Studio West is one of the best studios I've been to so far! Don't let the location through you off!…read moreOnce you get inside, you'll be working with many talented pro artists with a friendly personality. Studio West has many workshops and weekly courses. Varies between digital media, traditional, and life drawing and painting! I go weekly to life drawing/painting sessions where there's a nude model, and proper lighting. The space is big enough to fit 10 people I'd say. There's even free coffee and light snacks! Whether you're a hobbyist or a pro artist, I highly recommend it as an artist myself.

From the owner: Affordable arts education bases in Toronto offered by professionals in the industry.read more

you've been taking art classes and art evenings with Mila for years…read more Highly recommend the studio!

Had a girls paint night here. Was lots of fun!! Mila is great! Great place to relax with friends.read more

New location: 24 Ryerson, near Bathurst and Queen west…read more Calm newly renovated space, central location and gentle professional artists as teachers.

Now taking a second watercolour class with Brian Hoxha at Toronto School of Art and am so impressed…read morewith the level of teaching and instruction! I'm now in love with watercolour and producing pieces that I'm proud of.

I really appreciate this home-grown, family owned business. Tanyss and Harv are lifelong artists…read morewho share an open and welcoming environment where students can learn the foundational skills necessary to prepare for more ambitious projects.

The "Painting program " is a big scam …read more They dangle a carrot on a stick saying you will be painting...but the website misrepresents what it's really about. 1) you don't paint in the beginning of the program but do endlessly tedious Bargue drawings ( two drawings of very ugly Roman statues, no less) over a two month period. If you enjoy a exceedingly tedious exercises like measuring an outline of a head of a statue for 16 hours + and getting it off by half a mm and being corrected and having to redo this over and over - well power to you. It's not what I signed up for. That is under "Drawing program not painting" . The worst part is my main teacher clearly had Aspergers...I have no problem with people with Aspergers, ( my cousin has it but he's the same) -but when it gets in the way of teaching and you are stubbornly looking for errors for fifteen minutes, and ignoring the student requests to "please can we just move on to the next exercise already" or could you get a ruler and just measure it ? ( after a SIXTEEN HOUR outline and counting) ...I have a problem. 2) The next part of the program is you spend about a month or two on Colour, hue and chroma...all this flowery language on their website- but what it really is - is you basically just sit at a table- and just replicate paint chips. in every hue, shade imaginable- of a colour. You will do this for a month or two. If that's your thing , be my guest... Never mind that you could be spending your time honing technique and learning to paint actual THINGS as well as learning about colour mixing as you paint as many schools do.. or get taught theory or something...no instead they give you this very lazy assignment of making paint chips. And of course you will be endlessly corrected about how off you were by half a drop of white etc..etc.. You can just buy book on paint hues and quiz yourself ...if you want an excellent but pricey one - get Munsell book of Colour ) rather than waste 1- 2 months of your time on such an insipid exercise...it's still cheaper and not so utterly time wasting. 3) You don't even get to actually "paint" in the program for OVER A YEAR . It can take years to "graduate" because of how slow the program goes, and you hardly get anything done . Website assures many body of works will be produced- pff ! Hardly. When I asked the teacher ( Tannys ) about this, she told me: " Painting is easy, you can paint at home." Right ! 2) They don't even use oil paint for when you do paint, which they don't mention, it's acrylics. 3) The teachers are overall "surface nice" at first, but most are a strange, cold and unwelcoming introverted, bunch, and Tannys is a downright pretentious snob who studied in France and Italy ( but her actual skills as an artist are questionable if you look at her instagram ). When I started asking too many questions ..she called me rude about three times in front of the entire class, and "WHO was I to interview/undermine the teachers like this? " it was a deliberate shaming, as she wanted to get rid of me as I was posing "a problem" with my questions. Never mind that it's illegal to misrepresent a program online and not deliver what you are told you are going to get ... 4) It's deathly boring because you have to spend a lot of your time there, waiting around on teachers.. They gab mindlessly to students for half an hour or more sometimes ( things that could be said in five minutes if they were at all articulate..) which only adds to the tedium of the already very tedious exercises.. You show up , and they don't even bother with ensuring that students are able to start on tbe 6) After I was warned the first day by another miserable student about the program - I sent an email to Jeff and expressed my concern about how slow this program was going.. I was assured it would move faster, but he knew very well this was not true as if anything the program went ALOT slower...and he only said this in order to get me to pay the money the next day. So he blatantly lied to get my money. In then end I was promised a full refund as I pointed out they were misrepresenting what was being sold..( in other words, it's illegal.). I only heard back weeks later, and they ripped me off about 600 dollars because "oh that money you can't get back that part - it's "not refundable" ! If you want to learn to paint, another school I was going to go to was VR school of Art, where you do actually paint right away and with oils...and things you like as well... but I'm so over it now...:(

My lifelong dream was to learn from the masters and only when I registered with ARA was that dream…read morefully realized. I am now approaching portraiture with fearless enthusiasm as I learned from the best.

Hands down, the BEST art school in Toronto, if not Canada…read more The school is founded on the simple belief that everyone can draw because it is a craft, a technical skill, that can be learned, like measuring with a ruler. The reality is that this is true, anyone can learn to draw and it's that simple. No bells. No Whistles. Aside from the fact that you will learn to draw beautiful realist pieces, this school is run by genuine artists with decades of experience and real heart. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming, with flexible hours to accommodate working professionals and students. You will begin with Bargue drawings. Once you have completed this portion of your studies (it could take 1-2 years depending on your skill and time) you will move into oil painting. Also, there are weekly life drawing classes utilizing charcoal. If I could go back in time, I think I would skip any consideration of a fine art degree or enrollment at a school like OCAD, because you can easily graduate from these programs in four years and still be unable to draw. But at the ARA, if you have time, patience and passion, you will learn to draw, no matter who you are.

I had a very disappointing experience with this studio…read more I purchased a multi-class pass specifically because I intended for my daughter to attend the Birchmount location. When I later tried to book classes, there was no availability. Only then did I discover that the Birchmount location had closed. I never received any email notifying me of the closure. Had I known the location was closing, I would not have purchased the passes. When I contacted the studio, instead of working toward a reasonable resolution, I was told they had a record of an email being sent and was offered classes at another location that is significantly less convenient for my family. A refund was refused. As a parent, communication and customer service are important. I understand that businesses sometimes close locations, but customers who have recently purchased passes should be clearly informed before or at the time of purchase. Unfortunately, I left feeling that my concerns were dismissed rather than addressed. Based on my experience, I cannot recommend this studio.

I did my Co-Op placement virtually this year at Creative Genius Academy and considering the…read morecircumstances of COVID it was the best experience I could have gotten for a Co-Op placement in 2021. Sylvia and Matthew were really keen on giving tasks that could help me build a portfolio and improve the skills that I would need in the future. They also catered my tasks to subjects that I'm interested in going into for post-secondary. They were also very nice and lenient to deadlines and workloads which was really helpful when doing a virtual placement :)

Very spacious gallery with beautiful contemporary abstract art. It doubles as a studio too where…read moreyou can also meet the artist and enjoy chatting with them while they are working.

From the owner: I am a Polish-Canadian artist based in Mississauga. My preferred medium is oil, sometimes mixed…read morewith a bit of cold wax. As a contemporary artist, my work is not representational; it leans towards abstraction and symbolism, with minimal use of color. I aim to create the illusion of empty space, using certain elements to convey absence, isolation, and memory. Some have commented that I document the impressions of my personal journey in relation to my new home, Canada. This influence continues to shape my work. I've come to realize that our existence is simply a continuous cycle, unaffected by what we do or where we live; it's a circle that keeps turning. In this circle, humans are in a constant struggle for time, always searching for something new and something better. During my busiest times, I longed for quiet and empty spaces, for solitude and seclusion. I started to paint these feelings, the sense of empty, meditative space. Then, my little 'traveler' emerged on his journey through the vast landscape of life. Perhaps he hopes to find a 'Neverland,' or maybe he seeks a more challenging, more exciting, or simply a different life. Along his journey, he leaves an imprint on the earth—his good and bad deeds, his energy, his shadow of being, and his shadow of memories. I am an elected member of the Society of Canadian Artists, the Federation of Canadian Artists, and the Ontario Society of Artists.