PAINTING

Painting

  • Beginner Oil Painting

    • 13 Jan 2026
    • 24 Feb 2026
    • 6 sessions
    • Saratoga Arts, Classroom #1
    • 7
    Register


    Beginner Oil Painting

    taught by Lisa David

    Getting started in oil painting begins with a simple question: What do you want to paint? Your answer helps determine your supplies, setup, and approach. In this class, you’ll learn the fundamentals of oil painting — including materials, color mixing, color value, composition, glazing, brushwork, and more.

    Along the way, we’ll clear up common misconceptions about oil painting, show you how to choose the right tools for your subject, and guide you through each step so you can successfully create your first works. By the end, you’ll have both a solid foundation and the confidence to continue exploring oil painting on your own. 

    You will complete 2–3 finished paintings — both still-life and landscape studies — while gaining practical experience in the studio.

    All materials will be provided.  

    6 session class, Tuesdays, January 13-February 10 and February 24, 2026 from 6:00-9:00 PM

    $315 member/$369 non-member

    Price breakdown:

    $270 member/$324 non-member plus $45 material fee


    About the instructor


    Award-winning artist Lisa David was born and raised in upstate New York, where she spent much of her childhood camping in the Adirondack Mountains. Those early experiences sparked a lifelong love for the region and continue to inspire her work. A child of the sixties and seventies with a suburban upbringing that was, at times, a bit offbeat, Lisa finds beauty and nostalgia in vintage subjects—often capturing them with playful energy and a bold use of color.

    Lisa began her career running a successful production pottery business. When the physical demands of clay led her to shift focus, she pursued a teaching degree and became a National Board Certified Art Teacher. For 20 years, she taught high school art, nurturing creativity in young artists while continuing to grow her own practice.

    Now retired from public education, Lisa teaches advanced drawing and painting at the Saratoga Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY. She continues to paint from her cabin in the Adirondacks, where the landscape, light, and memories of summers past still fuel her artistic passion.

    Member, Oil Painters of America


    www.lisadavidart.com

    @lisadavidart

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  • Intermediate Pastels

    • 21 Jan 2026
    • 4 Mar 2026
    • 6 sessions
    • Saratoga Arts
    • 6
    Register

     


    Intermediate Pastels

    taught by Carolyn Justice


    This class is designed to help you develop both confidence and creativity while learning to work with pastels. With a focus on originality and discovering your personal style, you’ll explore how to interpret subjects in your own way while learning solid techniques.

    We’ll cover the basics of value, layering, and blending as you work from still life, portraits, landscapes, and photo references. Step by step, you’ll gain the skills to handle more complex subjects while being encouraged to experiment and find your own artistic voice.

    Beginners are welcome! Materials will be provided during class to beginners. Students who have taken a pastel class previously are asked to bring their own pastels.

    6 session class, Wednesdays from January 21, 28, February 4, 11, 25, March 4 at 1 pm-4 pm

    $270 member/$324 non-member materials not included (bring your own)

    $285.00 member/$339 non-member materials included


    About the Instructor

    Carolyn is an award winning pastel artist. She is known for her animal portraits, landscapes, and vibrant colorful still lives. Her work has been selected for the annual Landscapes for Landsake exhibitions for many years. She is also a member of the prestigious Oakroom Artists group whose membership is by invitation only. She has taught classes with Saratoga Arts for over twenty years and is a long standing member of the Co-op at 79 Beekman Street where she gives private lessons in her studio.

    Carolyn Justice Fine Art

    The Upstairs Artist Co-op at 79 Beekman Street

    saratogaartdistrict.com/member/upstairs-artist-co-op

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  • Intuitive Watercolor Painting

    • 21 Jan 2026
    • 11 Feb 2026
    • 4 sessions
    • Saratoga Arts
    • 7
    Register


    Intuitive Watercolor Painting

    taught by Brigid Rockwell

    In watercolor painting, many who are learning the medium struggle to control its natural fluidity. In this class you will learn to relinquish control of the pigment as its response to water and channels across the paper before you. Allow yourself the space and time to discover the alchemic properties water has when distilled with an intuitive color selection as the basis of your creation.

    This is an intermediate class. Students should have some prior knowledge of water color painting and have painted in this medium previously. Materials for this class can be supplied or you can bring your own. Supply requirements for this class here. 

    4 session class, Wednesdays, January 28-February 11, 2026, 6:00-9:00 PM

    $150 member/$180 non-member without supplies

    $225 member/$255 non-member with supplies


    Meet the instructor

    Brigid Rockwell is a painter and interior designer from Troy. She has exhibited her work throughout the Hudson Valley for the last 30 years, studied painting and design at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and at L’Escola Llotja, International School of Fine Arts, Barcelona, Spain. For many years, she taught painting, drawing, printmaking and pottery through the Arts Center of the Capital Region, Catholic Charities and served on the board of the Columbia and Green County Council on the Arts for 5 years. She works full-time in interior design sales as Regional Account Manager for Davies Sustainable Office Furnishings in Albany, NY.

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  • Aurora over Lake Saratoga-Acrylic Painting

    • 24 Jan 2026
    • 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
    • Saratoga Arts
    • 9
    Register


    Aurora Over Lake Saratoga

    taught by Maria Brown

    Capture the beauty and wonder of the northern lights as they dance above Saratoga Lake in this relaxing, beginner-friendly painting class. Using acrylics on a 10x10 inch canvas, you’ll explore vibrant color blending and brush techniques to bring light and reflection to life. No prior experience is needed—just a willingness to play with color and enjoy the creative process. Come paint, unwind, and leave with your own glowing masterpiece to brighten your home.

    All materials and tools will be provided for the class. 

    1 session class, Saturday, January 24 , 2026 1:00 PM-4:00PM

    $47.50 member/$55 non-member

    Price breakdown:

    $37.50 member/$45 non-member plus $10 material fee


    Serenity Wellness & Coaching

    serenitywellnessandcoaching.com

    facebook@SerenityWellnessandCoaching

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  • Advanced Oil Painting-Narrative painting

    • 29 Jan 2026
    • 26 Feb 2026
    • 4 sessions
    • Saratoga Arts
    • 8
    Register


    Advanced Oil Painting-Narrative painting

    taught by Luke Rockwell


    This class is designed to advance an intermediate painter. This class will be focused on making a multi-figure, multi session oil painting on prepared paper mounted to foam core . This class will draw from historical painting techniques and contemporary image making. We will sharpen skills working from observation as well as imagination and story telling.

    Students must have already take a beginner and intermediate oil painting class and provide their own supplies. A supply list can be found here .  

    4 Sessions, Thursdays, January 29, February 5, 12, 26 (No class February 19th) from 6:00 -9:00 PM

    $150 member/$180 non-member


    About the instructor

    I am a narrative figure painter and draughtsman living in the North Country of New York State. I received my MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art in 2015 and have exhibited nationally since an early age.
    In my paintings and drawings, I create an uncanny world where familiar pastoral and domestic scenes are unsettled by skewed perspectives and off-kilter interactions. Narrative becomes an entry point for the viewer, inviting engagement, empathy, and at times revulsion. By probing wayward possibilities within the structures of domestic and public space, the work plays with and subverts the conventions of traditional figurative painting and cinema.
    My influences span moments across art history. I draw from Courbet, the documentary imagery of Dorothea Lange, and the cinematic language of Sergei Eisenstein. Other works take cues from N. C. Wyeth’s Treasure Island illustrations and Goya’s ¡Bárbaros! from the Disasters of War series. Just as theatrical conventions shaped paintings like David’s The Death of Socrates, my approach to mise-en-scène, perspective, and heightened drama is informed by the films of Douglas Sirk and Martin Scorsese, acknowledging cinema’s enduring impact on how we read images today.
    Across the body of work, recurring characters and settings suggest a larger, fragmented narrative. The images function like flickering scraps of film, offering glimpses of a story that resists full disclosure.

    lukerockwell.com

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  • Andy Warhol style painting

    • 9 Feb 2026
    • 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
    • Saratoga Arts
    • 7
    Register

     


    Andy Warhol style painting

    taught by Jo Johnson

    Learn the transfer drawing technique used by Andy Warhol to make a flower and / or animal image with ink, watercolors and gold paint.

    All supplies will be provided.

    1 session class, Monday, February 9 at 1 pm-4 pm

    $42.50 member/$50 non-member

    Price breakdown:

    $37.50 member/$45 non-member plus $5 supply fee



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  • Still-life Oil Painting

    • 10 Mar 2026
    • 31 Mar 2026
    • 4 sessions
    • Saratoga Arts
    • 7
    Register


    Still-life Oil Painting

    taught by Lisa David

    This course is designed for students with prior oil painting experience who want to strengthen their ability to paint from direct observation and create compelling still life compositions. The class focuses on developing accuracy, sensitivity to light, and confident paint handling through close study of form, color, and surface.

    Students will work from a variety of objects, textures, and lighting conditions. Instruction will emphasize drawing for painters, proportion, color relationships, value structure, edges, and the illusion of form through light and shadow. 

    Through demonstrations, individualized instruction, and group critiques, students will complete 1-2 fully developed still life oil paintings.

    All materials will be provided orr students can bring their own. A supply list can be found here  Beginner Oil Painting Supply List. 

    4 session classes, Tuesdays, March 10-31, 2026, 6:00-9:00 PM

    Materials not Included $180.00 member/$216.00 non-member

    Materials Included $225 member/$270 non-member


    About the instructor


    Award-winning artist Lisa David was born and raised in upstate New York, where she spent much of her childhood camping in the Adirondack Mountains. Those early experiences sparked a lifelong love for the region and continue to inspire her work. A child of the sixties and seventies with a suburban upbringing that was, at times, a bit offbeat, Lisa finds beauty and nostalgia in vintage subjects—often capturing them with playful energy and a bold use of color.

    Lisa began her career running a successful production pottery business. When the physical demands of clay led her to shift focus, she pursued a teaching degree and became a National Board Certified Art Teacher. For 20 years, she taught high school art, nurturing creativity in young artists while continuing to grow her own practice.

    Now retired from public education, Lisa teaches advanced drawing and painting at the Saratoga Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY. She continues to paint from her cabin in the Adirondacks, where the landscape, light, and memories of summers past still fuel her artistic passion.

    Member, Oil Painters of America


    www.lisadavidart.com

    @lisadavidart

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  • Foundations of Character Development

    • 11 Apr 2026
    • 18 Apr 2026
    • 2 sessions
    • Saratoga Arts
    • 5
    Register


    Foundations of Character Development

    taught by Bennett Kimble-Lee

    This class introduces core principles behind creating strong, memorable characters. We’ll explore topics such as shape language, visual readability, and how a character’s design reflects their story and/or setting. Through guided prompts and in-class exercises, you’ll put these ideas into practice and develop 1–2 rough character concepts of your own.

    Whether you’re new to character design or looking to sharpen your fundamentals, this workshop will give you the tools to start designing with purpose and clarity.

    Students are encouraged to bring their own tablets/computers; if they prefer to work digitally.

    All ages welcome. Students under 16 years of age must be accompanied by an adult.

    2 Session Class-Saturdays, April 11-18, 2026, 1:00 PM-4:00 PM

    $80 member/$95 non-member

    Price breakdown:

    $75 member/$90 non-member plus $5 material fee

    Bennett Kimble-Lee is an Illustrator based out of Saratoga Springs, New York. His work mixes bold, bright colors with lighthearted subject matter. Bennett recently graduated from Lesley Art + Design and is happy to be back home. His most recent works revolve around animals, with a focus on recognizable designs and eye-catching colors. Outside of the studio, Bennett enjoys creating music and walking around Saratoga. More of Bennett’s work can be found on his website: bennettkimblelee.com.

    https://www.instagram.com/spinach.illustration/

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  • Intermediate Oil Painting-Landscapes

    • 14 Apr 2026
    • 5 May 2026
    • 4 sessions
    • Saratoga Arts
    • 8
    Register


    Intermediate Oil Painting-Landscapes

    taught by Lisa David

    This course is designed for students who have prior experience with oil painting and wish to further develop their technical skills and personal approach to landscape painting. Students will focus on interpreting landscape subjects with a greater emphasis on light, depth, storytelling, and developing a personal approach to painting landscapes.

    Work will be completed using both photo references and direct observation. Through demonstrations and individualized instruction students will complete 1-2 landscape oil paintings.

    Materials will be provided or students can bring their own. A supply list can be found here  Beginner Oil Painting Supply List. 

    4 session classes, Tuesdays, April 14-May 5, 2026, 6:00-9:00 PM

    Materials not Included $180.00 member/$216.00 non-member

    Materials Included $225 member/$270 non-member


    About the instructor


    Award-winning artist Lisa David was born and raised in upstate New York, where she spent much of her childhood camping in the Adirondack Mountains. Those early experiences sparked a lifelong love for the region and continue to inspire her work. A child of the sixties and seventies with a suburban upbringing that was, at times, a bit offbeat, Lisa finds beauty and nostalgia in vintage subjects—often capturing them with playful energy and a bold use of color.

    Lisa began her career running a successful production pottery business. When the physical demands of clay led her to shift focus, she pursued a teaching degree and became a National Board Certified Art Teacher. For 20 years, she taught high school art, nurturing creativity in young artists while continuing to grow her own practice.

    Now retired from public education, Lisa teaches advanced drawing and painting at the Saratoga Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY. She continues to paint from her cabin in the Adirondacks, where the landscape, light, and memories of summers past still fuel her artistic passion.

    Member, Oil Painters of America


    www.lisadavidart.com

    @lisadavidart

    Show details

Saratoga Arts

320 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
p. 518.584.4132
Office hours: Monday - Friday: 9am - 5pm


Saratoga Arts' programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.  

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