Fridays, 10am - 12:30pm | 9th January - 20th March (mid-term break 13th February)

Explore the art and science of drawing — and develop your creative practice from the ground up..

Ways of Seeing & Drawing is the first term in a year-long Drawing & Painting Foundations programme — the perfect start to your creative journey

This 10-week practical course introduces the essential skills of observational drawing. Through guided studio exercises and demonstrations, you’ll learn to observe closely, measure accurately, and describe form, space, and light with confidence. Each session focuses on a key aspect of drawing — from contour and proportion to perspective, structure, and chiaroscuro — helping you develop both technical ability and personal expression.

Designed for beginners and returning learners, the course builds a strong foundation for further study in drawing and painting. It forms the first term of a year-long Drawing and Painting Foundations programme, with later terms expanding into expressive media such as charcoal and red chalk, and finally into the use of colour and paint. You’re welcome to take all three terms as a complete year-long foundation, or simply join the individual courses that interest you most — each term stands alone while contributing to a coherent learning pathway.

All materials are provided — you just need to bring your curiosity and enthusiasm.

Artist Biography

Lewis MacKenzie (b. 1981) is a contemporary impressionist painter based near Glasgow in Scotland. His work features in numerous private collections and has appeared in exhibitions by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, The Royal Glasgow Institute and the Paisley Art Institute, as well as in several private art galleries in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London. Most recently, he has appeared on Sky Portrait Artist of the Year, been shortlisted for the Inaugural Scottish Landscape Awards (2023), and was awarded the Murray and McGregor Prize at the Scottish Prize for Fine Art (2023). An art school drop-out, Lewis trained as a biologist and worked for several years in a cancer lab before rekindling his life-long love of drawing and painting in the early 2010s. He draws influences from the masters of past eras, such as Velázquez, Vermeer, Guthrie, Sargent, and the Boston School Impressionists. His interests range from portraiture to still life and landscape.