Distance Learning

The strengths of Distance Learning should not be underestimated, for while it hasn't got the advantage of a weekly class, it certainly gives students the discipline to commit to producing work regularly enough to improve.

distance learning with Julie Douglas

This course offers a year of supported learning, including four weekend workshops with exercises to continue at home for crit and assessment. These are designed to help you manage your time and get the full benefit from your experience, leaving you in fuller control of your use of different media and your management of time.

art classes by distance learning

art by distance learning Each workshop runs in the way my courses do currently, with short exercises designed to progress your learning and understanding of what you are doing, and to help you feel in control. They will also increase your confidence, familiarize you with the creative language, demystify the creative process and allow you to increase your abilities in producing artwork - in a way that shows you how good you can be, and how enjoyable and rewarding the actual creative journey is.

For students who live beyond the British Isles, and cannot attend the Distance Learning Workshops, Julie has written a Distance Course especially for you. Get in touch for details.

Student feedback:

Thank you so much Julie. Delighted with your comments, very clear, very inspiring and very workable. You are such a good teacher, I feel all uplifted now.
This art business is actually life changing in many small ways, you start to physically see things differently. Shapes and shadows have taken on a new meaning and paintings are so much more interesting now. It's great!
Thanks for the critique, as usual most helpful and encouraging.
Thank you for a wonderful weekend, it was really enjoyable and I learnt a lot. The venue was excellent
as was the whole atmosphere and especially the company.
It was my first experience of using water colour and I was pleasantly surprised at how versatile it is, I look
forward to working with it over the coming months.
You make the whole process of learning a pleasure.

Testimonial:

For many years I have been wanting to learn to draw and paint. I finally got my act together and did some research into classes before joining as I had a good idea of the kind of subjects I did and didn’t want to paint.
Julie’s painting and teaching style as well as the lovely references made by other students appealed to me and I decided to join a weekend to get it out of my system - if it worked I’d continue, if not, I wouldn’t.

Well, the references I had read proved to be absolutely right. Two things I learned, a very non threatening technique that Julie uses for drawing which is very effective for someone like me who couldn’t draw at all. And secondly that it wasn’t going to be an achievement or picture I was aiming for, but rather to start a lovely journey. I’ll never forget the feeling on my way home after the weekend, a mixture of total elation and liberation. And those amazing ups (and downs!) have continued, it has been so much more than painting a pretty picture, you start to look and see different and even feel different.

The decision to join the distance learning group enriched that experience, being part of a struggling group at the hands-on weekend, than to experiment at home at your leisure, suits me perfectly. I’m not the fastest of workers and it allows me to take my time on the assignment if I want to or even do it for a second time trying something different if I feel like it. Having to submit work in between keeps me on track and gives me a good reason for having to set time aside, rather than only taking the pencil or brushes out when everything else is done – which it never is.

The critiques have become like little presents, they’re always encouraging, explaining clearly where and how improvements can be made, and often include very useful tips. So now, less than a year later, I have the confidence to try, using the techniques I’ve learned, I’m enjoying every minute of it and I’m secretly impressed with some of the stuff I have produced.

A. Darcy, Dublin