Painting Holiday Courses in France / Paris

Studio Escalier:
Studio Escalier is an independent, private, studio art school and international arts colony, founded in 2001 by Timothy Stotz, Anthony Ryder and Nicole Michelle Tully. We offer intensive art courses to both French and international students in Argenton-Chateau (now Argenton-les-Vallées), a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department in the Poitou-Charentes region of Western France, and drawing programs in Montmartre (18th Arrondissement), Paris. Studio Escalier also occasionally invites very select visiting faculty to offer short residencies and other courses. All course lectures are delivered in English.

Drawing & Painting Programs:

* Paris Drawing Programs:
Monthly courses held at our Paris Program Studio (18th Arrondissement) -- from November to April only -- concentrate on figure drawing only. They also take the opportunity to visit and draw from the great art collections of the Louvre, as well as concurrent special exhibitions in Paris. Anyone may apply. Enrollment is by online application 4 to 6 months in advance, including portfolio submission (2 images). 

- December in Paris - Drawing Program 2011:  20 hours life-drawing and 9 daylight hours at the Louvre per week (3-week program)

- Winter at the Lourve 2012 (9-week Drawing Intensive)

The Paris Program Studio - Studio Escalier, Montmartre:  Located on a tiny street in Montmartre, our Paris Program Studio sits in a quiet residential section of a quartier world-renowned for its artistic heritage. [Metro: Abbesses - M12].

The Paris Program Studio is a private and historic faculty residence, and is not open to the general public.
(Our studio was the first Montmartre atelier of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec where he first met Suzanne Valadon). The studio is available to students during school hours only, Monday - Friday.

* Intensive Drawing & Painting Courses in Argenton-Chateau:
Studio Escalier offers two Intensive Courses in drawing and painting every year, in Argenton-Chateau (Poitou-Charentes), in the Summer and Autumn only. Intensive Courses are open for full-time enrollment only. There is no option for part-time enrollment. Entry is by application only. See individual course descriptions for specific pre-requisites.

Our intensive courses are offered as non-academic, principles-in-practice studio programs, for art students and artists of an intermediate to advanced level. "Non-academic" here means two things: not characterized by artificial or stylistic thinking, and not pursued for college credit. "Principles-in-practice" means students will receive real-time coaching and critique at the easel, weekly lecture-demonstrations, and adequate time to study and practice the teaching on their own, in front of the model.

The daily intensive work schedule is 6 hours of life-model, 5 days a weeks. Group lecture-demonstrations are given 1-2 times per week. One-on-one critique is given daily, 3 to 4 days a week, by one or both full-time faculty members. Figure poses will vary in length between 10 minutes and two weeks (50+ hrs.), depending on the principles being discussed and taught. Full-time faculty occasionally work alongside students, producing both drawings and paintings.

The central subject of our intensive courses is drawing and painting the human figure from life. We will paint what we see, and discuss how to better see, imagine, mirror and present our visual experience of the human figure. Our school of thought is dedicated to the subjective realization and creative discovery of each student, and purposefully excludes the teaching of nostalgic styles, material techniques, literary criticism or art-historicized formulas. 

- 2011 Summer Intensive (12-weeks, drawing & painting, 6 hours daily)

- 2011 Autumn Intensive (8-weeks, short- & long-pose painting, 6 hours daily)

* Special Painting Programs in Argenton-Chateau (3-weeks):
Studio Escalier's full-time faculty and very select visiting faculty occasionally offer Special Programs in various topics, 3 to 4 weeks in length, for 8 to 12 students at a time. One to three Special Programs are scheduled annually. Anyone may apply. Enrollment is by advance application only, including portfolio submission (2 images). Working alongside some of the best contemporary classical artists and teachers, Special Program students also profit from each other's practices, as they attend short, effective classes and lectures.

Special Programs typically concentrate on figure drawing, copying after masterpieces in the Louvre, or portrait painting. Other topics include still-life painting, pastel painting, figure structure and anatomy, materials and techniques, etc. Additionally, Special Programs at Studio Escalier place students in a setting conducive to concentration, art-making, forward-looking professional exchange... featuring small-town living in an artist's colony atmosphere (Argenton-Chateau), or in the heart of French art, art history, and culture (Paris).

- November 2011 Alla Prima Studio (3-weeks alla prima painting in Argenton-Chateau)

- Spring 2012 Still Life Studio (3-weeks still-life painting in Argenton-Chateau)

- Spring 2012 Figure Painting in Oil (Figure painting in Argenton-Chateau)