I've spent most of my life learning how to look
I’m Ed Cooper, an artist and teacher based in Suffolk. I’ve been drawing and painting since I was young, but my path into becoming a full-time artist and teacher was not completely straightforward.
Where it began
I began at Ipswich Art School, where I learned to work from life and to look closely at the world in front of me. Those early years gave me a lasting belief that drawing is not simply a talent you either possess or lack—it is a way of paying attention, and it can be developed through practice.
Losing the Path
After completing my degree in Painting and Drawing, I gradually found myself moving further away from art. I spent several years in customer-service and office jobs, but I struggled with work that felt disconnected from the things I cared about.
Eventually, that period came to a difficult end. I lost my job, had counselling and spent nearly two years unemployed.
Finding the way back
It was an uncertain period, but it also gave me the time and space to return seriously to art.
I began attending life-drawing classes in the evenings. I bought my first easel and started painting outdoors, gradually discovering the art I wanted to create. I also became connected with other local artists through Key Arts, an artist-run space based at St Mary-at-the-Quay Church in Ipswich.
I drew and painted regularly, studied art history and theory, and slowly brought art back to the centre of my life.
A Phone Call Changed Everything
Just as I was facing the prospect of returning to another job that felt wrong for me, a friend who ran a local gallery contacted Suffolk College on my behalf.
There was only a week left to apply for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education—a teacher-training course that would allow me to teach adults. I could still join the course if I found a mentor. Several former contacts agreed to support me, and I secured a place.
That phone call change the direction of my life.
After completing the PGCE, I began teaching adult drawing and painting for Suffolk College. When the college later stopped running the courses, I continued them independently. Those early classes gradually became the teaching practice I run today.
Teaching the Foundations I Once Looked For
I loved being at art school and was over the moon to be accepted onto a degree in Painting and Drawing. But although I was surrounded by art, I was never really taught many of the fundamentals I was looking for.
At the time, traditional approaches to drawing and painting had largely been replaced by more intuitive, abstract and conceptual ways of working. I wanted practical skills, techniques and theory. I wanted to understand how to draw from observation, how to handle paint and how to build a picture with confidence.
When I eventually began finding those resources for myself, it was a revelation. I felt as though I had finally discovered the tools I had been searching for all along.
That experience still shapes the way I teach today. I try to give students the foundations I once wanted: clear instruction, practical methods and the confidence to develop their drawing and painting through close observation.
Still Learning, Still Painting
I continue to draw and paint in my Ipswich studio and directly from the Suffolk landscape. My own practice remains an important part of my life and continues to shape the way I teach.
I do not see myself as someone who has finished learning. Painting still presents me with the same questions: how to look more closely, simplify what I see, use colour and make an image feel alive.
Working through those questions myself helps me understand the challenges my students face. For me, being an artist and being a teacher are not separate roles. Each one continually informs the other.
Along the Way
My work has been exhibited across Suffolk, recognised with the Ipswich Art Society Mayor’s Award, and featured on ITV’s This Morning and Channel 5’s series Norfolk & Suffolk
Art can always find its way back into your life
I know what it is like for art to be pushed to the edges of life, and how rewarding it can be to bring it back to the centre. Whether you are beginning for the first time or returning after many years, I aim to offer the practical guidance, encouragement and structure that can help you move forward.