullFollowing on from the course 'Painting 2', enhance your paint handling skills to further understanding of the dynamics of a painted surface, through a series of set projects and short critical discussions. Examine the role of painting tools, marks and scale in building a painting.Full fee £449.00 Senior fee £359.00 Concession £292.00
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