The Artists Mentoring course provides the support necessary to develop an independent creative practice with the close supervision of an experienced personal mentor and the encouragement of fellow students. The programme is ideally suited for artists who already have experience in their chosen area of creative interest and are wishing to further develop work to an advanced level.
Aims:
The course aims to provide the supportive environment necessary to build an independent creative practice with guidance and expertise of an experienced mentor. The course encourages the development of critical awareness and an appreciation of how individual engagement sits in relation to wider contemporary art contexts. The programme aims to be flexible and responsive to individual creative needs and our team of professional mentors provide feedback and guidance to help define and develop creative goals.
Content:
Artists on the course are provided with sustained one to one support plus opportunities to exchange ideas and experiences with fellow students. The course is structured through a series of scheduled one to one mentoring sessions which facilitate critical awareness and an appreciation of how individual practice sits in relation to wider contemporary art contexts.
In the first term students work with their mentor to identify and establish a personal research project which aims to build their creative and professional practice. This project is developed over the year culminating in a professional body of work which reflects the specific interests of the individual whilst also engaging with ideas in contemporary practice.
Outcomes:
On completion of the course students will have developed a major body of new work carried out with the support of a personal mentor. Artists on the programme will have a deepened understanding of their creative interests and how this ties in to discourses in the broader field of creative practice. In addition students will have developed the skills necessary for independent life as a visual practitioner, or towards further higher academic study.
Summary
Students will receive a dedicated programme of study as follows:
- Nine individual mentoring tutorials providing bespoke support towards creative and professional development. Sessions, typically up to 60 minutes, will be arranged by appointment at specific points in the year with your Mentor.
- Four peer group sessions exploring themes and ideas in practice and fostering shared developmental experience and critical feedback. These three hour sessions will take place on Saturdays at our North Junction Street Campus at key points throughout the year.
Mentors
Val McLean
Specialism: Painting, Drawing, Intermedia
Val is an established contemporary landscape artist with over 15 years of professional experience. In 2025 her work was Shortlisted for the Scottish Landscape Awards.
Her painting practice is rooted in nature and takes inspiration from the wood and scrubland next to her home in the outskirts of Edinburgh. Working from life, memory, imagination, drawings and photographs her paintings focus on the underlying emotional and psychological resonances that emerge in our interactions with the natural world
Alongside her creative practice, Val is passionate about teaching and has taught extensively across a diverse range of art courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is Course Leader for the Mentoring and One Day painting courses at Leith School of Art. Val brings a wealth of teaching experience to her roles as mentor and tutor having taught theory and practice to students at Edinburgh College of Art and supported emerging artists in developing their conceptual thinking and technical confidence. Her approach to both art making and education places emphasis on enabling each individual to achieve their full potential through curiosity, experimentation, and unique expression.
Val has received numerous awards for her painting and was awarded The Katherine Michaelson Prize for art writing. She is a professional member of both Visual Arts Scotland (VAS) and the Society of Scottish Artists (SSA). Her paintings can often be seen in the Royal Scottish Academy as part of RSW (The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour), VAS and SSA shows.
Instagram: @valmcleanart
Andrew Baker
Specialism: Illustration, Graphic Design
Andrew Baker brings an extensive knowledge of illustration, graphic design and the creative industries. He is a passionate advocate for art and design education, having previously taught on undergraduate courses at Middlesex University and UCA. Andrew studied at Liverpool Polytechnic and The Royal College of Art, going on to establish a successful career in London as an illustrator. He has won several awards including Gold for Editorial Illustration from The Association Of Illustrators. His recent projects include a 225 page illustrated book, BODY: A Graphic Guide To Us, and numerous illustrations for the Radio Times.
Jane Couroussopoulos
Specialism: Drawing
Jane Couroussopoulos studied painting, etching and engraving at City and Guilds of London Art School. She moved to Edinburgh 34 years ago where she has a studio in Coburg House, Leith.
An experienced tutor, Jane has taught painting and drawing for many years at Leith School of Art and for the last seven years has been leading the two day Drawing course. Until recently she worked as a community education tutor for Edinburgh City Council.
Objects and places that have a particular significance, are the subjects of Jane's work. In it, she explores the tension between the objects and the abstraction of the space around them, between organic and man-made structures, and in her landscapes and cityscapes, the representation of urban and rural spaces emptied of people.
She exhibits widely, and in March and April 2022 a series of twelve works was exhibited in St Giles Cathedral. Her paintings are used as the cover images for a long-standing series of academic law books, published by Bloomsbury.
Rachel McBrinn
Specialisms: Film and video; multidisciplinary, collaborative, or research-led work; artist publications; professional practice
Rachel McBrinn is an artist and filmmaker. Her work is often collaborative and rooted in long term site-responsive or archival research. With a critical lens on conservation, maintenance, and archiving practices, recent work has formed around themes of land management, town planning, and custodianship of the built environment. An ongoing research interest revolves around her hometown Livingston, supported by LUX Scotland in 2025-26 and previously by Rhubaba in 2021-23. Her work has shown recently at Travelling Gallery, Fruitmarket, Market Gallery, CCA Glasgow, Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Cove Park, and the Oban Phoenix Cinema.
Rachel has taught at Leith School of Art since 2014, currently Course Leader for the Contemporary Art Practice Course and tutor on the Foundation Course.
Eric Cruikshank
Specialism: Painting
Eric is a Scottish abstract artist - he has been developing his practice since graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in 1997 - and has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the UK, America, Europe, and Japan.
Taking landscape as an initial starting point, Eric’s paintings are not about literal representation, instead the focus is on the emotive qualities of place. His work spans an array of media bracketed according to support - with the collective factor being the addition and subtraction of medium - all completed with a meticulous finish.
Eric works as both Tutor and Studio Assistant at Leith School of Art, leading a series of workshops focusing on various forms of abstraction, and assisting in a variety of classes from beginners through to advanced artists. He has a breadth of experience in starting and maintaining an art practice and enjoys problem solving with students. His primary approach is to being open in sharing and learning so art can be for everyone - where in establishing a level of confidence and comfort in each student - they can find their own means of expression.
Eric has been the recipient of several awards and residencies. He regularly exhibits with a series of both national and international galleries, and his artworks are held in numerous prominent private and public collections.
Harriet Hobday
Specialism: Illustration
Harriet studied Illustration at Cambridge School of Art where she was also employed as a Studio supervisor. She then went on to complete an MA specialising in Children’s Book Illustration and since graduating has been working on a range of projects in her Edinburgh studio for clients such as Condé Nast and Puffin. She is interested in the links between drawing from observation and imagination and is running out of space to keep her many sketchbooks.
Hayley Whittingham
Specialism: Painting, Drawing
Hayley teaches drawing and painting at the School. Outside the School, Hayley tutors weekly life drawing, portraiture and sketching ‘out and about’ classes. She has also worked for many local galleries and uses her knowledge of art history leading gallery tours for City of Edinburgh Council. Her own practice is constantly evolving, driven by a love for oil paint and colour, based at her studio in Leith.
Jo Richardson
Specialism: Painting, Drawing, Printmaking
Jo teaches drawing, painting and printmaking at the School. She studied Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art and The University of Salamanca, and she is an alumnus of Leith School of Art. Jo also trained at Edinburgh Printmakers. Her studio is in Leith and she exhibits nationally and works to private commission. She occasionally designs and paints sets for theatre.
Nicholas Devison
Specialism: Printmaking
Nicholas Devison trained in Painting at Wimbledon School of Art graduating in 1988 and completed his MA in Fine Art Printmaking at Camberwell College of Art in 2000. Nick has over thirty years experience of teaching in art schools in both the independent and public sectors and at all levels including Foundation, Degree and Postgraduate level courses. From 2001 Nick was a Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for MA Fine Art and MA Printmaking at Anglia Ruskin University. More recently he has taught at Leith School of Art as Course Leader on the Year-long Printmaking Course and as a lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University and University of Edinburgh Centre for Open Learning. In addition Nick has taught master classes at Edinburgh Printmakers. Nick was appointed to the role of Principal at Leith School of Art in January 2020.
Nick has contributed to national and international exhibitions and conferences and has work represented in a number of collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He has curated a range of shows including Viewfinder which brought together artists whose work addressed our reading of the digital and photographic image. The project toured internationally travelling to Seoul, South Korea; Melbourne, Australia and venues in the UK.
Nicks specialist area of practice is printmaking which for him is the perfect medium for testing visual ideas, solving problems and creating new and exciting images. Although his practice is rooted in tradition, he is constantly surprised by the possibilities for innovation and experimentation that printmaking provides. In recent work, he has manipulated found imagery in an attempt to elaborate new patterns of meaning, teasing out the allusions and potential narratives that emerge between invention and appropriation.