Information About Andrew - Fleet teacher -

(2 reviews)

Personal Description:

My name is Andrew and I`m a fine artist based in Fleet, Hampshire.
I have been painting for over 15 years professionally, specialising in oil painting, working in a realist and expressive style. My painting practice derives from a hyper-realistic background, a style which I studied and explored during and after my university education in 2008, where I graduated with a 1st class (Hons) degree in Fine Art.
My main passions are within the visual arts and teaching drawing and painting. I am also interested in teaching people with learning difficulties and exploring art in a therapeutic way to help people in with diverse abilities and needs.
Eventually I want to study for an MA in Art psychotherapy and become an art therapist.

Teaching Experience:

I have been teaching privately for over 8 years, conducting one to one sessions and small workshops to students with a varying abilities, skills and mixed age ranges.
I specialise in teaching different styles of painting, for example impasto expressionism to fine technical realism, mostly concentrating on acrylic and oil based paints.
The subject matter I specialise in is usually portraits and landscape, although I encourage my students to explore all facets of visual arts including mixed media and abstract painting which I also have experience in my own artistic practice.
Besides painting I tutor drawing techniques with pencils, charcoal, chalk and oil pastel as well.

Currently I teach at the `Disability Initiative` charity in Camberley, where I am an observational and technical art instructor to people with both mental and physical disabilities. At the charity I support clients to fulfil their artist potential to create personal and group artworks throughout the course of a 12 week rolling programme.
I`ve also taught for over 8 years at Arthouse Unlimited and The Meath Epilepsy Charity where I delivered similar workshop sessions to groups of people with learning difficulties and epilepsy. Their art works are sold to the public and exhibited in professional exhibitions and art fairs.

Teaching Approach:

Teaching for me is about personal connection and facilitating a safe environment with your students and interacting with them on their level rather than simply infusing knowledge.
The idea of teaching someone something to copy from influence is one thing, however to teach the learner to be comfortable to explore themselves artistically and at the same time have self discipline takes patience and understanding the individual.
Personally I think a learner should be taught from the ground upwards and to slowly neglect bad habits from the past, this relating to technical stumbling blocks or the inability to think outside of the box artistically. I believe students with more insight into their own ability can then become truly versatile and more importantly 'satisfied' with their work and practice.

I teach a range of techniques in my art lessons such as palette knife, paint brush techniques and technical sketching methods. I also instruct with a diverse variety of mediums such as pastel, charcoal, pencil, acrylic and oil paint as well as mixed media.
Subject matter includes portraits, still life and landscape mostly though I do encourage my students to venture into abstraction and mixed media which I feel can loosen up students to learn to relax and have fun also while making artwork.