THE COLLYMORE OIL PAINTERS ATELIER
Private Mentorship with Valerie Collymore
The Atelier Experience
Valerie’s studio hours are devoted to the paintings she creates for Fountainhead Gallery, her exclusive representative. As an atelier member, you have a front-row seat to her professional painting practice as it unfolds.
Members follow the inspiration behind each work and the intensive process informed by the techniques of the great French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. They see the challenges, revisions, and breakthroughs that shape a painting from its earliest stages to completion. They also observe Valerie’s preparation for national juried competitions, from the first brushstrokes to the final submission.
Through this rare access, members learn the essential principles and professional techniques of Impressionist painting, along with the visual judgment and artistic decision-making behind strong, coherent paintings.
Who the Atelier Is For
Atelier members are busy executives, active retirees, and committed painters who make room for painting amid full, engaged lives. They come to deepen their skills, strengthen their artistic voice, and create more meaningful work. Some are collectors who paint. Many are emerging artists building a cohesive body of strong work as they prepare to exhibit.
Why Members Stay
Painters stay in the Atelier because their work evolves quickly—and because the support evolves with it.
The Atelier offers a steady rhythm of close, individualized attention, thoughtful conversation, and time to work independently. Rather than following a fixed curriculum or rushing toward a prescribed result, each member receives guidance in relation to the paintings, questions, ambitions, and professional decisions that are most alive in their practice at a given moment.
Hear directly from painters who have worked closely with Valerie in Why They Stay: Students of the Collymore Oil Painters Atelier, a 4-minute film by Films About Artists.
From Studio to Exhibition
After nine months to a year of sustained study and development of a cohesive body of work, members have the rare opportunity to exhibit their strongest paintings in an atelier-sponsored, curated group show at a professional Los Angeles gallery.
Alongside their study of painting technique, members are introduced to the business of art over many months. This measured approach gives them time to absorb the practical knowledge needed to successfully prepare for an exhibition.
By opening night, members understand not only how to make strong work, but how to present it professionally.
What the Atelier Includes
The Atelier unfolds in five-week cycles: four weeks of close guidance and exchange, followed by a Quiet Practice Week for reflection, independent work, and integration.
- Four 30-minute private art consultations, tailored to the member’s paintings, questions, and goals.
- One complimentary, on-demand 30-minute private demonstration, focused on the part of the painting process the member most wants to explore.
- One Quiet Practice Week. A dedicated week to absorb new learning, apply it independently to your paintings, and develop confidence in your own artistic decisions. When needed, it may also be used as a catch-up week to reschedule an unused consultation or book your complimentary private demonstration.
- One Atelier Salon, a 60-minute Sunday gathering with Valerie and fellow members, held once each cycle.
The Atelier Salon
Inspired by the French tradition of artists gathering around painting, ideas, and conversation, the Atelier Salon brings that spirit into a contemporary, intimate setting. Valerie and fellow painters meet for 60 minutes once each cycle.
Each gathering may include: on-camera analyses of paintings by past masters and selected contemporary artists. Perspectives from significant voices in the art world, artists, gallerists, curators, and thinkers, whose ideas can enrich our studio practice and deepen our understanding of the business of art. Conversations about subjects that matter to working painters: artistic influences, exhibitions, the development of an individual visual language, working with art consultants, making and selling prints, and identifying the artistic paths best suited to each of us.
Above all, the Salon is a place to look more deeply, think more freely, and remain connected to a community of painters.
- The Los Angeles Exhibition Opportunity - Selected Atelier painters may have the opportunity to exhibit a cohesive body of work in a professional Los Angeles gallery in September 2027, with guidance throughout the process of developing, selecting, preparing, and presenting the work.
2026 Los Angeles Exhibition Catalog
The 2026 Los Angeles exhibition catalogue offers a glimpse of what is possible: a professionally presented collection of paintings by selected Atelier artists, each shown with care and respect for the individual painter’s developing visual language.
View the 2026 Los Angeles Exhibition Catalogue
2026-2027 Atelier Calendar
Cycle 1
October 12–November 15, 2026
Atelier Salon: Sunday, October 25, 2026, 5–6 p.m. Pacific
Cycle 2
November 16–December 20, 2026
Atelier Salon: Sunday, December 6, 2026, 5–6 p.m. Pacific
Cycle 3
January 11–February 14, 2027
Atelier Salon: Sunday, February 7, 2027, 5–6 p.m. Pacific
Cycle 4
February 15–March 21, 2027
Atelier Salon: Sunday, March 21, 2027, 5–6 p.m. Pacific
Cycle 5
March 22–April 25, 2027
Atelier Salon: Sunday, April 18, 2027, 5–6 p.m. Pacific
Cycle 6
April 26–May 30, 2027
Atelier Salon: Sunday, May 23, 2027,
Time to be announced.
Cycle 7
May 31–July 4, 2027
Atelier Salon: Sunday, June 27, 2027, 5–6 p.m. Pacific
Cycle 8
July 5–August 8, 2027
Atelier Salon: Sunday, August 1, 2027, 5–6 p.m. Pacific
Cycle 9
August 9–September 12, 2027
Atelier Salon: Sunday, September 12, 2027, 5–6 p.m. Pacific
Cycle 10
September 13–October 17, 2027
Atelier Salon: Sunday, October 17, 2027, 5–6 p.m. Pacific
Cycle 11
October 18–November 21, 2027
Atelier Salon: Sunday, November 14, 2027, 5–6 p.m. Pacific
Tuition
