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The Big Newsletter



Dear artist,


I'm writing to reveal (drum roll...) our final 24/25 tuition program - with lots of the things you've written in to ask for, including new formats for our most popular and proven courses. What an exciting time to be in the creative world! in all its forms, painting has never been so relevant to so many people. I, too, queued up to see the recent Van Gogh and Monet exhibitions in London, ten deep on a quiet day! Art gives us a voice to express our feelings, thoughts, hopes, dreams, fears, and identities.


I am often asked, “Why do you keep teaching when you are clearly busy doing your own work?”  I get such a buzz when our students achieve success. It makes me want to tell everyone about their work and provides such a feeling of satisfaction. Why would I ever want to give that up?


Being at the Royal College (RCA) has proven to me that we also deliver first-class teaching, which works, and this newsletter is really just to keep you abreast of some of the big changes I’m making to ensure the School grows with your skills and continues to provide exciting challenging and enjoyable activities.


Our 2024/25 program

The world has changed since we set up the School, and alongside it, many of you have grown as painters; what was ideal for 2007 when we started or 2020 when we went online is not necessarily right for many of you in 2024.


Your success has told me that far from being a temporary lockdown workaround, online teaching is the best way to teach core skills and on-demand access, the best way to practice them.


Face-to-face teaching will always have its place, particularly in teaching professional artists to present their work to others, and will always be an option for our mentoring courses. Done well, online and on-demand teaching has been absolutely transformational: the results speak for themselves - providing you get to see things again on-demand, receive structured tuition and can ask live questions, online courses are the most effective and most affordable way to learn painting.


Take Advanced Oils, for instance; we set tasks to bake in skills retention and deliver helpful and actionable creative critique feedback so you develop your own style as you learn shared skills. All this without needing to travel, find accommodation, ship your materials, and fight for a good seat so you can see what on earth is going on!


We’ve learned a lot about creating effective learning programs together since we started the School in 2007, and even more, since all of those programs went online during the pandemic, so four years on from that, it seems the perfect time to identify what works best and provide even more of it. Here are the exciting changes to our service, program by program:




StudioTalk and The Oils Program

StudioTalk was conceived as a community art club with some painting thrown in to keep everyone occupied and sane through lockdown, rather than the painting tuition-led program, which many of the original StudioTalk members whose work has so improved now, in fact, need.

  

We’ve already made some provisional changes by providing more painting tuition, less chat and delivering just a bit more depth, as so many of you have really improved.  With this in mind, I will gradually supplant our community art club, StudioTalk, with a more tuition-focused service, The Oil Program, or TOP for short.


TOP will not cover the in-depth technical skills or creative tasks set on Advanced Oils but will be delivered at a level to those newer to oils and improvers looking for regular inspirational projects. It will be manageable for your time and resources, ideal for the proficient leisure painters many of our original StudioTalk members have now become.


Because we have invested in new video servers, TOP members will at long last enjoy their number one request: much longer on-demand access and, close on its heels, more painting content without lengthy slide lectures and community announcements.


Existing Studiotalk members who wish to keep in touch with each other on social media through the existing Facebook community group will be able to continue to do so once the StudioTalk membership naturally declines as we focus together on The Oils Program.


 

TOP: The Oils Program


Designed for Beginner to Intermediate level painters


  • No social media membership is required

  • Past StudioTalk classes will be available on demand for 12 Weeks on our ad-free video players

  • £25 per month, £75 per quarter

  • Includes full Simply Oils (unlimited member access to 9 hours of tuition )

  • 1080 HD High quality video

  • 42 classes a year ( 45 - 60 mins)

  • Join at any time


 

Advanced Oils for original painting tuition


Advanced Oils also benefits from our improved video servers and will also feature a more effective course structure to provide the creative individual learning outcomes members have requested, which promote not just learning new skills but more guided tuition on repurposing traditional skills in their own original works for sale, gallery shows and open competitions.


Members for the next Advanced Oils year will enjoy more emphasis on the big ideas which will improve their own creative painting - such as learning stronger composition, better value management, and the skills to select colour well, rather than just learning to emulate famous painters.


 

New Advanced Oils


Designed exclusively for experienced painters


  • More Affordable , £250 quarter or £875 annually; down from £1500

  • Extended On-demand access for 12 months to current and previous projects on our ad-free video player

  • Includes the AO core project on-demand library from  years 1 and 2 (approx 12 hours of content)

  • Classes streamed at HD 1080 Quality

  • Includes extensive keynote slide lectures & live demonstrations for skill-building

  • Increased access to critique and creative development skills

  • Unlimited access to The Oils Program TOP, including The entire Simply Oils program on demand (worth £300 a year).

  • 17 classes a year ( 90 mins)

  • Join at any time, subject to the availability of spaces.


 

Diploma Mentoring for Graduates


Since 2016, the Diploma has been our most challenging and transformative course; in recent years, it has broadened to a complete 18-month program encompassing not just skills and aesthetic training but art marketing and style mentoring to make it the best way to get personalised professional development.


For every person lucky enough to be able to afford the time, commitment, energy or resources to attend our full Diploma, we know there are many others who want to try it out, attend just a part of it, get the mentoring it goes so well or even revisit elements from their Diploma course.


The great news is that we can now offer the complete Diploma as a hybrid online and in-person course, ideal for those of you ‘graduating’ from Advanced Oils and past alumni wishing to re-engage with me to get more mentoring on my new extended Diploma Program online which unke the original nine-session program offers the mentoring you need as your painting skills reach a professional standard.


My online Diploma provides an opportunity to do any or all of the terms on demand with optional in-person sessions, which can be booked to suit your needs. Members new to the Diploma can enjoy the benefits of the entire three-term structure, whilst alumni can re-engage with the early terms or just the new personal mentoring and art marketing consultancy from the later 18-month diploma sessions.


 

New Online Diploma


  • Now open to register interest.

  • Totally flexible: do a term, all of the terms, or mix online and in-person

  • More affordable: available by term with no need to travel or get accommodation

  • Includes access to both TOP and Advanced Oils on demand

  • Includes bookable 121 mentoring online and in person (at incremental cost, so you only pay for what you need)

  • Includes optional 121 live critique sessions for terms 1 and 2 (at incremental cost, so you only pay for what you need, and reduced to one overnight stay)

  • Includes printed course notes by term, available for each full term you attend.        

We are registering interest for the online Diploma now, and places will be limited, so please do get in touch.


 

In a nutshell

  • StudioTalk will be supplanted by The Oils Program, but existing monthly memberships will be honoured until we close the StudioTalk service in 2025.

  • Advanced Oils will offer more direction towards painting creative, original work and still provide the skills tuition you love

  • Diploma Mentoring is available for experienced members with an existing practice.

  • The complete 18-month Diploma is available online, making it more accessible and affordable.

  • All programs will benefit from our new video servers which offer better quality and more professional streaming style video interfaces.

  • Membership fees are kept as affordable as possible, with Advanced Oils just £875 from £1500 for the current year.    

   

    


 

Things to do


  • TOP and StudioTalk If you’d like to change from StudioTalk to The Oils Program, simply cancel your existing membership and take out a new The Oils Program one on our website. Please note that StudioTalk retains its original format (7 days on demand, not 12 weeks as per TOP ).



  • Advanced Oils If you’d like to continue with Advanced Oils - at the new lower price, join the new program on our website. If you're an experienced StudioTalk member or a lapsed Advanced Oil painter wondering whether you should move up or back onto Advanced Oils. Try it out on our new quarterly subscription rather than commit for a year.


  • Online Diploma: If you're an experienced AO member and want to move up to mentoring, you can register your interest in the online Diploma here. We will provide a pro-rata refund for any existing subscriptions to our programs, which would be active whilst on your Diploma if you subsequently choose to join it, so you can confidently join or renew your other programs. Due to my RCA commitments, we don’t anticipate a start date for any Diploma until late summer 2025.


That just leaves me to say a huge thank you for all your support, and I really look forward to working with you this year and watching your development.


Martin.

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