The ZAFA Atelier Program

$350/Month

Serious training. Individual progression. A community of dedicated artists.

The ZAFA Atelier Program is an ongoing course for artists who want to take their training further.

Unlike ZAFA’s shorter workshops, which focus on a particular subject over a set number of weeks, the Atelier Program is built around a structured, long-term curriculum. Students progress through a carefully designed sequence of projects covering the fundamental skills of classical drawing and painting, working toward increasingly ambitious and highly finished work.

There is no need for the entire class to move at the same pace. Each student progresses through the curriculum individually, receiving instruction and critique appropriate to their current level.

The goal is not simply to complete projects. It is to develop the skills, discipline, and visual understanding necessary to produce artwork at a level students may not have thought possible.

A Comprehensive Classical Curriculum

Students develop several complementary approaches to drawing and painting, including:

• Sight-size drawing

• Comparative measuring

• Gridding and transfer methods

• Construction drawing

• The traditional Bargue Drawing Course

• Still life drawing and painting

• Artistic anatomy

• Portraiture

• Figure drawing and painting

Rather than studying these subjects once and leaving them behind, students encounter them repeatedly throughout the program. Different projects emphasize different skills, allowing students to develop accuracy, construction, observation, anatomy, value, color, and painting technique alongside one another.

Over time, these separate skills begin to come together into a much more complete understanding of representational art.

Progress Is Earned

The Atelier Program is designed around mastery rather than simply completing assignments.

Students are held to a high standard and are expected to bring each major project to a strong resolution before progressing to the next stage of the curriculum. If a project reveals a weakness in drawing, proportion, value, anatomy, paint handling, or another fundamental skill, we address it.

Sometimes that means spending longer on a project. Sometimes it means making corrections, repeating an exercise, or approaching the problem from another direction.

The purpose is never perfection for its own sake. It is to make sure that each new project is built on a solid foundation, and concepts are fully understood before moving on to more and more advanced and challenging projects.

As the curriculum progresses, the work becomes increasingly challenging, giving students the opportunity to produce high-level finished drawings and paintings suitable for a portfolio.

Learn at Your Own Pace, Alongside Other Serious Artists

The Atelier uses rolling admission, so students may join throughout the year rather than waiting for the beginning of a new workshop.

Students are not in lockstep. On any given evening, one artist may be working through a Bargue drawing while another develops a cast drawing or painting.

This is intentional.

Working alongside artists at different stages of the curriculum creates an environment much closer to a traditional atelier than a conventional art class. Newer students continually see where their training is leading, while more experienced students have the fundamentals reinforced around them. Students also benefit from hearing critiques, demonstrations, and conversations about problems beyond the particular project currently on their easel.

Everyone works individually, but no one is working in isolation.

Built for Long-Term Growth

Because the program is subscription-based and ongoing, students are not required to organize their lives around a short, fixed course.

Students can miss an evening when necessary and return the following week. There is no need to “catch up” with the rest of the class because everyone is already progressing individually.

This makes it possible to combine serious, structured training with the realities of adult schedules while still maintaining continuity from one project to the next.

More Than a Class

One of the larger goals of the Atelier Program is to cultivate a dedicated community of artists who are excited about pushing their work further.

The studio should be a place where ambition is encouraged, where thoughtful critique is normal, where artists learn from one another, and where seeing someone else accomplish something difficult makes you want to raise the level of your own work.

Hawaiʻi already has a diverse and vibrant artistic community. The Atelier Program is ZAFA’s contribution to that community: a place specifically dedicated to rigorous representational training and the pursuit of artistic growth.

You do not need to be a professional artist to participate. You do need to be interested in improving.

If you want to be challenged, develop a deeper command of your craft, produce work you are genuinely proud of, and spend time each week surrounded by other artists pursuing the same thing, the ZAFA Atelier Program was built for you.

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