I'm very honoured to announce that I have recently been awarded the Smith Fellowship, a scholarship offered by the contemporary classical realist school Studio Escalier, to undertake three months of intensive figurative painting in France. For the 2017 European Summer I will be living and painting in picturesque Argenton, a small village south-west of Paris. The Summer intensive program consists of five days of full time painting per week, with a focus on portraiture and the figure. Admission is on an application basis, and participants come from all over the world. The nature of the course allows for undivided attention and focus on the work at hand and I am looking forward to making the most of my time there and sharing my experiences and paintings!

'The Smith Fellowship is an award from Studio Escalier, given for exceptional artistic promise to a woman under the age of 30, who intends to make her career in the arts.

The Smith Fellowship is an award privately funded by SE alumni in loving memory of artist and dancer Tanza Lorraine Smith, who was a student in our 2007-2009 programs in Argenton-Chateau, France.

Tanza Smith was an immensely positive, creative, and joyful inspiration to her family and friends, as well as to everyone who knew and loved her at Studio Escalier.

"Look around. We are creators. Plant a garden. Call your mother."' -Studio Escalier admissions