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Portrait painting in oils

SPRING 2025

be part of something bigger

tradition

Receive the tradition of painting handed down by generations of realist painters and teachers over many decades going back through Thomas Eakins and John Singer Sargent.

TIME

Our 3-hour painting sessions give you time to focus on your painting and let you make the small corrections you need to get to the next level.

technique

Learn to use your artist tools--your charcoal, your pencil, your brushes, your palette knife--to wield the results you are looking for. Strong drawing. Fluid painting.

Portrait Painting in Oils

Alla Prima

In-Person Lessons with Sarah Griffin Thibodeaux

in New Orleans

This class teaches the fundamentals of painting the head in oil. Students paint the model from life in four sessions. Beginning with a toned canvas, students will execute a careful drawing and subsequently build up the structure of the head from darks to lights. Emphasis is on understanding the structure of the head and learning to mix colors to create realistic and harmonious flesh tones. The class will begin with a demonstration of the alla prima technique, used by John Singer Sargent and handed down through generations of atelier painters and teachers.