Portrait Painting with Oils

Learning to see a face in four colours

Alexandra Woods has run this workshop from New Brewery Arts' Brush Studio since 2010, having spent years teaching in schools, colleges and university before it, and selling her own illustration, murals and commissioned work nationally and internationally since 2004.

The day works in two stages: an underpainting to work out form and proportion, then overpainting using the Zorn palette, just ivory black, cadmium red, yellow ochre and titanium white, the same limited set portrait painters have relied on since Anders Zorn showed you don't need a full box of tubes to mix convincing skin. A model sits for the group throughout, so the class works from a real head rather than a photograph, and every material, from canvas to brushes, is provided. First-time painters and those already deep into their own practice work through it side by side.

A single day, start to finish, from morning underpainting through afternoon colour mixing to a completed study you take home.

Saturday 12 September 2026 · New Brewery Arts, Brewery Court, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 1JH · Starts 10:00am