One Week Holiday Course // The Contemporary Portrait

Painting portraits has challenged artists for over 2,000 years and this enduring fascination continues to thrive, long after the invention of photography. This course focuses on combining the practical aspects of applying paint on canvas with the intuitive, emotional, and expressive responses inherent to painting a fellow human being: the depiction of the head as form existing in space, as portrait, as well as the relationship between painter and sitter. Students are offered the chance to make sustained portrait paintings over several days as well as shorter studies. Emphasis will be placed on colour mixing, temperature, tone and mark making, varieties of palettes and methods relevant to an individual student’s practice. Examples will be given from artists both historical and contemporary: Valasquez to Dumas, Edouard Manet to Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Students will receive one-to-one tuition as well as participating in group discussions. Suitable for all levels from beginner to veteran painter.

Unfortunately, we do not offer concessions on our holiday courses.

All of our course rates are subsidised and we also offer a comprehensive concessions scheme on term time courses. View all course fees and concessions.