Gesso £140 a term

Evening classes for people who say they cannot draw yet

A painting in thick colour, close up.

One room above a garage, twelve easels, four terms a year. Nobody is assessed, nothing goes on a wall unless you put it there, and the word “talent” is not used in the building.

Most people arrive saying the same sentence and leave saying a different one. That is the whole product and it takes about eleven weeks.

Layers of paint scraped across a board.

Term two is charcoal only. Everybody hates the first fortnight.

A study in ochre and white on paper.

Twelve easels. When they are taken, they are taken.

No assessment, no portfolio, no end-of-year show unless the room votes for one.

Flat blocks of colour meeting at an edge. A hand pulling green paint across paper.

Materials included, including the paper you waste.

Veins of colour running through stone.

Nothing is photographed and nothing is posted.

Someone working at an easel out of doors.

Four terms, eleven weeks each

September — December

Drawing what is in front of you

Pencil, then charcoal, then a fortnight of ink you will not enjoy. This is the one to start with and almost everybody does.

£140 · Tuesdays, 19:00 — 21:30

January — March

Charcoal only

One material for eleven weeks. Nobody likes the first fortnight and nobody has ever left because of it.

£140 · Tuesdays, 19:00 — 21:30

April — June

Paint, badly, on purpose

Acrylic, big brushes, short sessions. The aim is to stop you tidying, which is the thing most beginners do instead of painting.

£155 · Thursdays, 19:00 — 21:30

All year

Saturday open room

Bring what you are working on. Somebody is here to ask, nobody is here to teach, and it is quiet until about eleven.

£9 a session · Saturdays, 09:30 — 13:00

What a Tuesday looks like

  1. Twenty minutes of warming up that is not about anything.
  2. An hour on one thing, with the room silent for the middle half.
  3. Tea, and everybody walks round and looks without saying anything clever.
  4. Half an hour to start again knowing what you now know.

You take everything home or leave it in the plan chest. Nothing is photographed, nothing is posted, and nobody is asked to explain their work.

Before you enrol
Brushes, tubes and jars laid out on a bench.
Colour moving through water, filling the frame.

Before you enrol

Twelve places
That is the number of easels. Terms usually fill three weeks out and there is a waiting list that genuinely moves, because people's Tuesdays change.
Paying
The whole term at once, or four instalments if that is easier — say so and it is arranged, without a form and without a fee.
Missing a week
No refunds and no catch-up, but the Saturday room is free to anyone enrolled that term, which is how most people make it up.
Materials
Included, all of it, including the paper you waste — and you will waste a lot in term two, which is the point of term two.
Beginners
About two thirds of every room. If you have not drawn since school you are the normal one here, not the exception.
The stairs
Fifteen of them, no lift. Tell us before you enrol and we will move the class downstairs for the term; it has happened twice and it was fine both times.