Landscape Oil Painting: Making the most out of your reference photos
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 learning how to choose, evaluate, and work from your own reference photos to create more compelling paintings. Explore techniques for improving composition, simplifying complex scenes, understanding light and color, and avoiding the common pitfalls of painting directly from a photograph. Through demonstrations, guided exercises, and individual instruction, you'll discover how to transform snapshots into expressive works of art while developing your own artistic vision.
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, October 13-November 3, 2026, 6:00-9:00 PM
Materials not Included $180.00 member/$216.00 non-member
Materials Included $230 member/$266 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
