The home of Mosaic Madness and Art for Strictly Beginners

Has now become nolastudio. I would love you to go there now to truly experience nola and her creative mosaics and art website

past classes

Strictly painting techniques

Glazing Technique - "The creative process"

You begin by painting an imprimatura on the canvas and a simple contour drawing of the apple. You then paint what's called an underpainting that deals with the tonal values of the apple.

This is a must do course for students who wish to gain a deeper understanding of oil painting, materials & oil painting techniques.
This course runs over 8 weeks.
You will learn about painting mediums, the difference between various manufacturers' paints, priming your supports, information about brushes & canvases, how to scumble & glaze and you will be introduced to colour terms like mass, undertone, saturation, hue etc.
The emphasis in the course is to experience and learn different oil brushing techniques, colour mapping.
This is not a painting course - it is a painting techniques course.

Strictly drawing the nude

A mixture of both classical drawing techniques & modern approaches to expressive drawing styles, this course explores them both whilst learning how to create form. We will touch on anatomy & its importance in drawing, further explore contours, shape, negative form & perspective - in particular the concept of foreshortening.

This is still a beginners course. Each night we will have a model, excluding the first night where students will be introduced to the proportions of the human figure - specifically the female & learn how to use drawing materials. In addition to being trained to 'see', each week we will look at how different master artists solved the challenges of the human form. The course is designed to empower you, resource you & at its conclusion take you to a new beginning.

Strictly Arabesque

This oil painting workshop is about learning to paint in the style of 'alla prima'- that is, to start and finish a painting in one session.

Strictly Painting Nudes and Portraiture