Expressive Oils

A 5-day Summer Painting Course. Learning to paint in a loose and expressive style.

Course dates:

Starts: Monday 10th August to Friday 14th August

Times: 10 - 4pm (daily with a break for lunch)

Materials A materials list will be sent to you via email.

This course is a structured, immersive week of oil painting, taught through an alla prima approach—working wet on wet with confidence.

Rather than building paintings in layers, you’ll learn to respond to what you see in the moment, simplifying, editing, and making clear decisions as you go.

You will paint every day and complete multiple paintings across the week.

Course structure
Day 1 — Seeing and Simplifying
We begin with tonal painting exercises to strip things back.
You’ll work with a limited value range to understand how important a role it takes in creating structure in your subject choices.

Day 2 — What makes a good composition
In day 2 we’ll look at picture formats, directional flow. How to create movement through composition. Map pathways in subjects and understand the importance of variation.

Day 3 — Colour and Relationships
Using a limited palette, we’ll look at how colour works in relation to a tonal study.

Trialling different palettes to create different mood and/or harmony in our paintings.

Day 4 — Loosening and Editing
Through timed exercises, you’ll learn to work more freely without losing structure.
The focus is on simplifying and avoiding overworking.

Day 5 — Bringing it Together:
You’ll complete a longer painting, applying everything you’ve learnt from the week. Bringing along a picture to paint from we will put all the weeks exercises into practice in the final piece.

We’ll also look at a purposeful, systematic approach for future paintings.

Who it’s for:
Those who want a clear, practical introduction to the foundations of oil painting.
Those returning to painting who want to loosen up and regain confidence.
Painters who feel stuck or overworked in their approach.

About your Tutor:
Kirsten Norbury is an artist inspired by light and colour in every day life. Her work captures intimate moments in interiors, portraits and still life, to evoke mood and quiet reflection.

Fees:

With own materials: £400

With studio materials‍ ‍- £550 (click the + button to add when checking out).