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
- Watercolour painting: mixed media techniques
Course start date: Tue 7 May 2024 (and 3 other dates)Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ruth BrisonWatercolour has a rich tradition - this course will explore the more experimental ways of using this pleasurable medium and will present new possibilities for producing exciting new work with mixed media. Make inventive combinations of media to draw from your own found imagery, photographs and sketches.Full fee £189.00 Senior fee £151.00 Concession £123.00 - Painting: colour mixing Course start date: Tue 7 May 2024 (and 4 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
A 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 - Painting: mixing tones for portraitureCourse start date: Thu 9 May 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Alex HannaThis 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 £189.00 Senior fee £151.00 Concession £123.00 - Painting: acrylic techniques and mediums Course start date: Tue 21 May 2024 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Amanda BrackenThe fundamentals of painting are as important for the beginner as they are for the more experienced artist. This course will be an in depth focus on brushwork, brush techniques and how to improve your mark making to develop fluency in the mediums of acrylic paint.Full fee £189.00 Senior fee £151.00 Concession £123.00 - Portrait painting: two session pose
Course start date: Sat 8 Jun 2024 (and 4 other dates)Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Luke JonesDevelop a portrait from life: a structured course to build skills towards making a convincing portrait where the model keeps the same pose over 2 sessions to enable a sustained piece of work.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Watercolour painting: experimental approachesCourse start date: Mon 10 Jun 2024 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Diane MartinAlways wanted to experiment with watercolour painting? Now's your chance to learn how to make more imaginative use of washes and mark-making; enjoy the colour and fluidity of this beautiful medium and discover if you'd like to take it to the next level.Full fee £189.00 Senior fee £151.00 Concession £123.00 - Abstract painting weekendCourse start date: Sat 22 Jun 2024 (and 2 other dates)
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 £189.00 Senior fee £151.00 Concession £123.00 - Colour mixing studio: two-day painting projectCourse start date: Thu 18 Jul 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Stuart JonesThis is a brief introduction to acrylic painting techniques and the use of mediums and materials. Explore a practical approach to painting, including layering, impasto, glazing and application of paint mediums. Ideal for those new to painting in acrylics.Full fee £189.00 Senior fee £151.00 Concession £123.00 - Portrait painting: summer school intensiveCourse start date: Thu 1 Aug 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Desmond HaughtonDevelop a portrait from life: a structured course to build skills towards making a convincing portrait where the model keeps the same pose over 2 sessions to enable a sustained piece of work.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Life painting weekend: expressionist approachesCourse start date: Sat 3 Aug 2024 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Desmond HaughtonExplore and develop a personal expressive response to life drawing and painting using a variety of techniques working from the life model. Explore mark-making, rich colour and dramatic contrast to explore and experiment with expressive and dynamic drawing and painting techniques, in response to examples of Expressionist artists styles and approaches.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Painting: oil techniques and mediumsCourse start date: Thu 12 Sep 2024 (and 5 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Luke JonesOil 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 £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Artists eye: painting landscapesCourse start date: Mon 23 Sep 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Kate HardyPaint a series of landscapes 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 landscape.
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 - 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 - 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: 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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