Skip to main content

The Art Train : introducing on line Guided Painting




I rebranded my art teaching business The Art Train in 2019. This was a great opportunity to enable customers to book and pay online for classes and this was a prime goal for my new website. 

I have been running Guided Painting classes 2 or 3 times a term since 2014. Students come along to a 3-hour session to paint the same image. I provide fully illustrated instructions plus afternoon tea for extra inspiration. The homemade cake really works to get flagging students over the line.

A few years ago a friend had suggested I sell classes online. Of course, I procrastinated... a lot, until I gradually I assessed all the classes I had run as live Guided Painting sessions. I had created 38 individual images for Guided classes over the previous five years. I had quite an IP.

The online class benefits massively from having been previously taught live I have been able to see first hand if the instructions don't make sense or I have over complicated the process. During a live class, students have asked lots of great and sometimes random questions, quite often things I hadn't thought of will come up. The feedback from students has made me a more effective teacher. For each online class I review the original instructions and then I have repainted the image for the video. This process allows e to simplify the instructions. As an online student, you get the benefit of the interesting questions I have been asked. I am confident that I haven’t missed anything out. One of my big philosophies is to be completely transparent when I am teaching. I have no time for opaque teaching styles. Being vague with a student doesn’t help them. If I can help a student achieve their potential and find their creative spark, then I have succeeded.

The on-line Guided Painting instructions have an extensive “how-to“ section, which explains the tips and tricks of acrylic paint. I include all the things I might say in a live class. 
My daughter thought I had been too long-winded with the “how-to” section of the instructions, so she wrote a quick version. 

I include a list of equipment and my philosophy is to keep the cost down. Art can be a very expensive practice. There is no doubt there are some amazing paints and brushes on the market, but you don’t have to spend a fortune to make lovely art especially when you are just starting out. You only need 8 tubes of paint, a palette, 4x brushes, binder, water container, an old rag and a painting surface.

The videos which accompany every class are narrated and watching me mix and apply the paint is a huge bonus. The video complements the written instructions perfectly.
There are now 15 Guided Painting classes available on my website
Location: Cedar Creek, Queensland, Australia 4520

Popular posts from this blog

Hydrangeas on line clip by The Art Train

Post a Comment
Read more

Love and Blue

Love and Blue was the first live Guided Painting class I ran at The Art Train, so I will always be fond of it. The image originates in the whimsical practice of my early career. I used to draw little birds endlessly, they would be on branches, in trees, balancing on top of one another, in birdhouses. My early sketchbooks are filled with drawings of these little birds, which have so much character. The slightest change in the shape or position of a beak, eye, tail or wing can alter the personality radically. Little birds and leaves were imagery I used constantly in my embroidery work too.  I ran this class in 2014 and was so nervous. Fortunately, the students were lovely and they all did a fabulous job. I painted the image simultaneously while teaching the class, which was a disaster. However, by the time this class ran, I had trialled "Hydrangeas" with two students, realised written instructions with step by step progress photos were the way to go. So this class ran with...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Flower Tree on line by The Art Train

"Flower Tree" ran as a live Guided Painting class in 2016. I offered two paintings that day, “ Flower Tree” and “ Enid”, a gorgeous violet elephant. It was the first time that I had offered a "double bill", you could choose one or the other. It proved to be a challenging afternoon. I had a couple of students who went completely off-piste. While I was checking on everyone's progress I was confused by their “ interesting” colour mixes, it turned out they weren’t bothering to read the instructions and were "doing their own thing”. They just couldn't work out why their's didn't look like mine. If you want to do your own thing with a guided class that's totally cool, just don’t expect the same result as the original. I write instructions to help you achieve a good approximation of the original. Sometimes I don't have a grand plan for Guided Painting, "Flower Tree" was simply an image I wanted to paint. I love gardens and this remi...
Post a Comment
Read more