— DISCIPLINE • FINE ARTS
Fine
Arts
Refine your art and technique through faculty-led studios, lectures, and drawing safaris across Paris — in the city that shaped Delacroix, Monet, Rodin, and generations of artists who came here to find themselves.
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— PROGRAM OVERVIEW
“ The Fine Arts summer program helps students refine their art and technique through faculty-led studies, lectures, and drawing safaris around the city — using Paris itself as the ultimate studio. ”
Studying Fine Arts in Paris is unlike studying it anywhere else. The city is not a backdrop — it is the material. The Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, the Pompidou, the Luxembourg gardens — all become extensions of the studio. PAA’s Fine Arts summer workshop places students within that tradition, guided by faculty who have studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, the Slade, and the Institut de France.
The program is open to all levels — from students beginning to build a studio practice to working artists looking to develop their work in a new cultural context. Faculty-led critique sessions run alongside individual studio time, lectures in art history and aesthetics, and frequent drawing expeditions across the city.
— WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
Core areas of study
01
Studio painting practice
Oil, watercolour, gouache, and acrylic — students work in the medium of their choice under faculty supervision in PAA’s dedicated studio space.
02
Life drawing & figure study
Weekly life drawing sessions with professional models. Charcoal, conte, and ink — building observational drawing skills as the foundation of all visual practice.
03
Drawing safaris across Paris
Faculty-led expeditions to draw from life in the Louvre, the Tuileries, Montmartre, and Saint-Germain. The unique PAA practice that defines the summer program.
04
Mixed media & experimentation
Collage, monoprint, mixed media, and experimental surface techniques — students are encouraged to work across disciplines and develop their personal visual language.
05
Art history lectures & museum visits
Structured lectures in the history of art from Calum Fraser and Dr. Agnès Rannou, combined with guided visits to Paris’s major collections.
06
Faculty critique & individual review
Regular group critiques and individual studio reviews with faculty — building the vocabulary and discipline of serious artistic practice.
— ENROLMENT
The Summer Workshop
SUMMER WORKSHOP 2026
Fine Arts Summer Workshop
A 4–6 week intensive program in July 2026. Students work in the studio daily, attend lectures and museum visits, and join faculty on drawing safaris across Paris. Open to all levels — no prior studio experience required.
DURATION
4–6 weeks
DATES
July 2026
FORMAT
Full-time, in person — Paris
APPLICATION DEADLINE
1 month before start date
LEVEL
All levels — beginners welcome
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A typical week
Mon
Studio painting session
Morning studio work in your chosen medium, with faculty available throughout
Tue
Art history lecture
Calum Fraser or Dr. Rannou — 18th/19th-century French art, aesthetic theory, or contemporary practice
Wed
Drawing safari
Faculty-led expedition to a Parisian museum, garden, or neighbourhood. Sketchbooks and drawing materials required.
Thu
Life drawing session
Two-hour session with a professional model. Charcoal, ink, and conte encouraged.
Fri
Group critique
Weekly critique of studio work with all students and faculty. Honest, supportive, and formative.
— A PAA TRADITION
Drawing safaris:
Paris as a living museum
The drawing safari is the signature practice of PAA’s Fine Arts program — a faculty-led expedition into the city to draw from life in some of Paris’s most extraordinary settings. Students sketch from the Louvre’s sculpture galleries, draw the rooftops of Montmartre, and observe the play of light on the Seine, building a sketchbook that is itself a record of their Parisian experience.
Musée du Louvre
DRAWING FROM ANTIQUE
Jardin des Tuileries
LANDSCAPE & FIGURE
Montmartre — Place du Tertre
URBAN SKETCHING
Musée d’Orsay
IMPRESSIONIST STUDY
Jardin du Luxembourg
FIGURE & PLEIN AIR
Ile de la Cité — Quais de la Seine
URBAN LANDSCAPE
— THE PARISIAN COLLECTIONS
Art history on every corner
No city on earth has a higher concentration of great art in a small geography. PAA Fine Arts students visit and work from the collections that have shaped Western art for five centuries — not as tourists, but as practising artists with sketchbooks in hand.
Musée du Louvre
CLASSICAL & OLD MASTERS
Musée d’Orsay
IMPRESSIONISM & POST-IMPRESSIONISM
Centre Pompidou
MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART
Musée Rodin
SCULPTURE & DRAWING
Musée de l’Orangerie
MONET · WATER LILIES
Musée Marmottan Monet
MONET ARCHIVE
Palais de Tokyo
LIVING CONTEMPORARY PRACTICE
“There is something that happens to your drawing when you sit in front of a Rodin for an hour. The marble teaches you what the classroom cannot.”
— CALUM FRASER — FINE ARTS FACULTY, PAA · SINCE 1998
Calum FRASER | since 1998 at Paris American Academy | Brigitte Lenoir is a teacher in literature, philosophy, history, and aesthetic theory
Dr Agnès RANNOU | since 2003 at Paris American Academy | Dr Agnès RANNOU is an art historian
— STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
They joined this discipline
— APPLICATION
Paint in the city that invented modern art
Applications for the Fine Arts Summer Workshop 2026 are open. Deadline: one month before the start date. All levels welcome.