From antique to life: drawing, painting and printmaking inside the historic art school
Six-day practical and theoretical summer course
Sunday 22 July - Friday 27 July 2018
The RA Schools, Royal Academy of Arts
£2,400. Includes all materials, light refreshments and lunch each day and drinks receptions throughout the week.
Terms and conditions
An intensive, expert-led summer course exploring the traditional teaching methods pioneered by the Royal Academy Schools, including working from antique classical casts as well as life models, exploring drawing, oil painting and printmaking.
Led by Mark Hampson, Head of Fine Art Processes for the RA Schools, and using the RA's unique teaching facilities and Collection, participants are offered access to our highly acclaimed week-long summer course within the historic studios of the RA Schools. This is a rare and exclusive opportunity to experience working in the purpose-built Life Room and painting studios, both of which carry a palpable echo of the RA's creative and practical history.
"This course has transformed my opinion about art. The calibre of instructors, lecturers and materials was unbelievable. This week has been amazing." – Previous summer course participant, 2017
Participants attending this unique course will follow in the footsteps of such historic artists as JMW Turner RA, John Constable RA, William Blake RA and John Everett Millais PRA, who entered the RA Schools as probationary students. The series of classes offered will echo and quote from the linear educative approaches – firstly drawing from the antique on day one, followed by the nude model on day two; focusing on proportion, anatomy and gesture; before engaging with classes in painting with oils and exploring introductory printmaking techniques throughout the rest of the week. This will be experienced in the same double-height, vaulted, sky-lit studios that have inspired generations of art students at the RA.
"The level of instruction, the technical demonstrations, and the historical context is something you do not get in any other school. It is the reason why the Royal Academy is the Royal Academy." – Previous summer course participant, 2017
Taking the traditional teaching methods of the RA Schools as an entry point of focus, participants will be introduced to drawing from the antique using examples from its historic cast collection. Drawing in pencil, chalks and charcoal from these will naturally evolve into the advanced study of drawing from both male and female life models. Following on from this, an extended period of exploring approaches to both printmaking and oil painting from the life figure will form the second part of the course. Technical approaches will include observational drawing, rendering, tonal and colour work, compositional organisation and a variety of physical applications towards surface painting.
The practical course will be complemented by additional experiences that include a tour of the RA Schools, the RA archive and collections, private state rooms and exhibition visits at the RA. Highlights from the RA archive and treasures from its collection will be visited and discussed and participants are invited to attend additional lectures that are rooted in both related and historic subjects such as the history of life drawing, the history of the Royal Academy and its 250 years of influence, and the relating cultural contexts.
The course will last six full days and is designed to provide tutor feedback and maximum teaching time, to study directly from the RA’s unique teaching collection with exclusive access to its world-renowned specialist facilities and expert staff.
For more information about the course timetable, and for any enquiries, please contact Mary Ealden, Academic Programmes Manager - mary.ealden@royalacademy.org.uk / 020 7300 8079
£2,400. Includes all materials, light refreshments and lunch each day and drinks receptions throughout the week.
Terms and conditions
About the space
Situated at the heart of the Royal Academy campus of galleries and exhibition spaces, the RA Schools is the creative centre of its many activities. Housed in a series of purpose-built 19th-century studios, the Schools offer a unique insight into the attitudes and atmosphere of the working life of an historic art school experience. Central to this is its historic Life Room, resplendent with its collection of antique casts and statues. These were originally purchased by the Academy in the mid-18th century as teaching aids for its students. Today they still function as such, but additionally act as reminders of the artistic lineages that have influenced ever-evolving approaches to art education at the RA for nearly 250 years.
The RA Schools was established in 1769. It is the UK’s oldest surviving art school and has offered free training to artists in an active and creative manner ever since. During this time it has been an incredible influence on fine art practices and an arbiter of taste. Its alumni include many of history's finest artists including such notable painters as J M W Turner and his classmate John Constable, William Blake, George Stubbs, John Everett Millais and both Edwin and Charles Landseer.
Additionally, a legion of sculptors, architects and printmakers and other notable creatives have studied at the Schools, including Edward Lear, Meryvn Peake, Heath Robinson, John Hoyland and Anthony Caro. Today, its contemporary students study fine art as a hybrid discipline on the world’s only free three-year postgraduate course.
This course is suitable for enthusiastic and curious beginners and also those with previous experience of drawing and/or painting who wish to further develop their understanding, technique and ability, informed by historical approaches.
This course is for you if:
• You are curious to learn traditional and historic approaches to drawing, painting and printmaking rooted in observation from both the model and still life set ups and wish to do so in a creative and supportive professional environment.
• You wish to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the implications of drawing, painting and printmaking.
• You want to explore creative approaches that are informed by both a rich historical context and also a contemporary art school experience delivered by a team of sympathetic expert tutors, working in related specialisms.
• You would enjoy an intimate and intense insight into the approaches and atmosphere of an historic art school environment.
• You would appreciate learning to develop approaches to drawing, painting and printmaking amongst a group of like minded individuals in a focused, relaxed and supported manner.
• You enjoy history, collections, dialogue and discussion with the opportunity to converse about these subjects with experts in their subject areas and access to rare original source materials.
• You have some prior knowledge of drawing and/or art practise and would like to expand upon your skills.
• You would like a new perspective in your approach to drawing, painting and printmaking.
• You have no prior experience of drawing, painting or printmaking, but are interested in the details of these practises and techniques.
Minimum age 18
The number of participants is strictly limited to enable detailed feedback from the course tutors.
Price: £2,400
Registration from 10.00am
10.30am-5.30pm each day, with additional, optional evening events from 6.00pm onwards
Includes:
• A thorough and comprehensive introduction to the Academy with particular reference to the history of the teachings of the RA Schools, and relevant works in the Collection
• Exclusive access to the RA Schools’ practical spaces throughout the week
• An exclusive visit to the RA Archive and Library with a member of the Collections team to view original works from the Collection
• Support and supervision from award-winning, world renowned tutors throughout the course
• Optional evening events including lectures from RA staff
• Special reference to works in both the RA Schools and Academy’s Library and Archive, specialising on approaches to drawing, painting, and printmaking
• Complimentary tickets to the Summer Exhibition and access to the private galleries of the RA
• All practical materials and equipment
• Access to a variety of male and female professional life models
• Light refreshments and lunch each day
• Drinks receptions throughout the week
• A certificate of participation upon course completion
Course leader
Mark Hampson, Head of Fine Art Processes
Award-winning painter and printmaker Mark Hampson has held over 40 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 200 international group exhibitions. His work has been seen throughout Europe, Asia and the United States at museums, galleries and in site responsive installations. Recently these have included the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, the William Morris Gallery in London and the Kunst Museum in Vienna. In 2012 the RA hosted his solo exhibition, Almost Real Art following his two-year artist residency in the RA Collections and library. Drawing, the figure, narrative and humour are all crucial and constant aspects of his art, leading him to be described as a "contemporary Hogarthian conceptualist".
In addition to his professional career as an artist, he has had a prolific teaching career that has embraced the teaching of drawing, printmaking, sculpture, painting, graphics, illustration and fashion. As part of this he served as senior tutor in printmaking for 14 years at the Royal College of Art, before joining as Head of Fine Art Processes, running the sculpture, printmaking and digital media areas within the Royal Academy Schools in 2013. In 2007 he was made a senior fellow of the RCA.
His work is represented in numerous private and public collections including the V&A Museum, The Arts Council of Great Britain, Hyundai Arts Collection, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, Krakow Museum and the Osaka Prefectural Government collection.
Oil painting tutor
Andy Pankhurst
Upon graduation from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1992, Andy Pankhurst had won First Prize for the Windsor and Newton Young Artist’s Award, and was represented by leading gallery Anthony Mould Contemporary Ltd. He was awarded the Richard Ford Scholarship through the Royal Academy in 1992 for travel in Spain to study the Old Masters within the Prado – subsequently becoming a committee member of the Richard Ford Award himself in 2003, nominated by Christopher Le Brun PRA, and alongside former keeper of the Royal Academy Schools Maurice Cockrill RA (1936-2013). Further travels undertaken through the Boise Travel Scholarship in 1993 to live in the Veneto area of Italy for the year to study primarily Giotto & the Venetian School. As a figurative painter, Andy Pankhurst is known as an artist and teacher working from the life model. Other teaching includes working for the National Portrait Gallery, London. Andy has work 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 November 2014. He is the co-author with Lucinda Hawksley of What Makes Great Art, published 2012 by Apple Press.
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Our programme of short courses and classes offers the opportunity to explore a range of subjects, led by expert tutors and practising artists.
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