The whole is greater than the sum of its parts (Aristotle)
Today London Fine Art Studios celebrates a fabulous first year! Three terms of cast drawing, of oil painting, of nudes and portraits have flown by and we are enjoying a buoyant start to the summer courses. To mark the occasion and show that artists can party as hard as they work, we will be found picnic-ing and generally making merry in Battersea Park.
Highlights from the year have included an inaugural lecture from Simon Schama at Leighton House Museum; a talk by Alison Smith, Curator at Tate Britain; workshops and artists-in-residence at Dulwich Picture Gallery; filming with ACAPmedia; Griselda Murray Brown, FT Arts Editor, speaking about the synaesthesia of music and art; and so much more!
However, most exciting has been the expanding programme of classes to include Advanced Cast drawing, Printmaking & Etching, extended Sculpture schedules and new workshops with international artists. We are still looking forward to Henry Yan’s arrival in September.
And yet, though we be young in years, we are rich in experience. As with the Welsh football team, LFAS is greater that the sum of its parts: Ann Witheridge, Founder and Director, brings years of teaching, drawing, painting, exhibiting to bear on her leadership and vision for the Studios; our teachers are also established artists, represented nationally and internationally with creative projects a-plenty under their belts; our art store stocks the best materials from around the globe, offered at affordable prices to our students with a generous lashing of expert advice from Director Scott Pohlschmidt.
Then there are the students, hungry to learn, of all ages and backgrounds, with enriching life experiences of their own. The best will draw on the support of their peers as well as the knowledge of their teachers to further their craft; they will make the most of the lectures, partnerships and events that the Studios organise to help further their professional development.
Thus, the staff, the students and even the spaces (imagine artist’s paraphernalia and worn wooden floors) provide a unique and enormously productive learning environment. Add to this a method that has lasted centuries, classical techniques handed down from one European Master to another. Newcomers begin with the Foundation Course, they learn the fundamentals and train their eye to see afresh, they learn what Aristotle knew: the delicate interplay of parts and whole, never fixating on the detail, always stepping away from the easel to see the bigger picture.
All this amounts to a carefully considered and honed training for amateur and professional artists, for part-timers and full timers alike. One that is supportive yet challenging, consolidated through tradition and wholly contemporary.
I would like to say how much I enjoyed my term at LFAS. The staff is amazing, welcoming, and all around wonderful, the store far too tempting, Chris’ tea some of the best in London, and the general atmosphere inspiring, lovely, and motivating. And as frustrating as it sometimes was (is) to learn a new way of doing something you think you already know how to do, the technique taught as LFAS is exciting, engaging, and expansive. I feel so fortunate to have found LFAS. Many thanks to all of you who make it work so very well.
Testimonial of LFAS Student
