Welcome to the Online Art School

Your brilliant landscape work has really recharged my batteries, as I have retired from clinical medical practice and now paint, compose soundtrack music, teach bonsai and fly a drone like you!  Thank you for all the great things you are doing for artists and illustrators like myself!

First of all, I would like to commend you for your beautiful, generous and awesome skill of oil painting.  Secondly, I am excited for you…for your teaching online and helping aspiring students to taste the sweet flavours of painting.

First off, thank you for coming up with the online tutorials.  I think you are going to revolutionise and modernise a field via internet.  Brilliant, you are the first!  You have been one of my favourite artists and to be given instruction, in my own home for a small price, by someone I admire, is beyond belief.  Others will follow, I guarantee.  You have opened a new world to me and I just want to say thank you.

This is the best art school I have seen and I will continue to support it and learn from it and my feedback is only positive

I am VERY happy with the Art School.  Michael’s style is beautiful and the school is very helpful at getting me aimed at what I really want to accomplish

First of all, THANK YOU for your online course!  I started following Bob Ross 1 and a half years ago and then Kevin Hill, but I have to say that, after only 2 tutorials with you, my painting is now so much more detailed and pretty.  I still can’t believe that I was able to paint them myself!

Excellent page Michael, blessings for you and success

I am very pleased with all the tutorials.  They are the best I have found.  I like everything about them and the way Michael teaches is lovely.  I love his art…

I’m so lucky that I can learn oil painting from your online Art School.  Michael James Smith is a really great artist!

Dear Michael, I am so pleased that I am a member of your online art classes. You are my favourite artist and you have taught me so much. I think that not only are you a wonderful talented artist, but you are a great teacher too, you have so much patience to teach how to realistically paint every detail, and you have a calm and soothing voice and mannerisms. I do thank you sincerely for all that you have done to help me paint to the best of my ability.

Just saying thank you for sharing your abilities in the arts. You have produced exceptional documentation on your techniques in oil painting. I have purchased several Streamline videos and they all seem to skip the most crucial element in painting and that is the completion or final strokes. They tend to skip over “their secret” techniques that you truly need to produce a work of the highest quality. I have been painting for 30 years now and have finally reached my high-water mark. Although I did not reproduce any of your subjects I did incorporate your color palette, brushes, and techniques into my paintings. The difference was magnificent.

I’m trying my hand at an art career myself and your online art school has really been a wonderful help in doing landscapes. My speciality is pet portraits and still life, but you have really kindled a fire in me and a desire to learn landscapes. I love learning new challenges and your art school is well worth the money. Thank you very much for you, your art and spreading the love and knowledge out there. 🙂

Just wanted to say how pleased I am having joined your art school. I feel like I am learning so much and your lessons are brilliant. I have been doing art lessons for about 20 years now with various teachers and they have been excellent too, but the beauty of the art school is that you can go back and look again and again at the way Michael does things and try to copy it. He is an exceptional artist, but also an excellent teacher who understands how to get art across to students and I like that he is very down to earth and easy to follow. Many thanks.

I love the classes, I am so pleased you started the school.

I just want to thank you for your videos.  I am painting landscapes in black & white and some of your techniques have really helped, especially for the ripples in the water. Thank you! Great job!

What a great instructor and what an incredibly well-made homepage!

I love your tutorials and have completed a few of them, learning a lot along the way.  All the tutorials are great and being an outdoor person, I really like them. Thank you.

Awesome work, I would like to say that online art school is very helpful for all levels and it helps artists to get better creation.
Thanks MJS.

It’s said that to learn to paint, you must find someone whose style and paintings you admire most and try to copy them. I found Michael James Smith, knew this was the person I wanted to be my mentor and then was thrilled beyond words when he decided to open this school. I would have done just about anything to benefit from his knowledge. I’m so grateful and appreciative that he has started this school.

Anyone can paint, we have all been taught to paint at some stage in our school days and yet seem to stop once we leave school and those who still paint or wish to start painting again always need inspiration at some point; well Michael provides inspiration by the bucket full. Michael’s in depth tuition will show you, from a fairly limited palette, how to mix colour, when and why to add mediums and more importantly how to load a brush with paint and apply such to the canvas with in depth close ups. Michael’s enthusiasm is contagious and will provide the inspiration you need to want to paint. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced artist who wishes to improve your technique there is something for all, I am pleased that I subscribed as Michael has awoken my passion for art again.

Thank you for your YouTube tutorials and the move to setup the online art courses.
It has given me a great source of relaxation over the last 6 months and some confidence that I may be able to produce something of reasonable quality!

I am so delighted to be doing your online course. You have put so much work and effort into it and I’m sure you have inspired thousands so thank you for all your hard work.

Michael is my favourite artist, I have waited a long time for him to give lessons like this.

I just wanted to say thanks for creating this Art School and sharing your knowledge with the world.

I’m really looking forward to the classes.  I’ve never seen an artist do such realistic, almost photographic painting as Michael does and would love to learn his technique.  There are many online courses out there, but after seeing Michael’s YouTube videos, his technique and final results are by far the best!  Thanks so much again.

I have completed several tutorials! Thank you so much for all that I have learned and now I can paint a photo realistic painting because of your tutorials.

Just stopping to say your painting skills are off the charts crazy good. So nice you teach and share your talent. Just wanted to say, awesome work!

I know Michael hears this all the time, but his ability to teach this very difficult painting style continues to amaze and I am personally amazed at the improvement I am making almost session by session.  This is something so special after years of trying. This style of painting is perfect for me and I am eternally grateful to Michael and all of you for making this possible. Best wishes as far as the business success which I can see is most assured.

Michael, I find your paintings inspirational. I must compliment you also on your generosity in posting explanatory videos that carefully explain your techniques. This is a wonderful way of helping other artists to develop. I always wanted to be an artist who could produce saleable work, but after Art School I drifted into first Science and then Design. Your detailed step by step videos must have given hope to hundreds of aspiring artists like myself.

Michael’s YouTube videos are so enjoyable to follow that I felt I would learn a lot from watching him paint. I was not mistaken. His way of teaching is so clear and easy to follow. I have completed one of his tutorials and have already learnt so much. Can’t wait to do them all!

I have followed Michael’s work for a couple of years and it’s stunning and he comes across as such a nice guy. I have made a start on my first painting, which I hope to complete next week on my days off.

Your online school is beyond fantastic. I only started painting a year ago and with no prior artistic attempts ever. I switched to oils from acrylic in October. I finished two of your tutorials. They are very helpful.

Thank you very much for the joy and inspiration you bring to people by sharing your lessons. This is an absolutely amazing feeling to see how nothing becomes a really nice looking painting. 🙂

Michael I just love being a part of your art school. Your style of teaching matches my learning style very well. The website is easy to navigate so I can focus on painting not figuring out how to use the site. Thank you for sharing your amazing skills, I can’t believe how much I am learning, my painting has reached a new level. I probably shouldn’t have started all the tutorials at once though…but I am so excited about PAINTING!!!

I’m really excited about starting the school! I think that MJS is so talented and I must tell you that I feel so privileged to be able to receive such detailed and valuable instruction from such an amazing artist. I was surprised that I even learned some tips from the preview videos and I could tell that he is very detailed and thorough with his instructions. I am happy because I know that this school will help me to progress at an amazingly fast level, cutting years off my artistic progress.

I want to thank you for having the foresight and energy to create an online school where you can share with others the skills you have developed over the years. It is a pleasure to be a member and be able to interact with other aspiring painters of all skill levels from around the world. I look forward to continuing to develop my skills while enjoying the interaction with you and all the other members. Thank you!

Absolutely superb. Fantastic to have access to such high quality and professional tuition. I am enjoying every minute of each lesson. I also feel that my knowledge base has increased rapidly since starting. Thanks Michael for sharing your wonderful talents.

Thanks to you and what I have learnt so far from you, my art work got me recognised as a professional artist even though I’ve only been painting for a few months now.

Thank you for all the wonderful techniques you share with us. You are amazingly talented. I’m sure your art school (what a great idea!) will be a huge success.

I like your skills very much!!! Many new things for me here. Your painting technique is great! The landscapes are difficult to paint but I try to learn a lot from you. Thanks for all your advice!

Loving the new website (Joined 01 Dec 17). Speaking to some of the other members it is obvious they are loving it too. I have been following your YouTube postings since July 2017 and I must say that your teaching style and explanations are thoroughly enjoyable. You might make an artist out of me yet!

A brilliant site, love the tutorials but for me the most is how you pay attention to even the smallest of detail to get your results including a tutorial of making a brush for your detailed work, who else would do that? Amazing!  In my opinion this makes your site second to none, as detail is important to learning.
I just love this site.  I’ve even made 3 friends so far in my first week on your site.
Keep up the good work.

I can’t express how happy these tutorials have made me. It has helped me get past the problems that I was facing. It seemed that I knew the colours that I could see in the landscape, but couldn’t get them right. Now I understand much more, which I didn’t before.  I am having so much fun and really enjoying the experience.
Thanks so much Mr. Smith.

MJS Online Art School is just what I wanted. I can now watch Michael paint in real time. That alone is enough to bring me here, but instead of watching MJS paint to music, we now have an additional explanation of every step, every choice, and this makes it even better as a teaching environment than the YouTube videos.

Thank you so much for offering this art school! I have learned so much from starting the first landscape and I cannot wait to move on! The Tutorial community has been wonderful and I look forward to meeting new beginner artists like myself. Thank you for all your work you have put into this!

I am excited to join membership of the Art School – I enrolled yesterday.  I have watched your videos on YouTube and look forward to more detailed instruction.

I watched and learnt many things from your videos.  I am grateful to you for sharing such amazing art lessons.  I will join your Art School ASAP.  Thanks for sharing your art.

I really think you did a great job of setting up the school.  Much more than I expected.  Very professionally done.  Really like the Community forum, it reminds me of Facebook but much better, as it caters to serious people who are really interested in the same subject.  I also feel that your fee is very good value for what you provide.

Wow!  I love your website Michael and your work blows me away.  I want to join as soon as I can because I want to learn more.

Michael, congratulations to your art school and for all the great work you have done. I really like it. Best wishes!

You are amazing and I love your work. I’ve been painting landscapes in oil off and on since age 12 and I’m now retired. I’m a devoted amateur painter. I’ve been following you on YouTube for about a year now and it’s been great fun. Thanks again to a great artist and human being. You’re the best!

Hurray! I have been waiting for this and I am thrilled! CONGRATULATIONS on the launch of your wonderful school!

My Partner and myself have just recently discovered you and we love your technique in painting trees and water. We would like to thank you in showing your technique, as now we have both started oil painting again.
 Love your work.

Superb website Michael. Excellent video tutorials with good camera angles and clear audio! Very informative and inspiring. Thank you.

Congratulations and although I learned a lot via YouTube I will follow all your lessons from December 2017 this year. I owe it to you because you are so generous in all aspects.
 A friend from Flanders in Belgium.

First off, the website is as fantastic as I hoped it would be! This will definitely help me fill in the blanks from watching your YouTube videos.

Great site you have produced Mike, its nicely laid out and I can navigate around just fine.

Awesome to see your website is up and running. I have been following your videos on YouTube. I have gone over your site, well done. Thank you, keep up the good work.