Scenic Painters

Courses run 9am - 5pm. The studio is usually open from about 8.30am for a cuppa before the day gets underway. We may overrun but we usually try and stick to a 5pm finish. There will be breaks through the day. A sandwich van visits the site each day except Saturdays (cloth courses).

There is more scenic painting work available than scenic art work. So the decorating and the finishes courses should be considered core courses. Adding scenic art modules will make for a much stronger portfolio and it will help you find work in many sectors of the industry, especially theatre.

Yes. There is a B & B in the village as well as a number of others near by. Take a look at the Other Info page or visit Air BnB to get started. They provide many more examples of accommodation, annexes, rooms in houses, even shepherds huts. The pub in the village also has accommodation available.

There are organisations that have funded our students. These include, Screen Skills, The Arts Council, QEST, and The Theatre Guild. There are also regional organisations and even local enterprise schemes. It's worth looking into this and doing a bit of googling. Worth adding that a number of our students are put through courses by their employers.

Students come to our courses from many different directions. We neither ask for, or offer qualifications. Really what the industry is interested in is "can you do the job." Employers will work this out from your CV, your portfolio, and by word of mouth. Qualifications aren't that important.

Finding work depends on a number of factors. Skill level is important of course. You need knowledge of materials, tools and techniques which is what the courses are for. Also important is the way you pitch for work and present to an employer. Getting on with people, fitting into a team and networking skills are also important. So is a degree of tenacity and persistence.

Breaking into an industry isn't easy and a bit of luck is sometimes needed. That said, our students do find work. It's important to know your strengths. This is a job for team players and craftspeople, people who like working for and with other creatives.

Over the years we have taught several hundred students to paint scenery. Many work in the film and TV industry . Others work for theatres, or more often for scenery contractors who supply the theatre industry. The music industry employs many scenics with festivals employing many people in the warmer months. The fashion industry also use scenery, as do museums, escape rooms, and theme parks. There is also work for interior designers to consider. So there are a wide variety of potential employers and work places to think about.

While major cities are clearly important centres of scenery production, you'll find that the areas around cities are important too. Film and TV studios are often outside cities, (Pinewood, Shepperton, and Leavesden for example). Scenery construction companies are also often outside the largest cities where land values are a bit cheaper and the running costs lower. Scenery production is carried out in many parts of the UK but there are areas such as Cornwall or Northumbria where work would be thin on the ground. It's best to look in directories such as 4RFV to get an idea of what's near you.

Scenic painters decorate, distress, and age down. They create scenic finishes turning plastic into rust , MDF into marble, and plywood into concrete. Scenic artists use drawing skills to paint backdrops and create graphics. If you think of it as a Harry Potter movie, the scenic painters create stone walls for Hogwarts and the scenic artists paint the views out of the buildings windows onto giant backings.

If you are considering a career in the industry this is perhaps the most important question. Being a scenic is a great way to make a living with a paint brush, (and let's face it thats not an easy thing to do). Most of the work is freelance so there is not always job security. On the flip side, you can explore the job market, find the bit of the industry that suits you and focus on that without committing to full time work in one place.

You will be working as part of a creative team, providing a service for designers, production managers, and scenery builders. The work can be repetitive, (if you are painting a brick wall for an opera house that's a lot of bricks) but you know that the next job will be something different. The hours can be long, but overtime pay is usually on offer. You may be asked to travel occasionally. You will usually have to sort out your own pension and keep your own books. You are in effect a small business in a creative industry and will be part of a community of creatives working across the country.