The Basic Elements

Communicate ideas and moods using the four basic elements that make up all pictures – shape, colour, application and tone.

This course is aimed at adventurous newcomers to art and those with experience who want to develop skills and ideas.

All pictures contain CATS – colour, application, tone and shape! By working in relationship with each other these four basic elements are how your pictures might communicate ideas, tell stories and express moods and atmosphere.

Through the course students will be given advice and demonstrations about how these elements might be used in a representational or abstract way.

Tutor Pete will give advice and demonstrations about how these elements might be used in a representational or abstract way. Over the ten weeks of this course you will have the opportunity to work in a variety of painting and drawing media and styles, often combining media.

Each week (or two depending on the project) the tutor will demonstrate the potential expressive qualities of each of the four elements to make pictures which are bold or subtle, flat or spacious, dramatic or quiet, energetic or still. Sometimes the demonstrations will be quite abstract in nature but you are welcome to work more realistically or from your memories, imaginations or previous work/sketches. Projects will include basic colour theory, creating space and textures, working graphically or freely and using contrast and similarity.

The tutor will provide visual reference material (usually landscape photographs) and you are encouraged to bring your own to make your work more personal.

About the tutor:

Tutor Peter Clayton holds a Fine Art degree and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education. Over 40+ year career he has shown in over 160 solo and group exhibitions in commercial and public galleries.

He has collaborated widely with artists of various disciplines, undertaken residences, painted murals and worked with local authorities, museums, interior designers and publishers. His personal work has encompassed a wide variety of painting and printmaking media. Subject matter has been inspired by the landscape (particularly woodland), architecture and family history. Pete is a member of Leicester Society of Artists and Leicester Print Workshop and has taught courses in Adult and Further Education at numerous venues, including Attenborough Arts, for many years.

Further information:

All materials will be provided.

This 10-week course will run on Wednesday afternoons, 2-4.30pm, starting on 7 January with the final session on 18 March 2026.

Please note: No session on Wednesday 18 February.

Participants must be aged 18+.

If the course/workshop you’d like to book is sold out, we do operate a waiting list – simply contact our box office team on 0116 252 2455 / arts-centre@le.ac.uk and ask to be added to the waiting list. We’ll then contact you if a place becomes available, with absolutely no obligation to accept it if you’ve made other plans!

Please ensure that you agree to our updated Terms & Conditions before booking as courses/workshops are non-refundable in some circumstances.

We aim to make all our sessions as accessible as possible and carers/PAs are very welcome – just remember to book their free place when you book your session. If you’d like to talk to us in advance of booking or attending your sessions to discuss your access needs, our Box Office team is here to help! Email arts-centre@le.ac.uk, pop in or call 0116 252 2455, open 7 days a week.

We have four blue badge parking spaces outside Attenborough Arts Centre, plus double yellow line roadside parking very close to the building for blue badge holders for up to three hours if our parking spaces are occupied.

Free parking for all customers is available after 5pm on weekdays and all day at weekends in the University of Leicester car park next door to Attenborough Arts Centre on Lancaster Road. The closest public car park for parking at all other times is Victoria Park, 5-10 minutes walk from us (near De Montfort Hall).