The London Atelier of Representational Art at Clapham, was established in response to the rarity of rigorous representational art education and is unique in the UK with its approach to teaching the most fundamentally important aspects of drawing, painting and sculpture from life. Inspired by the atelier method of instruction, the unique emphasis of the course is given to working directly from the life model in a continuous pose of no less than a week and up to a month under unvarying (natural) north light conditions, giving optimum time to observe the figure and understand how to see. Working with tutors 6 hours a day and using the “sight- size” technique we aim to teach essential concepts of proportion, line, gesture, form and light to best master expression of the human form.

The previously lost atelier method of teaching, passed down through generations of artists, provides the ideal environment for students and professional artists to perfect their skill. It is our belief that it is necessary to teach the grammar of drawing, thus giving the student the confidence to execute their ideas, whether they decide to become a representational artist, or pursue any alternative visual medium.