Drawing and painting: from the essential to the sensual
Five-week practical evening course
12 November 2018 6.30 - 9.30pm19 November 2018 6.30 - 9.30pm26 November 2018 6.30 - 9.30pm3 December 2018 6.30 - 9.30pm10 December 2018 6.30 - 9.30pm
The Clore Learning Centre, Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts
£480 Includes all materials, light refreshments and a drinks reception at the end of week 5.
Klimt / Schiele
Terms and conditions
This practical course will guide participants through the formal aspects of drawing and painting, to provide a foundation for developing their own language of self-expression.
Formal ideas such as proportion, form, pictorial space and composition are constant concerns for artists when they are working. No matter how many years they have been drawing or painting, these essential concepts will always be part of the challenge of the artistic process.
With time and experience however, it is possible to build personal sensibility and aesthetic judgement and intuition. Key questions will always arise. What concepts is this trying to convey? What is the essence of the idea? Only by mastering the formal foundations of drawing can an artist clearly answer such questions, leading to coherent and powerful self-expression.
Two cases in point are Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) and Egon Schiele (1890–1918). Both men had a conventional artistic education and yet went on to become two of the most radical and influential artists of the twentieth century. Always working directly from life, they developed their own idiosyncratic and creative figurative language through either Symbolism or Expressionism.
This course will encourage participants to develop a personal sensibility and language for self-expression, on the basis of a solid foundation of weekly studies focusing on traditional concepts of drawing and painting.
This course will take place on consecutive Monday evenings.
Each session runs from 6.30 – 9.30pm
Week one – Monday 12 November
Klimt’s method
Week two – Monday 19 November
Schiele’s method
Week three – Monday 26 November
Portraiture
Week four – Monday 3 December
Self-expression
Week five – Monday 10 December
The sensual
About the course
This course will encourage participants to develop a personal sensibility and language for self-expression, on the basis of a solid foundation of weekly studies beginning with the essential formal and traditional concepts of drawing and painting.
Participants will work from male and female life models and use a variety of wet and dry materials, including but not exclusive to: graphite, charcoal, chalks, pastels, watercolours, gouache, ink and oil paint.
This exciting ideas and technique-based course runs over five consecutive weeks under the guidance of painter and expert tutor Andy Pankhurst.
This course is suitable for all levels, but participants will ideally have some prior experience of drawing, painting or creative practice in general.
This course is for you if:
• You have some prior knowledge of drawing and/or painting and would like to extend your skills in working from perception and direct observation.
• You would like a new perspective in your approach to life drawing and painting.
• You would like to develop your knowledge of and skills in a variety of media, including gouache, oil paint and watercolour.
• You would like to develop your skills and ideas within a small group in the Royal Academy’s new Clore Learning Centre.
• You have no prior experience of life painting but have an interest in the history, theory and the practice of art more generally.
Minimum age 18
The number of participants is strictly limited to enable detailed feedback from the course tutor.
£480
Monday 12 November – Monday 10 December 2018
6.30pm – 9.30pm for each session (five sessions in total)
• An introduction to the RA with particular reference to works in the Collection
• A complimentary ticket to the Klimt / Schiele exhibition
• The opportunity to work from both male and female professional life models throughout the course
• All specialist practical art materials
• Course learning materials and hand-outs
• Refreshments at the beginning of each session
• A drinks reception at the end of week five
• A certificate of participation upon course completion
About the tutor
Andy Pankhurst
Upon graduation from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1992, Andy Pankhurst won first prize in the Windsor and Newton Young Artist’s Award and was represented by leading gallery Anthony Mould Contemporary Ltd.
In the same year, he was awarded the Richard Ford Scholarship by the Royal Academy, with which he travelled to Spain to study the Old Masters in the Prado. He subsequently became a committee member of the award in 2003, nominated by Christopher Le Brun PRA, alongside former Keeper of the Royal Academy, Maurice Cockrill RA. Through the Boise Travel Scholarship, he later lived in the Veneto area of Italy, studying primarily Giotto and the Venetian School.
As a figurative painter, Andy Pankhurst is known as an artist and teacher working from the life model. Andy’s work is represented in various public, corporate and private collections and museums in the UK and USA. Andy currently exhibits with Browse and Darby in London, with his most recent show of paintings and drawings in 2014. He is the co-author with Lucinda Hawksley of the book What Makes Great Art, published in 2012 by Apple Press.
Our courses and classes programme
Our programme of short courses and classes offers the opportunity to explore a range of subjects, led by expert tutors and practising artists.