Course Description:
No matter where you’re at on your creative path, a strong foundation in painting will help you make your best work. In this beginner-friendly class, students will develop a strategy for observational painting from a live model. Students will learn to identify light, form, perspective, composition and color temperature as well as to develop confidence with the materials of oil painting. By utilizing an indirect approach and working from a single, long-pose, students will learn a new technique each week to fully develop a painting. Each week will consist of a brief demonstration of the technique followed by focused, personalized feedback from the instructor. If you’re just starting out or looking to get back into your practice, this class will help you develop and hone the building blocks of your practice.
Week One: Drawing – Every good painting starts with a drawing. The instructor will demonstrate best practices for capturing the contours of the figure. Students are invited to sketch from the model to familiarize themselves with the pose in preparation to paint. If it is already in your practice, you may draw directly on your painting substrate. If you are a true beginner, expect to spend the class developing a drawing in your sketchbook and discussing painting substrate options for the weeks ahead.
Week Two: Transparent Underpainting – Building on the drawing foundations of the previous week, students will begin to block in the first layer of their paintings using a warm, transparent tone and the white of the canvas. Instructor will demonstrate additive and subtractive block-in techniques. Beginners can expect ample time for questions about materials followed by one-on-one problem solving on their paintings.
Week Three: Closed Grisaille – Week three starts with a discussion of value, the properties of light and shadow and a demonstration on how to “close the grisaille”. Students will paint from the model with the goal of solving any lingering drawing issues and developing a foundational underpainting ahead of our color units.
Week Four: Mixing Color – Color can stump any artist. In week four, students develop a reliable strategy for working with color. The instructor offers a demo on mixing the full color wheel using a limited palette. Students lay in their first pass of color.
Week Five: Finishing Touches – As our five-week pose draws to a close, the final class will be spent making finishing touches on each individual’s painting. Every artist moves at their own pace, and in week five we’ll take a tailored approach. One-on-one feedback will be developed with each student to help them move as far forward in their painting as possible.
You may store your painting on site for the duration of the course.
Class Schedule: March 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th and April 4th from 6:30 – 9:30 pm
Please note: Because we limit our student count, if you miss a class, a critique of your last work can be offered the next session. That is the benefit of small classes.
Lauren Faulkner is a visual artist and teacher based in New York City. Utilizing printmaking techniques Faulkner’s compositions begin with low-relief, matrices of collected and found objects that are run through the printing press to create embossed paper frames. Building on the embossed paper surface, Faulkner responds to girlhood narratives and imagined worlds in graphite and oil paint. The attention to the materiality of natural elements in Faulkner’s work is informed by her Pacific Northwest upbringing and professional experience as an award-winning floral designer in New York City. Faulkner received her BA from the University of Puget Sound and her MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2023. Faulkner has been the recipient of the LCU Fund for Women’s Education Scholarship, the Leslie T. and Francis Posey Scholarship and the Annual Milton and Sally Avery Fellowship for Visual Artists Award.
In order to keep costs down for students and to prevent any toxic solvents – we will provide odorless mineral spirits and a glass coil jar for cleaning – for all students. We will also provide a disposable grey paper palette for everyone. We have paper towels for you to us as well.
You will need to bring:
Canvas: 18×24 and a variety of bristle brushes.
Drawing Supplies: HB pencil, kneaded eraser, sketchbook.
Our beautiful studio is located within the historic National Arts Club on Gramercy Park South. The 24 doorman will direct you to our space. We limit our class to 8 students. 
We are a screen-free environment!
Students are expected to focus on their work for the duration of the session. We play low classical music during class.
Discussions of student work with the teacher take place during class.
Gender neutral restrooms are located near our room.
Our room has a security camera for everyone’s safety.
