Art Courses in South London, UK

London Atelier of Representational Art:
Located in Vauxhall, London, the London Atelier of Representational Art was established in response to the rarity of rigorous representational art education and is unique in the UK with its approach to teaching the most fundamentally important aspects of drawing, painting and sculpture from life. We offer fulltime and parttime drawing, painting such as bargue drawing, cast drawing and painting, portrait drawing and painting; Sculpture including intensive figure sculpture. We also offer inspirational classes to learn about the techniques of distinctive art personalities. Inspired by the atelier method of instruction, the unique emphasis of the course is given to working directly from the life model in a continuous pose of no less than a week and up to a month under unvarying (natural) north light conditions, giving optimum time to observe the figure and understand how to see.

Partime Drawing/Painting Courses:
You may choose as follows.
Either:

* Study for half days over an extended period of time during term
* Study for whole days for any number of two week blocks during term

Due to the flexibility nature of the atelier system, the teaching remains the same as for the full time course. The term structure consists of a two week long pose, followed by two four week long poses. It is recommended that you choose a block within one pose.

Fulltime Drawing/Painting:
Duration from one term to three years.

Students will spend three hours in the morning drawing or painting the nude, and a further three hours drawing or painting a bargue drawing, plaster cast, still life or portrait model. A sufficient standard of drawing will be required before being permitted to paint. If one is considering attending for a sustained period, we recommend a starting date at the beginning of new poses. Please view our timetable for availability and life model sessions.

One can choose the number of weeks one wants to attend but, in terms of availability, we do consider full time students to have priority over part time students.

Figure Drawing:
It is our belief that figure drawing is the basis of all good draftsmanship and, for this reason, drawing from life is the backbone of LARA’s process.

Cast Drawing:
The purpose of cast drawing is to learn to render proportions correctly and to model the effects of light and shadow.

Bargue Drawing:
Students are expected to copy the drawings with great accuracy, producing work which is, to all intents and purposes, of a standard that renders it indistinguishable from the original.

Intensive Sculpture:
This intensive sculpture workshop will be taught under the atelier method with all standards of students working together from the same model throughout the day.

We set up the model on a turntable, and the initial sense of the pose is established by standing back and comparing what one is making with what one is seeing - to scale – (similar to the sight-size method) and making adjustments accordingly. We then work using calipers for measurements, and also apply matchsticks to physically mark fundamental points of reference that one can then trust. The emphasis is on the silhouette as created by the contour or outline of the figure, to bring this out, the model is set against a white background for ultimate contrast.

The priority of this course is to focus purely on modeling in clay and observing the figure. To enable maximum time to solely work with the clay without any distraction the pose will have been chosen and a corresponding armature (half life size) will have been constructed for each student before starting the project. Added to this no time will be spent casting the figure at the end of the project, if you decide you want to keep your sculpture we will recommend professional mould makers who will be able to make a cheap casts/moulds. Lara wants to teach students to model the figure to the very best of their abilities and feel this is the best approach and use of time in such a limited period.