Date:  31st March – 2nd April 2023
Artist: Brian Smyth
Medium: Oil
Participants: Maximum 9
Course level: Intermediate and advanced

Brian Smyth is an award-winning graduate of the Crawford College of Art and Design (1995), and an alumnus of The Angel Academy, a school, dedicated to the training of realist drawing and painting techniques based in Florence where he trained extensively in the art of figurative and portrait painting, and where he consequently became an instructor in life drawing and painting. He is represented by galleries both in Ireland and in the UK, and his work is held in both public and private collections.

Course Concept

John Singer Sargent, regarded as one of the best practitioners of portrait painting, from the period of the late 19^th to early 20^th century.  An age when portrait painting in oils reached its peak, before the art of representational painting was almost lost with the art world’s fascination with modern art.

Painting copies of great paintings has always been a way artists adopted to better understand the works of earlier masters.  It has always been regarded an important exercise to improve their own painting techniques.

Copying after these masters not only offers insights into how these artists approached and painted their subjects it offers the artists an opportunity for gaining a better understanding of the techniques and practices of the great masters.

In this workshop, you will get to study and work towards completing a master-copy of a portrait painting by John Singer Sargent, of your selection, guided by classically trained painter, Brian Smyth.

During this workshop, as you work on your master copy painting, you will also learn many aspects of realists/academic methods of oil painting from the mixing of flesh tones to the use of and understanding of value and colour.

Learning this step-by-step method, for creating a master-copy will enable you to incorporate these techniques and understandings into your own painting practice.

This workshop is of most benefit to painters of who already have some general understanding and at least little experience of painting.

* The course takes place in Artform modern light-filled seaside studio with 24hr access for each visiting artist, and runs from 11am to 5pm on the first day and from 10am to 4pm on the subsequent days. Cost does not include accommodation, on request Artform offers artist accommodation options. Details on art materials and safety will be provided after signing up to the course. Artform operates Health and Safety studio policy in keeping with updated national guidelines (for further information please see here https://www.artform.ie/covid-19/).