Studio course: The Painting Year II Wednesdays: 4 Oct 2023 to 26 June 2024

Artist-tutors: Melissa Kime and Dan Coombs

Fees: Two term £2025 Term £745
THIS CLASS IN NOW FULL

Should you like information on similar or other available classes please get in touch with the school or refer back to our website.

Art materials are for included on the course with exception of canvas that can be purchased from the school. See below for course details.

The Painting Year II on Wednesdays is a practical course for those looking to advance their practice, develop their skills and content whilst being guided by experienced and celebrated painters. The intention of the course is to inject your practice with inspiration, enable you to try new approaches and materials. As part of an artist’s community, participate in a discourse about contemporary painting, that’s enhanced by talks by visiting artists, while you ground and embed methods and ideas in your own practice and experience. Every two weeks during term time we have visiting artists giving talks on their work and studio practice.

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This course is designed for those with prior experience of painting. Whether you are self-taught or you have been to art school with painting these distinctions no longer hold. From our experience many artists who have been to art school in recent years would like have liked to paint but were not given the technical and/or intellectual support to do so and therefore turn to other mediums, however once taken by the desire to paint it is hard to shake off. If you are in this category this course will provide you with what you need to learn about, advance, practice and develop your painting. You will be given stimulating looking, watching and reading lists. Should you have any questions or like to speak to one of our team, please fill in the form at the bottom of the page.

Course timetable
TermDates
Oct Term4 Oct to 13 Dec 2023 – Half term 25 October
January Term10 Jan to 20 Mar 2023 – Half Term 14 February
April Term17 April to 26 Jun 2023 – Half Term 29 May 
About the artist-tutors
Melissa Kime

Melissa Kime

Dan Coombs

Dan Coombs
Melissa Kime

Melissa was born in Wiltshire UK in 1989 and currently lives and works in London. She graduated with a BA Fine Art in 2011 from Falmouth University, with a postgraduate diploma in drawing from the Royal Drawing School in 2013 and with an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 2015. She exhibited in Bloomberg New contemporaries, 2014 at the ICA London which was selected by Enrico David, Goshka Macuga and Marvin Gaye Chetwynd and won the Arts Club award at The Royal Academy Summer Show, 2019. She has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad in both solo and group shows, she has won numerous prizes for both drawing and painting and her work is in many private collections. Read more >>>

Dan Coombs

Dan Coombs is ESOP’s Head of Painting Year programme and lead tutor on the ESOP Advanced Painting Course. A London based painter, Dan is a graduate of The Ruskin School, Oxford (1989-92) and the Royal College of Art (1992-94). He was Rome Scholar in painting British school in Rome (1994-5). He has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. Dan creates his compositions from studies in collage and paint, which unite his figures with entirely invented surroundings, landscape dream worlds and interior spaces. These are human encounters charged with a mysterious, symbolic power. They are explorations of guilt, beauty and fear of isolation; that draw on myth, religion and psychoanalysis in order to grasp the real within the imaginary. Read more >>>

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About Andrew Wamae

Andrew Wamae is the Director and co-founder of the Essential School of Painting (ESOP). He has a deeply held belief in the power of art to transform lives and society, and a particular interest in exploring new models for art education beyond school; championing the twin ideals of excellence and affordability in a highly pressurised sector when university fees are soaring and student/ tutor contact time is at an all time low. Andrew is particularly keen to ensure that the visual arts continue to be supported and thrive well. A creative, innovative and visionary professional, Andrew, in conjunction with his co-founder Alison Harper, has transformed the Essential School of Painting from humble beginnings to an established institution holding from one-day to year-long courses and workshops for all levels of experience; from beginners to postgraduate and professional artists. He has managed to enlist the support of a long list of celebrated artists from multiple fields in the creative industry to teach or lecture at the school or in their studios.