Art Courses in Montreal, Canada

Atelier De Bresoles, Montreal:
Located in Old Montreal, Quebec, Atelier de Brésoles offers the most comprehensive instruction in figurative drawing and painting available in Canada. Our program combines precise perceptual training with structural concepts of the body to give our students a thorough understanding of the human form. Our instructors have learned drawing and painting techniques passed down through the academies of Russia, Italy, France, and the United States. We are carriers of a long tradition of figurative drawing, and base our teaching approach on this tradition. At the same time, we balance these traditional methods with a contemporary approach to the figure to give students the tools they need to arrive at a personal understanding of figurative art. Our courses utilize a variety of historical and modern materials. We teach students of all levels, and age 14 to adult, in a small-group setting.

Cast Drawing:
This course teaches several important principles of drawing. By studying casts of Renaissance and Classical sculpture under ideal lighting conditions, students learn to make accurate drawings and render them volumetrically. These principles of drawing can be applied to any three-dimensional subject drawn from observation.

This is the mandatory first course at the atelier.

Hours: One day per week, from 10:30am to 5:30pm, with 1-hour lunchbreak

Students will complete this course in 4 weeks.

Upon successful completion of this course, students may proceed to other courses in drawing or oil painting. Some students may be required to take another course in Cast Drawing before moving on to other subjects, at the instructor's discretion.

Life Drawing:
An instructed course with a live model. Students learn how to construct figures accurately and render them to express the volume of the body. Principles introduced in Cast Drawing will be applied to the live model; this course is open to students who have completed Cast Drawing. Our approach to Life Drawing involves four elements:

1. Block-In Drawings: 8 weeks

2. Mass Drawing: 8 weeks

3. Hatching: 8 weeks

4. Long Pose: 2 poses of 4 weeks: 8 weeks total

Because of the complexity of the subject, students can plan to spend 8 weeks on each of these four elements.

Limited enrollment. Contact us for availability.

Hours: Sundays, 10:30am to 5:30pm with 1-hour lunchbreak

Scheduled in 4-week sessions.

Cast Painting:
Grisaille Painting is the manditory first course in oil painting. Students may begin this course upon successful completion of the Cast Drawing course. Grisaille painting is an important prerequesite for the complexities of painting in colour.

Students gain control of oil paint by using a limited palette. Principles of form and light introduced in Cast Drawing are the starting point for this course. Two techniques for beginning paintings are introduced. Light/dark and warm/cool relationships are examined in detail. Emphasis is placed on attaining drawing proficiency with paint, and rendering the form to achieve a strong illusionistic effect. Various oil painting mediums are explored in this class, and students learn proper procedures for completing paintings with multiple layers. The above examples were completed by Atelier Instructors Eric Mannella and Allana Benham.

Hours: One day per week, 10:30am to 5:30pm, with an hour break for lunch.

Students complete this course in 4 weeks.

Anatomical Drawing:
This course is designed to help students undersand the three-dimensional structure of the human body and represent it accurately in their drawings. We will introduce an historic canon of proportion and investigate its application to the skeleton. The mechanisms and proportions of the skeleton will be discussed, and students will learn to use anatomical reference points and proportions to draw the skeleton from observation. These techniques may be applied to the human figure in the Life Drawing course.

It is important to have some experience drawing from life before beginning this course.

Hours: One day per week, 10:30am to 5:30pm

Students complete this course in 4 weeks.

For students who wish to continue their anatomical study, we encourage a return to the Life Drawing to apply the information presented in this course. Afterwards, options for further study in anatomy include Constructive Anatomy I or II or Ecorché sculpture.

Landscape Painting:
A course investivating composition, value, and colour applied to the landscape. We will paint plein air, weather permitting. Seasonal course; landscape classes and workshops will be scheduled between May and October.

Ecorché Sculpture:
An advanced course for students interested in learning about the musculature of the human body. We begin by sculpting a skeleton of accurate proportions and planes, then proceed to add the major form-producing muscles in groups. Students gain a three-dimensional, volumetric understanding of the structure of the skeleton, the muscles, and the actions produced by the muscles.

Cast Drawing, Anatomical Drawing, and a minimum of 8 weeks of Life Drawing are prerequesites for this course.

Most students will complete this course in 12 to 16 weeks. Students must commit to finish the entire course in 3 or 4 concurrent 4-week sessions.

Hours: one day per week: Tuesday through Sunday, 10:30am to 5:30pm