A guide to learning with
Drawing, painting, poetry, performance. All of it tied to how you learn to look. And looking changes more than just your work.
The frustration of spending hours on something and still not being able to make it look the way you saw it. The defeat of mixing a colour twelve times and never arriving at it. These are my experiences. I was a beginner once, and a confused one.
That confusion is exactly why I teach. Years of classical training didn't erase the memory of it. They gave me a vocabulary for it. I know which techniques would have helped me then, and I know how to give them to you now.
Drawing and painting are learnable. You need time, attention, and someone who still remembers what it felt like not to know. Whether you've never picked up a brush or you've been working on your own for years, I'm here to help you take the next step and the one after that.
Learning to see is learning to be present. To a shadow. To a silence. To the weight of one colour sitting next to another.
My teaching starts with looking and tends to end somewhere unexpected. The studio is a place of inquiry. You don't come to produce something impressive. You come to be more honest about what you notice and how you respond to it.
The classical tradition is where the work begins. Where it ends is up to you.
I work across oil painting, drawing, poetry, and live performance. These disciplines don't stay separate — what you learn in one feeds the others. The same is true in the teaching. Technical skill and creative instinct grow together here. Neither is a prerequisite for the other.
No experience needed. The only thing the studio asks is that you look: honestly, slowly, without deciding in advance what you'll find.
Proportion, value, light. The curriculum starts there and opens outward. Whether you want to draw from life, build a painting practice, or simply learn to trust your eye, the work adapts to you.
Classical cast drawing. The foundation of observational practice.
Drawing from plaster casts. The foundation of the atelier tradition, and the most direct path to learning how to truly observe.
Composition, value, light. Practiced through the quietest subject in the studio.
Colour theory, paint handling, and how tone becomes pigment. From your first mark through layered glazing.
The structure of the human face and what it holds. Studied with rigour and care in equal measure.
Drawing the figure from live models. Gesture, structure, and the body as it actually is.
Plein air and studio. Learning to hold atmosphere, scale, and changing light on the same surface.
Each session follows the same shape. It gives you somewhere to stand while you figure out where you're going.
We start by looking at what you made since we last met. The question isn't whether it's finished. The question is what it's asking for next.
We talk about the ideas behind the technique. Where it comes from, why it solves the problem it solves, what other artists have done with it. Context isn't extra. It's how the technique sticks.
I work through the technique in front of you. You see the decisions, the corrections, the moments of uncertainty. The work itself, not a polished version of it.
A pause to look, rest your hand, let what you've taken in settle before you start working.
You work. I watch, ask questions, and correct. The aim is to build your own vocabulary for the practice, so you know what to do when I'm not in the room.
We look at what you made with some distance, decide what to carry forward, and set something small to work on during the week. The studio work compounds when it doesn't stop between visits.
Materials are provided for your first session. After we meet, you'll receive a personalised supply list.
Every session is built around where you are and where you want to go. No two lessons look alike.
The Barcelona studio has good north light and space to work. Online sessions are equally welcome.
Curiosity is enough. Wondering what you might make, or what you might finally see, is reason enough to come.
English (native) · Spanish (working) · LGBTQ+ friendly · Ages 8 and above · Barcelona studio or online
I highly recommend the landscape class with T. I went in without having any idea of what I wanted to make, and I didn't have any previous experience. I enjoyed visualizing what type of landscape I wanted to paint first, then comparing that with examples of finished paintings. Throughout the process, I understood the importance of starting with the basic elements and advancing towards the more subtle ones. The two examples that showed composition and a value scale helped me make a small sketch, and these were key to my understanding of the basics and connecting what I wanted to make in that moment. T. showed a lot of interest in understanding what I wanted to do. Their suggestions when I was stuck were very helpful during the creation process. T.'s attitude was pure inspiration! I really learned a lot, and above all else, I enjoyed being like a little kid again. To flow, to experiment with colours, to be present, to connect with what I wanted to express, without expectations. For all these reasons, I am very grateful for this class!
Materials are included for your first session. After we meet, I put together a personalised supply list based on what you're working toward.
A good way to start. Come, see how it feels, and decide from there.
Six sessions is enough time to build something real. Technical and creative work compound together. Includes a quarterly progress critique.
Payment prior to each lesson · Tuesday evenings · Wednesday mornings · by arrangement
T. Cheung-Damonte is a Barcelona-based artist and educator working across oil painting, drawing, poetry, and live performance.
Trained at the Barcelona Academy of Art in the classical tradition, T.'s practice starts in rigorous observation and moves restlessly outward from there. The disciplined eye and the instinct to break form sit side by side — both show up in the teaching.
T. teaches from one conviction: everyone is an artist. The studio is just where you find out for yourself.
@tcdart on Instagram · t@tcdart.com
The first session starts with a conversation. Where you are now, what you want to make, where you want the work to go. Book a private lesson or write with any questions.
tcdart.com/lessonsYou don't arrive with nothing. Nobody does. The studio is just where we find out what you've been carrying.