Venice Art Courses and Workshops

Art courses in Venice: Venice paintings

We offer different Venice painting courses for both visitors and residents. A course will help you to learn ancient painting traditions and techniques and these courses are also available over longer periods

So take advantage of the unquestionable beauty of this city of art and perhaps participate in a craft course in Venice, for example:

• a classic drawing course to lay the foundations of a painting starting from a preparatory sketch;
• an expressive drawing course;
• an en plein air painting course;
• a watercolor course;
• an oil painting course.

Imagine painting the views that Venice can offer and what better opportunity to put your painting skills to the test! Don’t worry if you are not particularly experienced, professional artists will explain the techniques of venetian art  to you. You can choose the discipline that suits you best, watercolours or oils, or opt for an open air painting course under the Venetian sky. This way you will be able to catch those plays of light, which only a city immersed in water can give. These are the  same plays of colour and light that the scuola grande artists studied and reproduced in their famous works of art. Among these famous masters are Guardi and Canaletto, whose large scale detailed works ended up in the most illustrious salons of Europe.

Try a workshop to learn the various techniques of oil or watercolor painting or use pencil to copy famous canvases or portraits learning the technique of charcoal drawing.

Choose your art course in Venice 

There are many art classes in Venice you can try suitable for all ages and abilities.

• a paper manufacturing course;
• a traditional art print course;
• a typography course;
• a course for creating masks:
• a mosaic course;
• a course for making glass pearls with a torch;
• experience fire and metals at a blacksmith’s forgea sailing course …

There is everything available from the preparation for painting with ancient techniques to engraving and printing in black and white following methods and using tools handed down to the present day. Venice was the cradle of modern book printing, thanks to the ingenuity of Aldo Manuzio, a printer who chose this city to reproduce Greek and Latin texts using italics for the first time and embellished his works with woodcuts – the first true typographic artwork.

Choose the course you like at the Venice Art School and develop your creativity!

Try a typography course, or course on the art of mosaics. The Basilica of San Marco is covered in them! Try the creation of decorated masks explained by artisans who still use ancient techniques to make these colourful Carnival disguises.

From Venice Craft Courses to Art History Courses

In addition to the Venice handicraft courses, we can offer an experience that will reveal the history and art secrets in Venice, not in an academic environment, but rather in the setting of the historic center. You can do this while walking through the streets and chatting with a professor of fine arts. Your knowledgeable guide will show you works and masterpieces of pictorial art, and reveal secrets and anecdotes related to the history of the art of Venice. From the Middle Ages to the 18th century to the present day, depending on your preferences, you will be informed about the greatest artists who were born or lived here: from Bellini, Giorgione, Tiziano, Tintoretto, Veronese or Tiepolo to Lotto, just to mention a few!

Venice is also home to a high art school and has the very famous Accademia Galleries, in whose halls are contained priceless masterpieces. Private art galleries are to be found in many streets in the San Marco district. The Peggy Guggenheim gallery is one such notable venue. The Biennale is an important event which focuses every other year on either art or architecture. The exhibitions are found in the gardens of the same name in the Castello district and in other venues scattered throughout the city. This event, brings the most contemporary artists to Venice and brings in new ideas, artworks and performances. Thanks to events like this, Venice still has an air of the cosmopolitan which it had at the time of its trade with the East, when explorers like Marco polo visited the city.

Our tailor made courses are put together by the best professionals in their field and are aimed at all those who want to learn more about the history of art in Venice!

If you want to discover other activities to do in Venice, check out:

• An evening in Venice
• Must see Venice attractions 
• Discover an unusual Venice
• What Romantic  thnings to do in Venice?
• Sightseeing in Venice from the water
• Venice with children
• Food and drink in Venice
• Learn italian in Venice