ONLINE: The Bigger Picture Post-grad course – Fridays 12 Nov 2021 – 08 July 2022

Artist-tutors: David Mach RA, Liane Lang and Bob Matthews
Fridays 10am to 5pm

Admission to terms two and three available.

3 places available.

Annual Fee £1650 Fees two terms £1140 or Term Fees £630 X 3 terms

Join us and have this incredible opportunity to work within a close-knit community of 10 other artists for one year; explore ideas individually and as a group to expand your art practice.

Sessions with the three artists David Mach, Liane Lang and Bob Matthews will range from group projects on Zoom to individual projects plus one or two off-site visits. All through the course you will receive 1 to 1 sessions with the tutors, in-depth discussions in creative critical thinking to group crits on your work. At the end of the academic year you have an Online End of Year Exhibition.

If you have any questions please fill in the form below to contact the school (bottom of the page)

With the ever-changing environment of the art world the aim of this programme is to give you an in-depth opportunity to develop and consolidate your work in a supportive environment.

Click the titles on the images below to see this year’s online Galleries

We’re not just painters and sculptors, we’re actors and singers. We’re performers, we play in orchestras and bands. We write poetry, we deliver spoken word, we design, we make architecture. Our ideas take us into every sphere of life and every time we pick up a brush to paint, every time we install a sculpture, draw on a page, write a story, compose lyrics for a song a whole world prepares to transport us, frame us, write about us, sell us, promote us, display us, restore us, record us, build us, buy us and buy tickets to see us, hear us and watch us. On this course we will aim to take the skills you bring along with you and enhance them, supercharge them; that’s what this course proposes to do. We will pour over ideas, we’ll share them, we will find new technologies, we will hone skills, beat out initiatives on anvils and explore the world. We will invade with our ideas and push the boundaries of that world further with our art. On this course, these are the things we will pursue.

David Mach RA

Course outline

  • The details of this are- as much one to one, up close, personal tutelage as we all can manage and stand.
  • Meetings with everyone on the course at the same time sharing and discussing ideas, bringing ideas of our own and of others to the table week by week.
  • Personal development’s big on the agenda. We’ll find out who you are and what you’re capable of through all that one to one stuff and through discussion with the whole group.
  • No topic will be taboo. We’ll find ourselves involved in sex, gender, politics, social issues and we’ll find out what art is. What it should be, what we want it to be, how we want it to be and where we want it to be and we want to make it with.
  • We’ll look at what’s out there in art and architecture, in design, painting, in sculpture, in film, in food, stories, music, you name it. We can meet online, inform each other ridiculously of what the world is up to creatively, eat, drink and talk together, play music, watch a film.

This is a selective course. All applications will be considered and qualifying applicants will be informed as soon as their application is accepted. Admissions are based on merit on a first come first serve basis. This is why, with the limited number of places available, we strongly recommend that you apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

L to R: Towers of Babel 1 Collage by David Mach 2011, Best Laid Plans by Liane Lang Screenprint 2017 1/20,  Collection, 2014. Installation view as part of Abstract Apartment by Bob Matthews, If You Go Down to The Woods Today by David Mach, The Grand Gesture by Liane Lang and People's Stage, 2003 Archival pigment print by Bob Matthews
Course timetable dates
  • Autumn Term: 12 Nov to 17 Dec 2021
  • Spring Term: 14 Jan to 01 Apr 2022 – Half Term 18 February
  • Summer Term: 22 April to 08 July 2022 – Half Term 3rd June
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About The Essential School Of Painting

The Essential School of Painting (ESOP) is an alternative art school based in Wood Green, London, specialising in painting and drawing classes taught by leading contemporary artists. The ESOP offers exciting, intellectually rigorous courses with the intention of advancing painting. Classes are available for all levels of experience.