Academic Tuition

Teaching is adapted to the level of each student, from absolute beginners to advanced. Classes are taught in French and English.

Our strength comes from the fact that our art classes are made up of small numbers, allowing everyone to have individual attention. (The number of students is limited to 14.)

Step by step instruction and teaching suited to your needs.
Academic tuition of drawing and painting, based on traditional techniques of observation and reproduction from real life.

PRIMARY AIM

The study of landscape and architecture in drawing or painting ; LEARN TO SEE ; developping observation and imagination ; three dimensional drawing ; looking at atmosphere, values, tone, light, color.
We try to develop the student's creativity while respecting his own personality. Self-discovery through nature and creation.

We give particular attention to the following :

• Composition : the real structure of the painting :
  • the rules and exceptions
  • the organisation of space on the canvas
  • both traditional and modern styles
  • the symbolism of the compostion
• Drawing :
  • its role in old and modern compositions
  • the different techniques used to draw correctly :
    • proportions measurements
    • angles
    • obliques
  • line intensity
  • value, shading, light
• Working on color :
  • mixing the colors
  • tone and contrast
  • the different types of harmonies, based on quality or quantity :
    • warm-cold
    • chiaroscuro
    • complementaries
    • intensity
    • and other
  • echoes in art history and symbolism
• 3^rd dimension :
  • notions of perspective
  • how to render depth, through drawing or color (aerial perspective)
• Realistic renderings :
  • the atmosphere (real or invented)
  • materials' textures (stone, glass, metal, velvet, skin, etc.)
  • the sky (shading, various clouds, sunset, etc.)
  • the water (movement and reflections)

We will help you create pieces of work using various techniques :

• DRAWING
  • Pencil drawing
  • Charcoal
  • Red chalk
  • White chalk
  • Pen and ink
  • Monochromatic wash

• WATERCOLOR
  • Wet watercolor
  • Dry watercolor

• ACRILIC

• PASTEL
  • Soft pastel
  • Oil pastel

(Oils are not recommended in this workshop because they take too long to dry off. If you would like to paint with oils, we recommend the Painting Workshop in a Loire Valley Château.)

SIDE BENEFITS

Enjoying a great vacation in pleasant company, discovering Paris. (Considering that students come from all over the world, the workshop is also a great cultural experience)
Bringing back home more than a postcard or pictures : a very personal image, filled with one's own personality.

We have 35 years experience in teaching and organising painting workshops.

Teacher

Nicolas Petrescu, professional artist.

Nicolas Petrescu-Alupi was born in Paris and descends from a long line of artists : the son of Antonina Alupi and Cesar Petrescu, both exceptional painters and talented teachers, who have instructed and encouraged him from his earliest years.
The family's artistic tradition extends back to his grandfather, Calin Alupi, one of the principal artists of Romanian Post-Impressionism.

Understandably Nicolas is proud of such a heritage and it is natural that, after having studied at the Fine Arts, he has chosen to pass on this inheritance by teaching art and painting (see the Story of the Atelier Alupi Studio).

Alongside these educational activities he pursues personal artistic reasearch and original studies - particularly in the field of landscape.
He speaks English fluently.