Term Dates 2024-25
Autumn Term starts: 26.09.24
Half Term: 31.10.24 10 weeks
Last Class: 05.12.24
Spring Term starts: 23.01.25
Half Term: 20.02.25 10 weeks
Last Class: 03.04.25
Summer Term starts: 01.05.25
Half Term: 29.05.25 9 weeks
Last Class: 03.07.25
Work in Progress: painting from life with model, Michael, in the studio.






Portrait Workshop July 2024
An extra workshop for those wishing to practice working directly from the model. As a three-hour workshop, there was a little more time than usual, allowing the use of paint or another colour medium, when normally people might stick to charcoal or pencil.
It was also a small group, which meant that students cold get closer to the model, which helps when focusing on the face.
These photos chart the progress of my painting from working live in class to finishing off at home from a photo. I don’t normally finish portraits at home, but as Michael was such a great model, I was inspired to continue, when normally I wouldn’t work from photos after the event. Sometimes, use of photography provides a solution when the original subject is no longer available. Images 4 and 5 above are from my work at home.
As a class, we were looking at L S Lowry’s painting, Self-portrait, 1925, which we found inspiring. Please go to my Instagram feed for further images and info. August 2024.
Summer Term 2024
Hi everyone and welcome to the new term.
February 2024: Colour-mixing Workshop – half term class. This class was set up in order to give extra info on colour-mixing to those who wanted to extend their skills in relation to portrait. In this 3 hour class, I covered: the colour-wheel, how to soften strong colours using complementary colours, how to create interesting dark tones for the face, and how to mix colours for skin tones generally. I gave students an exercise in painting a portion of the face, rather than the whole face, which meant that they could concentrate on the colours they were mixing, rather than the accuracy of the portrait itself. Students said they enjoyed the class and had learnt from it: “This gave me the confidence to tackle the face in colour for the first time”. See images below by Sally, Colin and Selina.



Hi Everyone,
For those who are new, or those who want to check, here is a reminder of the ground rules for the art class:
Ground Rules in the Classroom.
Anna Bisset is a qualified art tutor and has worked at Redbridge Institute of Adult Education for over 20 years where she receives training in Health and Safety, Risk Assessment, Equality and Diversity, and Safeguarding. Anna is insured to run art groups and workshops. She operates a policy of Equal Opportunity in the classroom and as such, she sets out her ground rules below:
Membership of Wanstead House, £4, must be paid to the office to attend class and use the facilities such as the coffee lounge and the carpark.
Carparking is limited so those with cars need to arrive in good time to get a parking space. Drivers must park up to the fence to maximise the use of the carpark, leaving their membership card in the window so that other members can find you if your car needs to be moved during class. Cars must be removed promptly from the carpark after the end of the class and should not be left in the carpark if the owner is not on site.
New students will find that the classroom is a friendly and supportive place to learn. If on any occasion Anna is concerned about an individual’s behaviour, she will speak to the student at the end of the class with a view to resolving the situation. If agreement cannot be reached, the student may have to leave the class. Such behaviour includes but is not limited to:
Phones and Ipads are often used for work, but please keep your phone on silent for the duration of the class. If you need to leave your phone on, eg if you are waiting for an important phone-call such as a hospital appointment, please let Anna know at the start of the class. Please use the vibrate setting on your phone and leave the room before taking the call.
Breaktime is the ideal time for catching up with other class members over a coffee downstairs. If noise levels in the classroom interfere with the working atmosphere, Anna will ask the member/members in class to adjust accordingly.
Students will receive informal feedback on their work each week. Sometimes, we have group discussions where students can share their experiences of the project. Occasionally, we have a display of students’ work in the coffee lounge downstairs. If you feel you need more assistance with your work, please ask.
Please let Anna know before the class if are you are going to be away the next week or for holidays etc. for the purposes of course planning. You can leave a message by email at: asbisset@gmail.com
WhatsApp Groups. If the class has a WhatsApp group, there is a set of guidelines for the class to use when they are online – please ask if required.
Portrait Class – as above, but also includes:
Seating Arrangements: All students should have a chance to draw and paint from all the different viewpoints. When you have finished a painting or drawing in one position, you are required to then move to a different place for the following week.
Large easels are placed at the back of the class for those who stand to work. Small easels may be used in the seated areas as long as they do not obstruct the view of other learners.
The model usually sits for three weeks in the same pose. Those who are working on one piece of work for the duration try to get back into the same position each week, so we have to spend a little time at the beginning of each class to achieve this. Once decided, positions cannot be changed for latecomers.
Students must arrive in good time to set themselves up before the model gets into pose, as lateness disrupts the class. Class starts at 1.15pm for this purpose and finishes at 3.45pm to allow for the putting away of all equipment. Many students do what they can to help and this is appreciated.
Sometimes the time before the model starts at 1.30pm will be used for demos or looking at resources. After the model has finished at 3.30pm, time may be used for reviews of work or one-to-one feedback. Please ask if you would like extra feedback on your work.
When the model is in pose, we are working. We should not be talking or otherwise engaged whilst the model is working.
Your co-operation helps the class to run smoothly. Thank you. Anna Bisset Jan 2024.

Claudette Johnson at the Courtauld Gallery until 14th Jan 2024.
Great to see large-scale drawings which have added acrylic or gouache blocks of colour – the combination of pastel and paint makes an interesting dynamic within the painting. Some of the images have strong, textured painting with the figure also. Large in scale, full of energy and life; some ideas we could possibly try in our class, re: scale, media and poses. More photos here soon. AB.
Here are the dates for the year in the Portrait Class, starting with the Autumn Term:
Autumn Term: 2023
Class starts: 28th September
Half Term: 26th October
Last Class: 7th December
Spring Term: 2024
Class starts: 18th January
Half Term: 22nd February
Last Class: 28th March
Summer Term: 2024
Class starts: 25th April
Half Term: 30th May
Last Class: 27th June
Portrait of Volkan by Anna, 2023.
Portrait Art. Thursday 1.15-3.45pm
at Wanstead House Community Association, E11 2NT
Mauricia by Anna Bisset 2023. Oil on Paper.
Portrait Art Class starts on Thursday 28th September
With a clothed model, class takes place in a well-lit art room. We normally have a model for three weeks at a time and we have a few short poses and one long pose with each model. You can use any drawing and painting media you wish and you can work on the painting between classes away from the model too.
Please call for more information about taster sessions or for more information about the class.
07854 790420 or email abisset@btconnect.com
Anna.
Anna’s Autumn Newsletter.
Berte Morisot, Self-portrait, 1885
Berte Morisot, The Cradle, 1872.
Hi everyone,
hope you have had a lovely summer break – I certainly have, in spite of the weather! One of my highlights was to go see the Berte Morisot exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery. It was interesting to hear about how she developed her work in spite of the restrictions on women who wanted to be artists. As a result, she had to focus on portraiture and the domestic interior. However, she took part in all but one of the Impressionists Exhibitions and as such led the way in Modernist methods of painting and subject matter. As you can see here in the Self-portrait, her style of painting could be extremely loose and free. In “The Cradle”, the composition subtlely implies something of the frustration women felt in their roles in the home. She was also influenced by British artists of the time from her travels to England, including Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds and George Romney. Fascinating to read more about this in the exhibition catalogue.
I’d like to remind you too that the Portrait class starts on Thursday 28th September and that we will be drawing for the first 2 or 3 weeks of the course. So please come along with paper, pencils and/or charcoal if you prefer. I am now have a new set of models booked for the term.
I hope you enjoy the approaching Autumn season – TOP TIP even though we are focusing on portraits, it’s always worth looking out for natural forms and seasonal produce which makes a good subject for getting back into art, if you have had a break from drawing over the summer.
Best wishes and see you on 28th September.
Anna.
July 2023: Summer School – Portrait Art Workshop.
My last workshop of the year took place at Bedford House Community Association on 18th July. We were lucky to have the hall for the workshop, so we had plenty of space to spread out with easels, tables for materials and space to show work at the end of the day. Our model, Jelena, was great and she posed for 4 hours with short poses for drawing exercises, followed by a long pose for the paintings. Drawing exercises included: drawing with chalk onto grey paper, drawing with straight lines only and drawing with your opposite hand (ie. the hand you don’t usually draw with). These were fun and they served to loosen up the drawing styles that we normally go to and rely on, thereby leading students to experiment with different methods from the get-go. We had some surprising results , students said they enjoyed it, some saying that they could have had longer with each method to really get the most out of it.






Our painting exercise of the day was to work in monochrome first of all – we used ultramarine, white and black; the idea being to concentrate on proportions and composition and tone to create space, before going on to full colour. Most found that we didn’t have enough time to get near to a finished painting, but some said they learnt some new ways of working and could work on them at home. It was an enjoyable day of experiment in painting – it was great to have the extra space and a model for a long period of time. I hope we will have the chance to do it again.
March 2023 – Portrait Art Class with Kim Scouller at London Drawing.


Last week, I took part in a one-day painting workshop at an art centre based in Artizan Street, near Liverpool Street Station, London.
This was taken by artist and tutor, Kim Scouller. She took us through a series of exercises with model Mauricia, starting with quick sketches in charcoal. This progressed to a more detailed drawing. See my work below.
Then, before lunch, we started on the painting, using acrylics as an underpainting. We were given a palette with only white and Ultramarine and we were asked to mix a range of 5 tones, including white, pure Ultramarine, then three tones in between – you can see the palette on the side of my painting. As you can see, the highlights were painted in white, low-lights in Ultramarine, and we had to judge which tones were needed in the three areas in between.
After lunch, we were given oil paints and shown how to mix a range of colours for Mauricia’s skin colour, using only Lemon yellow, yellow ochre, Cadmium red, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine, and Phthalo blue.
We then had to take the tone in each area of the face on the monochrome painting and match it with the appropriate colour. This was easier than it sounds! See my work is above.



It was a fascinating process – and one that made the whole task of painting in colour much easier and more methodical.
Thank you, Kim, and I hope to see her again soon at London Drawing.
Anna. March 2023.
February 2023
Images from Portrait projects in all three of my classes at Wanstead House this term: Tuesday Art, Art with Anna and Portrait Art.
This display shows work from all classes, by students of all levels, showing the different ways that we have tackled the portrait. Working from photos is a good way to diagnose particular issues you have. You can employ techniques like upside-down drawing and squaring-up to help take your mind off the problem of getting a likeness, which is normally the desired outcome and also the thing that worries people most. Here you can use family photos or photos of celebrities which adds to the fun. You can’t use techniques like this when working from the live studio model. With the model, you have to just use your powers of observation, but the time limit imposed by the class situation can help you to focus on the problem in hand. Also with a live studio model, you have your own particular viewpoint and you learn that each and every person you draw has his/her own particular characteristics, which is the fascination of portrait art.
See if you can spot which works are done from photos and which are from the live studio model. AB.


January 2022.
This year, I have had the pleasure of taking over the historic Thursday Afternoon Portrait class at Wanstead House…. in recent years run by Eamon Everall but formerly dating back to the post-war era of Walter Spradbury and his contemporaries, Vivian Bewick and Hayden Mackay. There is a very interesting self-portrait by Hayden Mackay in the entrance hall of Wanstead House which has been there as long as I have worked there (20 years plus), probably much longer. It is painted in oils, allegedly using the Zorn Palette, a combination of colours devised by the Swedish artist, Anders Zorn. More on this later.
The class is still continuing with the regular challenge of drawing or painting from a live, studio model, in a beautiful first floor studio with natural light.
Here is my information leaflet – back soon with images!
Anna B.
