Online Art Classes
One of the activities I REALLY miss during quarantine, is taking my weekly art class. It is one of the few times where I carve out a few hours for myself to learn something new each week. However, during our hot summers, most people leave town and head for cooler country. So our classes are on pause for the summer.
My friend Janie recommended taking online classes with Kelli Folsom. Kelli Folsom is an academically trained artist working exclusively from life in oils. She creates museum quality paintings combining an old master feel with rich color and painterly brushstrokes.
So last summer, I signed up for her weekly classes which occur every Friday. For a monthly fee, the classes are dropped into my email inbox and I can access them whenever I’d like. The monthly charge is $29.99.
However, I haven’t been disciplined to paint every Friday and I’ve only watched a few of Kelli’s videos. So yesterday, it was time to dedicate the afternoon to a Kelli Folsom video.
Art Life with Kelli is the name of her website. Kelli is very engaging and if you love still life paintings, you will enjoy her website. Click here for more information.
This week’s lesson is about tulips. Kelli paints from a live setup and here is a photo of her subject. The lesson is approximately 30-35 minutes long.
Here is Kelli via my iPad. You can see the tulips behind her.
Even though I signed up for this weekly art class to learn more about oils, the lesson doesn’t go into detail about oil paints. You need to have a good working knowledge of oils beforehand. But like most things, I fell back onto what I am most comfortable with, so I used acrylic paints for this session.
Kelli divides her canvas into sections with strokes from her brush. Being a geometric thinker, I have success in dividing the image beforehand. I print out a color copy and then measure the image into thirds in each direction. Using a white pencil, I can now paint this image to scale.
After applying Gesso to my canvas, I am ready to start painting. The canvas is 12″ x 12″.
Unlike oils, acrylic paint dries very quickly. You cannot move the paint around like you can with oils. I did mark where the tulips would be on the canvas and the scale of the vase.
What I like about Kelli’s lessons is that she will focus on a topic. This lesson is specifically how to paint tulips~~the shapes, the colors, and the petal luminescence.
Painting glass is a bit challenging. You cannot paint clear but need to capture the essence of glass.
Here is the finished version of Kelli’s of tulips in a glass vase. You can see her use of rich color and broad brushstrokes.
And here is my painting, which is quite different from hers.
There is quite a bit of noodling to do, but I am pleased with the direction I am going. Now if I can only commit to doing this every Friday afternoon, I believe I would improve my ability. I may try to do this painting again, but with oils to see if it is any easier.
Do you belong to an online educational program? I really struggle with putting time aside for myself so if you have any tips on how to do that, I would greatly appreciate it!
We are experiencing high temperatures here. Had to finally turn on our air conditioner as they are predicting more heat for the coming week. Summer cannot be here already!!! Have a fabulous Saturday!
To see previous posts about my art journey, see below.