The summer oil painting foundation Intensive course - Monday 9th June - Friday 13th June 10 - 1 pm each day in our Neukölln studio

Portfolio review and personal one on one tutorial before the course starts via google meet in your home or studio with course leader in order to prepare for the course

  • studio based academic on easel course over 5 days

  • Broad Art library and printer scanner for student use

  • How to build your own painting surface out of wood and canvas

  • How to start a painting - Underpainting in oil

  • What to mix with your oil paints and how to get the results you want

  • How to glaze a painting and create rich layers

  • How to finish a painting

  • 1 on 1 techniqical help throughout

  • London art school style group critques to evaluate each students progress and constructively move and develop your work forward

  • all materials included - a rich and broad variety of oil paints, mediums, canvases, oil papers and unique technical studio equipment, easels boards, palettes and all professional artist materials and equipment.

  • Everything you need to know to get started in oil painting

  • Printed worksheets in each class explaining techniques taught in the class

  • 6 students per class in a unique professional environment in the heart of Neukölln

  • Everything you need to establish an artistic practice taught in a working berlin artist studio with real time feedback and group critiques

  • Colour theory - production of colour theory grids to take to your home studio

  • Certificate on course completion-

A deposit of 150 EUR is payable in your first studio meeting to secure your place

Full materials and a studio equipment list

  • Oil painting paper various sizes

  • Cotton canvas various sizes

  • Pine Stretcher bars various sizes

  • Hog hair synthetic and Wolf hair brushes various sizes

  • Linseed oil

  • Dammar varnish

  • Dammar varnish crystals

  • Pipettes

  • Colour wheels

  • Solvents thinners and other mediums

  • Oil paints ready-made Lucas studio or daler rowney or the student equivalent

  • Oil paints include a full range that all students have access to on the course.

  • Glass palletes

  • Pallete knives rags easels drawing boards

  • Dry materials for drawing include but are not limited to pencils charcoal felt pens colored pencils oil pastels dry pastels.

  • Turpentine or An alternative (Let us know if you have any allergies or if you are pregnant When applying for the course We will endeavour to place you on a course in oil painting that is turpentine free)

  • Rabbit skin glue

  • Gesso for priming canvases

Studio resources and library

There is a rich broad art library with many hundreds of thousands of references to historic and contemporary painting that students are free to use on the course. We have a full colour printer and scanner available for use for students to utilize the library and copy any images that are important to them for their work.

Individual student setup

Every class has a maximum of six students each student is assigned a workstation. Each workstation consists of the following materials and studio equipment. The workstation provides everything our students need to work in oil painting. The setup is Holy unique to burn Sienna and the teaching of Louise lenz Hannah Turner Duffin and Emma Seach. You will not find this particular setup with its traditional values and core resources anywhere else in Berlin. What we provide for our students aims for them to continue working in a professional manner as an artist for the future.

Chair, easel, Drawing board,  table ,glass palette bucket for solvents paint brushes colour wheel scissors staple gun palette knives Pipettes glass jars for mediums

Course Content               

 DAY ONE We will begin with an introduction and orientation of the studio, then move on to  transcribing an image from a master work or image: focus will be upon paint handling, mixing black, building a palette and application of a tonal scale in order to produce a study on paper in the time given. Grisaille painting technique: monochromatic painting.  Discussion and introduction to surfaces. Stretching the canvas on the bars. Adding glue to size the canvas.  Preparing sources and thumbnails, we will begin to think  about constructing a composition. Students are asked to bring resources, photographs, source material postcards and objects etc. We start constructing a composition and building a ground.

DAY TWO Introduction to colour theory and colour mixing and applying this to a still life painting on paper under guidance. Louise will demonstrate how to make up a colour palette and you will work throughout the session from a still life. There will be a focus on colour values, composition, form, colour identification and mixing and mark making. 

DAY THREE Introduction to underpainting and starting a canvas painting using your own resources, going back over composition and colour theory as we move forwards throughout the sessions.

DAY FOUR   Introduction to glazing techniques and more on colour theory. Start to build glazes on individual canvases, working with contrast and tone, building depth and creating highlights.

DAY FIVE  Finishing highlights lowlights, varnishing and depth. Continuing on to the final layers of your paintings and completing your canvas paintings. Depending on each student's development there is the possibility to complete several studies on paper and one canvas painting.