The Art Club
The Art Club
Spring Term
January 5th to March 21st 2026
Half Term Break: February 14th to 20th
Expressive Landscapes II
Mondays 10am-12pm
with Hayley Whittingham
This course continues our landscape journey by turning our attention to the urban environment. Students will explore architecture and city details such as signage, street furniture, and shop fronts, while experimenting with new materials and techniques, including gel printing, layering, and pen and wash.
Designed to encourage confident exploration of both subject matter and process, the course offers a relaxed but focused space to develop ideas and try unfamiliar approaches. By the end of the course, students will have produced several prints and mixed-media studies, alongside one larger, more personal final piece.
Contemporary Still Life
Mondays 7pm-9pm
with Annabel Pattison
This course focuses on developing strong observational skills while experimenting with modern approaches to still life. Working from simple still-life set-ups, students will explore the bold use of colour and expressive brushwork to interpret everyday objects in a fresh and contemporary way.
Through guided demonstrations and supported studio time, students will learn how to simplify form, build confident compositions, and use paint expressively to create strong, individual still life paintings. The emphasis is on developing personal responses to familiar subjects, encouraging experimentation while maintaining close observation.
This course offers a refreshing approach to re-interpreting contemporary objects through painting, with full guidance and support provided throughout.
Expressive Landscapes II
Tuesdays 10am-12pm
with Hayley Whittingham
This course continues our landscape journey by turning our attention to the urban environment. Students will explore architecture and city details such as signage, street furniture, and shop fronts, while experimenting with new materials and techniques, including gel printing, layering, and pen and wash.
Designed to encourage confident exploration of both subject matter and process, the course offers a relaxed but focused space to develop ideas and try unfamiliar approaches. By the end of the course, students will have produced several prints and mixed-media studies, alongside one larger, more personal final piece.
Expressive Landscapes
Tuesdays 7pm-9pm
with Ursula Bevan-Hunter
Over this immersive 10-week course, you will take a creative deep dive into expressive landscape painting. Drawing inspiration from Scottish painters including Joan Eardley, Barbara Rae, and John Lowrie Morrison, the course explores how atmosphere, energy, and emotion can be captured within the landscape.
You will be guided through essential acrylic painting techniques, developing a strong understanding of composition, perspective, and depth of field. The course also focuses on colour mixing, helping you work confidently with light, dark, and tonal contrast to bring your paintings to life. Alongside technical development, the course encourages experimentation. You will work with a range of materials and tools, exploring expressive mark-making and learning how to build texture and depth through the use of both solid and transparent layers.
Drawing & Painting Developers
Wednesdays 10am-12pm
with Kristel Bodenseik
This 10-week course focuses on the fundamental principles of drawing and painting. Working with a variety of media, students will build confidence and experience while exploring subjects such as still life, landscape, and the figure.
Led by clear demonstrations, the course introduces a range of topics and progresses from simple drawing studies into painting, mark-making, and colour studies. Core techniques are introduced first and then applied through a series of fun, achievable, stand-alone paintings inspired by contemporary artists.
Students will produce several technique-based studies before completing a more considered personal piece developed over the final three weeks. Suitable for beginners to intermediate level students.
Drawing & Painting Developers
Wednesdays 7pm-9pm
with Bethany Williams
This 10-week course covers the core principles of drawing and painting. Introducing a range of media, it is designed to build confidence and experience as students become familiar with subjects including still life, landscape, and the figure.
Each lesson is led by clear demonstrations and focuses on a different topic, progressing from simple drawing studies into painting, mark-making, and colour studies. Essential techniques are introduced first, followed by opportunities to apply these skills through fun, achievable stand-alone paintings inspired by contemporary artists.
Students will produce several strong technique-based studies before developing a more considered personal piece over the final three weeks. Suitable for beginners to intermediate level students.
Portraits: Mastering the many aspects of basic portraiture from proportion to expression
Thursdays 10am-12pm
with Leigh Roberts
This course begins with sketching in basic mediums before moving on to the use of acrylic paint for colour. Each element of the face is studied individually, including eyes, lips, nose, and a range of hair effects, allowing students to build skills step by step.
The course also explores capturing facial features and expressions in different artistic styles, with reference to artists such as Frida Kahlo and Lucian Freud. The final stage of the course focuses on creating a developed portrait, either a self-portrait using mirrors or a subject of the student’s choice.
Outcomes will include several detailed studies, followed by two larger, developed personal pieces.
Urban Sketching with Gel Printing
Thursdays 7pm-9pm
with Bethany Williams
This exciting and inspiring course teaches students how to sketch their city environment effectively using reference images. The aim is to enable students to record scenes from cafés or cities, whether at home or on holiday, using simple architectural sketching techniques.
Students will learn how to capture scenes, buildings, and people quickly and confidently.
The course also explores gel printing from existing images, using the process as a way to layer, manipulate, and rework favourite scenes into original and expressive outcomes.
The course results in several original prints, a series of sketches, and two final developed personal pieces.
Watercolour Development
Fridays 10am-12pm
with Leigh Roberts
This course further develops students’ knowledge of watercolour while introducing the use of additional media alongside a watercolour base. Working with a range of subjects, primarily landscapes, students will learn how to build layers and textures within a composition, resulting in more complex and resolved finished pieces.
Through a series of one-week and two-week projects, the course explores expressive mark-making using pastel and acrylic in combination with watercolour. Texture will be created using materials such as salt, baking powder, and other mediums that can be rubbed on and built up to produce a wide range of effects. Stencils and collage will also be introduced as an optional part of the process.
The course is designed to build confidence and experience across different media, helping each student to develop their own artistic style. Outcomes will include two main personal pieces, alongside several exploratory and experimental studies.
