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Short course

Painting And Personal Inspiration Short Course

Painting And Personal Inspiration Short Course | On campus
Find your painting inspiration. Explore personal sources and develop your unique style. Learn techniques to translate inspiration into art.

Next start months
April 2026
July 2026
Tutor(s)
Joe Richardson
Guy Noble
Price
From £740.00

Course description

Course overview

This course is designed to help you take the next step with confidence in a constructive and inspirational environment. You will discover what it is about painting that really excites and inspires you. Whether you are interested in the language of painting, or certain subjects move you more than others, this course will take you step by step through an examination of this process of discovery.

Who this course is for

This course is suitable for both beginners and more experienced learners, or anyone interested in why artists choose particular painting subjects and strategies.

Key information

Topics covered

  • Basic understanding of the language of painting looking at colour, form, space and light
  • How have artists taken each aspect of the language and pushed it to extremes? How is a Fauve painting different from an impressionist painting? How is Lucian Freud different from a Francis Bacon?
  • Individually explore motivated projects that might involve contemporary painting approaches, painting from life, drawings or photographs, or using notetaking, found images or objects
  • Life models, still life, interiors, or a view from a window, the street or the city
  • Optional out of college assignments may also be set

Learning outcomes

  • Have explored other artists techniques, approaches and subject matters
  • Able to demonstrate some key painting techniques
  • Have developed your confidence and personal style as a painter
  • Digital badge and certificate of attendance

Materials

  • 5 x A1 sheets of White Card (at least 300gsm thick)
  • 500ml or 1000ml of White Gesso
  • 1 x large 2"" (50mm) cheap house paint brush from any DIY store
  • A mixture of various size nylon/hog hair or similar brushes (3 should be No.10 Large)
  • 1 x palette knife (medium size - used for mixing colours)
  • 2 x 2B and 2 x HB pencils
  • Masking tape
  • Cotton rags (e.g. old T-Shirts)
  • Colour acrylic and oil paints

Please only use artist's quality from art supply shops like Atlantis European or CassArts (LIQUTEX/TRI-ART/GOLDEN) for acrylic paints

Basic Colours artists quality (do not buy student quality paint)

  • Cadmium Lemon
  • Cadmium Yellow
  • Cerulean Blue
  • Cobalt Blue
  • Prussian Blue
  • Raw Umber
  • Cadmium Red
  • Alizarin Crimson
  • Lamp Black
  • Titanium White (Large tube)

Additional Colours (Optional)

  • Viridian
  • Magenta
  • Yellow Ochre
  • Indian Yellow Deep
  • French Ultramarine
  • Raw Sienna
  • Transparent Oxide

For Health and Safety reasons, students are not allowed to bring any solvents to the studio. We will provide low-odour mineral spirits.

Any kind of spray products, turpentine or white spirits are banned from the building and the internal courtyard.

Further painting materials will be discussed as the course progresses.

Tutor

Joe Richardson

Joe Richardson is a London-based multidisciplinary artist and artist-educator working across painting, drawing, walking, teaching and socially engaged practice. His work often begins with observational drawing out in the world: on trains, during walks through the city, and within everyday life. From there, he returns to moments of transition in the in-between spaces where roles, environments and ways of being shift, and where feelings of tension, balance and anxiety surface. These raw, immediate drawings often evolve into studio works, becoming paintings, cyanotypes, prints and other artefacts that carry traces of movement, place and lived experience.

Central to Joe's work is the belief that making, teaching and learning are inseparable. Through participatory projects, he invites others into the act of moving/walking and drawing, creating shared experiences and practical ways to generate imagery, reflect, and bring thought into motion. The routes he walks become a working space: a place to observe, to record notes and reflections, and to test ideas outside the studio. In this sense, drawing walks shift from incidental journeys to an essential method for connecting with place, people, and questions that shape the work and activate new ideas.

Joe regularly teaches Short Courses at UAL and is the course leader for Advanced Painting at City Lit. He holds an MA in Fine Art and MA Academic Practice from Central Saint Martins and University of the Arts London as well as a PGCert in Academic Practice from UAL. He also holds Advance HE Fellowship Status.

joerichardson.net

Guy Noble

Guy Noble is an experienced tutor and a practising artist who has exhibited internationally. He studied at the Byam Shaw, Spain and Italy. Guy teaches a number of painting and drawing courses at Central Saint Martins, including Abstraction Painting, Painting and Personal Inspiration and Introduction to Drawing.
In 2015 Thames and Hudson and Prestel published '100 Master Classes in Drawing'. You can check out his website at www.guynoble.com

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