| 2025 SUMMER in PARIS | PAINTING STUDIO with David BAIRD |
“All perceiving is also thinking, all reasoning is also intuition, all observation is also invention.”– Rudolph ARNHEIM, Art and Visual Perception (1954)
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| LOCATION: | SUMMER in PARIS | PAINTING STUDIO will convene at our Paris Program Studio in Montmartre. Please see our Facilities page for complete details on our campus and school facilities. |
| CLASS DATES: | Monday, 14 JULY – Friday, 25 JULY 2025 |
| CLASS SCHEDULE: |
Studio sessions will be held for 2 weeks total, Monday – Friday 25 hrs figure model weekly (5 hours daily), 5 days per week. |
| CLASS SIZE: | 10 students + instructor(s) |
| WHO is ELIGIBLE? | Anyone may apply. There are no academic or other pre-requisites. Students must enroll for entire 2 weeks. |
| TUITION PRICE: | 1750 EUR (Cost of housing in Paris not included.) |
| APPLICATION DEADLINE: |
3 JANUARY 2025 |
| PAYMENT DEADLINE: | 11 JANUARY 2025 |
| HOW to APPLY: |
Admissions for 2025 SUMMER in PARIS | PAINTING STUDIO are OPEN. Before you apply, please review the ADMISSIONS page for general information about the application process. Desktop and laptop users can apply ONLINE.
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COURSE DESCRIPTION: “2025 Summer in Paris – Painting Studio”
2025 Summer in Paris – Painting Studio is a new curriculum in painting, available exclusively in this location, taught by visiting instructor David BAIRD.
Students will pursue a creative, practical curriculum in painting the human figure in a studio environment 25 hours/week (5 hours daily), Monday to Friday.
Instructor will occasionally work alongside students and the studio culture will offer daily opportunities for individual as well as group discussion, and impromptu “work-in-progress” demonstrations.
PAINTING THE FIGURE
This 2-week program will focus on developing paintings from observation, with an emphasis on composition and color harmony. Students will receive daily instruction while painting from a live model. In addition to one on one critiques classes will also consist of lecture/demonstrations which will facilitate discussion of class topics such as shape-based observational painting and perceptual color mixing.
Poses will vary in length from one day to multiple days. Various approaches to painting will be discussed including direct and indirect procedures and production of preliminary drawings and color studies.
Individual critique will be given 5 days weekly, and lecture-demonstrations will focus on drawing as well as painting questions. The studio culture offers daily opportunities for individual as well as group discussion, and impromptu “work-in-progress” demonstrations.
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INSTRUCTOR
| David BAIRD | — Visiting Faculty Tutor in Painting and Drawing |
David Baird (b. 1986, USA) is an oil painter and draftsman focused primarily on contemporary figurative painting. In 2024 Mr Baird became a core faculty member at Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Connecticut. He has taught private classes in the USA, Australia, and Europe, and has been visiting faculty at Studio Escalier since 2016.
Mr Baird has exhibited his work in New York, London, and elsewhere including: Beyond Description, a dual-site painting exhibition at Figure | Ground Gallery (Seattle, WA) and Sugarlift (NYC); Memento Vivere (2021), the inaugural exhibition celebrating the reopening of the historic Lyme Academy of Fine Arts; and the 2022 New York Figurative Show at the Salmagundi Club (NYC), where he took first prize, and was invited to exhibit in the first ever Hartley Invitational at the same institution.
His latest work is featured alongside some of the most prominent figurative artists working today in Realism Now at MEAM in Barcelona, Spain.
David Baird has traveled and studied widely, attending the Ryder Studio School (Santa Fe, NM), the Janus Collaborative School of Art (NYC), Studio Escalier (Paris), and the Jerusalem Studio School, where he was awarded the Avigdor Arikha Masterclass Scholarship in 2019 to continue his studies in Italy.
The artist is represented by Tregony Gallery in London, and currently lives and works in Birmingham, Alabama.
| Anika SCHMIDT | — Assistant Faculty Tutor in Painting and Drawing |
Anika Schmidt (b. 1991, Germany)
