Level: all

Jan 8 - Feb 26, 2025

Wednesdays

11am-1pm

8 weeks

Instructor: Jill Harrington Nichols

Instructor's website

Fee: $290

From Sketch to Finished Painting    

Take your painting to the next level in the comfort of your home. We’ll create multiple sketches and finished paintings in this online class. Painting the landscape/seascape from curated photos, Jill will demonstrate techniques in various mediums and provide critiques.  A recording of the class will be available as a resource to students until the end of the session. Work in the medium of your choice.

Note: this class will be taught online using Zoom.  Please download and become familiar with the app prior to the start of class.  A zoom invite and a photo  from which to work will be emailed each week.

Suggested Supply List:  

Oil Paint:  Blick Art Supply Oil List

Acrylic Paint:  Blick Art Supply Acrylic List

Watercolor:/Gouache Blick Art Supply Watercolor List

Casein Paints: Blick Art Supply List Casein Paints

Enhanced Palette: Blick Art Supply Enhanced Oil Palette List  

Blick Art Supply Plein Air List 

 Essentials:

  • Sketch Pad: 9” x 12” wet media toned paper sketch pad, Sandpaper Block – 1″ x 4″, Conte set pencils, Black Sharpie, Pencils, Sharpener, Gum kneaded eraser- on Blick Art Supply Plein Air List 
  • Palette: Oil or Acrylic-Masterson disposable pad/ glass, wood, melamine, Watercolor: Foldable plastic, enamel tray
  • Solvent Container:  Oil – Stainless Steel Airtight Brush Washer.  Water-based Mediums – Collapsible Water Cup
  • Rags, Viva, or Blue Shop paper towels
  • Gloves and/or barrier cream to protect hands

Essential Paint Colors- All Mediums 

  • Yellows: Cadmium or Hansa Yellow Pale (light or lemon yellow) and Cadmium Yellow Deep
  • Reds: Alizarin Crimson (Magenta), Cadmium Red Light
  • Blues: Ultramarine Blue, Cerulean Blue (Manganese), Cobalt
  • Earth Tones: Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, (or Transparent Red Oxide), Burnt Umber
  • White: Titanium, Opaque, and/or Titanium/Zinc mix (more transparent)
  • Black: Ivory and Paynes Gray

Optional/Alternative Colors: 

  • Secondaries: Green – Sap, Chromium, Earth, or Viridian
  • Orange – Cadmium and Transparent
  • Primaries: vermilion, red lake, red ochre, Prussian, cobalt blue, Phthalo blue, cadmium, gamboge, azo, Indian yellow

 Oil Essentials: 

  • Quality Brushes: Round – #2 #4, Filbert – #8, #10, #12, Flat or angled– #2, #6, #10, #12, 1” and 2” flat, bright
  • PRIMED Canvas or panels – 8 x 10”, 9 x 12”, 11 x 14” choose your preferred size
  • 2 Palette Knives, Palette Scraper
  • Container for solvent-metal with a closable lid works or cups
  • odorless mineral spirits, or Chelsea Classica
  • Palette- wood is best, disposable are convenient

Acrylic/Casein/ Essentials:

  • Brushes an assortment of filberts, angled, and round set to start
  • Retarder to slow down the drying, Gel medium

Watercolor/Gouache Essentials: 

  • Brushes: Decent brushes will provide enjoyment for many years. You’ll want brushes that hold water. Sables are the best and most expensive option, Oxhair, squirrel, soft nylon, or a blend of natural and synthetic hairs will work.
  • Brushes to start: #12 round, 7 round, 00,0 or 1 round, 1”, 8 filberts, ½” flat, Japanese calligraphic brush
  • Paper: A pad of 140 lb. block or Pad

Helpful Materials:

  • Roll of Masking Tape, Small scissors, Nutcracker- or pliers to open stubborn tubes.
  • Oil: Gamblin non-toxic safflower gel medium
  • Watercolor: Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, natural sponge, clear wax crayon

About the Instructor:

Jill Harrington Nichols grew up in coastal Connecticut. Her paintings explore both the earthbound and outer expanses of our divine cosmos. Her keen sense of color has developed over her many years as a commercial artist and painter.  She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Colorado, Boulder, trained in oil painting at the Art Students League in NYC and earned her MFA in painting at Western Connecticut State University.

Her commissioned painting of Washington D.C. appeared as a backdrop for James Comey’s interview on “Face the Nation” while another appeared on Showtime’s “The Comey Rule” mini-series.  Her artworks Phi, and Juno, which embrace the divine feminine are installed in the Vatican Observatory Museum.

Jill has received awards from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, and Connecticut Office of the Arts. An active participant in the art communities throughout Connecticut, Jill has served as vice president for the Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society and Valley Arts Council and exhibited at the Rowayton Art Center*, Silvermine Gallery, Lyme Art Association, Carriage Barn, Greenwich Art Society, and Lyman Allen Museum.

Accustomed to teaching students at all levels, Jill has a way of instilling confidence and encouraging students to take risks with exceptional outcomes. She teaches painting at the Silvermine Arts Center, the Rowayton Arts Center and leads painting workshops locally, abroad, and online. She also has a few videos on YouTube.