2001 – 2024
Insight School of Art will be closing at the end of the summer term 2024. We are proud to have provided an art school education for adults and children for twenty three years, enriching the lives of up to 400 students every term.
Please share your memories of studying at Insight School of Art by clicking the comment button below. You can add photographs too.
paulregan.studio will be taking over the studio from September 2024. Please sign up for newsletters if you would like to hear about any plans for classes or workshops in the future.
Paul Regan is a legend. A tremendous artist in his own right, & hero in the world of art education through Insight. It’s been a great great pleasure to know and work with him. I’ve loved every minute, from Lancaster Rd to Whetstone.
The 11 years I worked at Insight were some of the happiest in my life. I had been teaching Art & Design in a secondary school near Watford when a message on the staff room noticeboard caught my eye. ‘Part-time Art teacher needed for private adult art school in Barnet’. That’s how Paul started off, with a couple of classes a day, in a room above a church hall. We had to improvise somewhat to ensure the students enjoyed their lessons, including good lighting (which we had fun attaching to hooks in the ceiling using a long stick with a cup hook screwed in one end).
As the classes expanded and Paul found more suitable premises in Lancaster Road, Insight developed into a proper School of Art, teaching all ages, employing more staff and becoming the best centre of learning in Hertfordshire (according to many students).
While Paul maintained the highest standards of teaching, and we all worked hard, the staff also had fun. We played table tennis in between classes. I confess to labelling a piece of work with a fictitious name (an anagram of ‘Paul Regan’) which he didn’t spot for weeks. I once had to ask a model in the life drawing class to leave because of his inappropriate posing.
I have many more fond memories of my years on Insight’s staff, mainly of the amazing students I had the pleasure to teach. (These included an ex-nun; a lady who told me (loudly) that she was having an affair; a lovely lady who had been a prima ballerina in her youth; a famous screenwriter; and a man who’d spent the 70’s designing record covers.)
Paul was wonderful as Insight’s director and as our boss. As I neared retirement, I realised just how much I’d learned from him, as do the hundreds of students who’ve benefitted from Insight, many of whom have gone on to become independent, practising artists. Paul should feel so proud of all he achieved.
Receiving a commendation for my Great Dixter painting
Xxx
….x
More …
More memories 1
Jamie Gordon sent this photograph to me recently. A group of Insight students each painted a section of Oakhill Park to create a panoramic view of the East Barnet Festival 2010.
More happy memories…
So many happy memories x