Level: all

Jan 9 - Feb 13, 2025

Thursdays

1:30 - 4pm

6 weeks

Instructor: Susan Fehlinger

Instructor's website

Fee: $230

LEARNING TO MAKE IT YOUR OWN – Helping you to make personal choices of composition, color and contrast that will directly affect the success of your painting. A painting class for all skill levels.

A blank canvas can be daunting, but making some important choices up front will guide you in your process and will help you create a successful painting that makes you proud and feels like your own.  Whether painting from a photograph or from the world around us, there are basic steps we can take and decisions we can make that ensure a painting’s successful outcome.

With one on one instruction, this class will help experienced painters — using oils or acrylics— make choices that lead to success and paintings you’ll be proud of.  Note that this class is not appropriate for people brand new to painting.

Choosing our subjects from photographs, we’ll talk about what draws us to that image — the intent of the painting; composing the elements, simplifying, and establishing focal points; the importance of values; your color palette and how it affects mood; light source or time of day; and using the tools and techniques that can enhance the look you’re going for, including a palette knife.

So many elements go into a successful painting and each involves personal choices that make the painting uniquely yours.

Suggested Supply List:

Paint:  You can use oils or acrylics. Some suggested colors below. Feel free to bring your favorites.

  • Lemon Yellow
  • Cadmium Yellow
  • Indian Yellow or Yellow Ochre
  • Cadmium Orange
  • Cadmium Red
  • Quinacridone Rose or Alizarin Crimson
  • Dioxazine Purple
  • Cerulean or Manganese Blue
  • UltraMarine or Cobalt Blue
  • Prussian or Indigo Blue
  • Olive Green
  • Van Dyke Brown or Asphaltum
  • White–whichever one you like (Titanium, Flake, Zinc, etc.)

BRUSHES AND PALETTE KNIVES

  • Flat or filbert bristle brushes #1,2,4,6,8, round nylon #3,8,10
  • Round nylon sables: #8, #10 or short handle 1 inch, 1-1/2 inch and 2 inch
  • One or two palette knives – Dick Blick has a starter set of 3 for $18. that are good sizes. Or you can get them individually for $5-$8 each.  I use a  4” knife with rounded edges. (Blick’s #96 or Jerry’s #49T).  You may also want a shorter one for detail.

MEDIUMS:

  • For oils: Gamblin Solvent Free Gel (tube) or Solvent Free Fluid
  • For acrylics: Winsor & Newton Galleria Acrylic Gel Medium or Liquitex Gel Medium

PALETTE FOR MIXING – Paper, wood, plastic, whatever you use in your studio.

CANVAS or CANVAS BOARD:   16 x 20, or 20 x 20 or any other size that interests you plus an extra inexpensive canvas or two for practicing.

About Susan Fehlinger

Susan Fehlinger had to be content to be an occasional painter during her 30+-year career as a Stylist and Television Producer in New York City. She attended art classes at The School of Visual Arts at night, and painting workshops in the summers but for the most part she is a self-taught artist.

In 2003 she quit her job in NYC, bought a bed and breakfast on Cape Cod and began painting more seriously. She joined the Chatham Art Gallery on the Cape in 2007, and was represented by Sheldon Fine Arts in Newport RI, as well as True North Gallery in Kennebunkport ME and She had solo shows at The Cultural Center of Cape Cod and The Cahoon Museum of American Art.

In 2014 she relocated to Black Rock CT in order to be closer to NY city, and branched out to other themes such as coastal architecture and cityscapes. Fehlinger’s paintings depict familiar, yet abstracted scenes. Her painting style emphasizes her interest in texture, color and light; and she applies her paint thickly with a palette knife to highlight structure, form and shadow. Her compositions play with scale, placement, and negative/positive spaces, creating visual interest and an individual style.

She is an active member of the Artists Collective of Westport and an exhibiting member of the Rowayton Art Center, Silvermine, and the Ridgefield Guild of Artists.

For a treat, watch this video of Susan Fehlinger being interviewed by artist Miggs Burroughs for the Westport Library:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLZx9KIhYU0&list=PLRvmQu76JuJZV_7E9nhxS6-dOpC86Ulcc&index=6