London Fine Art Studios is an art atelier that specialises in teaching the craft of classical drawing and painting, always working from life. They teach the core principles of proportion, gesture, values and colour to a unique community of students and professional artists. Their aim is to give students a solid foundation so that they can have the freedom and confidence to develop their own work and style.
Taken from London Fine Art Studio website in their own words:
“London Fine Art Studios is a unique community of artists. It dispels the myth of the lonely artist; students and professional artists study with us for the consolidation of core skills and for the positive impact of learning in a group.
The atelier method is not a new way of working. The principle of bringing a group of artists together to work under a single roof dates back centuries.
In Italy these botteghe, as they were known, brought together a group of artists under the leadership of a Master. An example that set the precedent for Renaissance Italy was that Verrocchio’s workshop, where Leonardo da Vinci learnt his craft.
The bottega allowed young artists the opportunity to acquire important skills in their chosen profession whilst at the same time earning a living. It was also a way of passing down precious knowledge from one generation to the next.
Artist’s workshops were found across Europe, Frans Hals students famously took their duties to new levels as they retrieved their Master from many a drunken excursion. Rubens too was heavily influenced by his Italian counterparts and is documented to have had many artists working under his supervision, including Van Dyke.
Over time the nature of the workshop evolved and the importance of education and training took precedence. In France, these workshops were defined as atelier in order to differentiate them from the Académies. They subsequently came to encompass many different creative industries such as haute couture.
It was in Paris, under the tuition of Carolus Duran that Sargent developed as a young artist and obtained the foundations from which he would later rise to international repute. Importantly, whilst this community of artists learnt the craft of drawing and painting, they were not indoctrinated in a single style. As Stanley Olson observed in his biography of the artist, John Singer Sargent: A Portrait, their training was in the grammar and each would find their own expression within that:
“Great masters have interpreted nature, and not given a literal translation… Without this individual point of view, there can be no individual work. This shows how dangerous are those schools that, restricting artists to the same methods, do not permit them to develop their individual feeling.”
London Fine Art Studios, in keeping with a long line of artists’ workshops, has brought together a group of like-minded individuals and offers rigorous training in the skills of drawing and painting. As with the atelier, the artist-tutor works alongside the students, teaching by example and demonstration; there is a process but not a uniform style.
Moreover, the Studios provide the context for artists to connect and grow together through peer exchange, professional networking and the joy of a shared passion. This exceptional community-based in Battersea embraces tradition as a means of finding a new and individual painterly style.”
My studies here was incredibly interesting and insightful. I wanted to learn how the old masters did it and incorporate what I learned into my own work so I booked myself onto a materials course to learn about the mediums used to create paintings and how to mull my own paints with pigments and oil and how to stretch and prepare my own canvasses.
Scott Pohlschmidt ran the materials course and had incredible knowledge on everything he taught.
After the materials course I went on to booking a foundation course which was over 10 weeks to study charcoal and oil paints taught by Ann Witheridge. This was to take it right back to the beginning and learn the basics in the traditional methods using charcoal and making line drawings of cast models.
Live models are used for figurative sketches
After a few weeks of charcoal sketches we moved onto oil paintings, again working from live models and still life set ups only using a limited palette to understand values, temperature, shadows and highlights.
Eventually we moved onto colour.
For the final study in oils we worked from a live model for the figurative practice which is a lot harder than a still life set up. The model has regular breaks so when they get back into position it’s not always the same so you have to take key elements and work from that. Eventually you’ll find different tone changes in the skin and shadow areas to play with.
It was incredibly difficult to learn the classical method yet very rewarding.
I’ve been able to take what I have learned from this course and adapt it into my own work whether it’s in my tattooing career or my paintings. Either way it was great the learn new things and have an understanding in the classical arts. Limited palette is a great way to learn as it forces you to study colour theory a lot deeper than just relying on unlimited colours at your convenience. You have to learn the relationships the colours have and create harmony in your work, everything is related and nothing should clash.
For anyone interested in learning classical Fine Art then just click the link to go to their website which I highly recommend. They have so many different courses available and are very helpful.
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