The Red Chameleon Atelier
About the Atelier
Methods & approach
The Red Chameleon Atelier is a bilingual art studio (French / English) based in Paris, dedicated to rigorous yet lively teaching in realistic drawing and painting. Inspired by classical European methods – academic, Italian, Dutch and French – the Atelier emphasizes precision of observation, the understanding of light, the analysis of form, and the richness of materials.
Who is it for?
Open to artists of all levels, whether beginners or professionals, local or international, the atelier offers weekly classes, life drawing sessions, and intensive courses on specific themes: academic drawing, painting from nature or after masters, artistic anatomy, color theory, etc.
The atelier welcomes guest artists for most of the masterclasses, in order to offer students a varied, lively education that is directly linked to the diversity of the contemporary art scene.
Available formats
The space is designed to be both structured and free: here, you learn to observe, understand, reproduce, and express yourself with rigor and pleasure. The atelier promotes an embodied pedagogy, where you progress in depth, in a spirit of exchange, humility, and enthusiasm. Particular emphasis is placed on the artistic community, human encounters, and conviviality.
Guest artists & masterclasses
The Red Chameleon Atelier also welcomes guest artists—painters, illustrators, and teachers—to share their expertise through one-off workshops and masterclasses. All this takes place in a warm and inspiring atmosphere that is conducive to concentration and creative fulfillment.
Biography – Zoé Baer
Zoé Baer is a Franco-British artist born and raised in Paris, in an environment deeply immersed in visual arts, painting, and theatre. She grew up in an artistically vibrant family: her mother, a former actress on the Parisian stages of the 1970s and ’80s, later became a painter and playwright; her father, an actor and director, founded The Red Chameleon, an absurdist theatre company in 1980s New York, blending the influences of Ionesco, Genet, Monty Python and the traditional Italian commedia dell’arte.
She studied psychology and film at the University City of London, before returning to her first vocation: visual art. Since childhood, she refined her academic drawing and master copy techniques first on her own, then at the Atelier du Temps Passé in Paris, where she was trained in traditional art restoration. There, she received rigorous instruction in old techniques, art history, and hands-on training in professional restoration studios. In parallel, she developed her skills in copy painting with artist André Fish, and studied traditional gilding and academic drawing at Paris-Ateliers.
She then worked for four years in Switzerland as a restorer and gilder, restoring historical works for the city of Lucerne, and decorative frames, including the application of gold, silver and palladium leaf. Alongside this conservation work, she pursued her own artistic path, focused on portraiture, charcoal drawing, copying the old masters, and life painting.
Her work has been exhibited in Paris, South Korea and the UK, and she is currently represented by several galleries, notably in Austria and Australia. Committed to a practice that is both rigorous and alive, Zoé draws from academic tradition while embracing the joy of learning, exploring and sharing.
With several years of teaching experience in various fields, she is now launching The Red Chameleon Atelier — a bilingual art studio in the heart of Paris, inspired by the spirit of European ateliers: exacting, free, and welcoming.
