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.
Courses available both in-person and online
We offer a range of courses allowing you to choose between online and in-person learning. All our courses are live, interactive, and taught by expert tutors. No matter how you prefer to learn, you’ll receive the same great City Lit experience. See our guide to online learning for more information about accessing our live online courses.
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
- Introduction to painting still-lifeCourse start date: Tue 5 Nov 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Learn the essentials of Still Life painting from paint handling and colour theory to composition.
Dedicate some time to developing your painting in a series of controlled steps. Learn to select and prepare surfaces and materials, build a composition around still life objects and make supplementary studies to guide your colour application. For absolute beginners.Full fee £279.00 Senior fee £223.00 Concession £181.00 - Painting and drawing dialogues: working with secondary sources
Course start date: Mon 11 Nov 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 £429.00 Senior fee £343.00 Concession £279.00 - Life painting: expressionist approaches Course start date: Thu 14 Nov 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chris HoughExplore paint surfaces and textures as you paint directly from the life model. An opportunity to discover strategies for personal expression inspired by Expressionist artists and to rework compositions.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £191.00 Concession £155.00 - Painting for beginners: intensiveCourse start date: Tue 10 Dec 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Learn and develop essential painting skills over consecutive days. Each session will focus on an aspect of painting, covering key concepts including colour, tone, composition and brushwork. Ideal if you have little or no painting experience.Full fee £279.00 Senior fee £223.00 Concession £181.00 - Painting and drawing dialogues: performance and the body Course start date: Mon 13 Jan 2025
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 £429.00 Senior fee £343.00 Concession £279.00 - Drawing and painting portraits: traditional techniquesCourse start date: Thu 16 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Steve WrightThis structured course introduces traditional approaches to drawing then painting portraits from observation of the life model. Suitable for all levels but some previous drawing experience an advantage.Full fee £299.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £194.00 - Artists eye: painting natureCourse start date: Mon 3 Feb 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Kate HardyArtist’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.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £169.00 - Life painting: a contemporary approachCourse start date: Thu 6 Feb 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Steve WrightThis course introduces contemporary contexts for life painting using acrylic paints to explore different creative approaches using the imagination alongside observation of the model. Suitable for all levels but some previous life drawing experience an advantage. - Oil painting: focus on portraiture Course start date: Sun 2 Mar 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Brian SayersLearn 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. - Artists eye: painting portraitsCourse start date: Mon 3 Mar 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Kate HardyPaint a series of portraits inspired by the work of contemporary and historical artists. Learn from their individual ideas and techniques to introduce new ways of painting to your practice. The course can be used to progress from beginner level, or for experienced painters interested in portraiture. This is a live online course.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £169.00 - Painting and drawing dialogues: looking back at self
Course start date: Mon 10 Mar 2025Location 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 £429.00 Senior fee £343.00 Concession £279.00 - Painting: mixing for skintonesCourse start date: Thu 13 Mar 2025 (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: colour mixing for artistsCourse start date: Mon 24 Mar 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Amanda BrackenA 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 £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00
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