Spring 2024

ART CLASSES

Please consider making a donation to our school to help us weather this time. Any amount would be appreciated. We are a 501c3 non-profit.
Click Here for more information.

Winner of the 2019 Perry F. Kendig Award,
Arts & Cultural Organization

Welcome to the Studio School in Roanoke, Va.

We are a non-profit art organization with a 30+ year history of offering creative classes for all ages and all levels of experience. Our instructors are among the area’s best-known artists and they offer a wealth of knowledge, guidance and inspiration.

Our classes range from one- or two-day sessions to eight weeks and beyond. You’ll find offerings for children, teens, and adults in media such as drawing, watercolor, acrylic, encaustic, mixed media, and more.

We are located on the upper level of Towers Shopping Center in Roanoke, inside the mall area, just steps away from the Wildflower Restaurant. Whether you are discovering art for the first time or are continuing your artistic journey, Studio School classes provide an informal, fun and inspiring way to explore the joy of creativity.

To register for classes online and pay by credit card click on the button.

See below to contact class instructors, either by clicking the Contact link or via phone.

All phone numbers are 540 area code
Tracy Budd • Contact • 556-8770
Vera M. Dickerson • Contact • 204-1914
Jane Winders Frank • Contact • 580-6866
Patti Kapral • Contact • 815-2214
Brett LaGue • brett@brettlague.com • 797-4492
Robin Poteet • Contact • 384-5022
Gina Louthian-Stanley • Contact • 761-1414

If for weather or other reasons a class needs to be canceled or postponed, your instructor will contact you in advance via email or phone.

Visit us on Facebook at thestudioschoolroanoke.

Be an Art Angel
If you have some time to give, we would be grateful for any help you can provide, be it helping to organize and hang our school shows, keeping our parking lot tidy, or helping with general cleaning now and then! Click Here to contact instructor, Patti Kapral if you have a bit of time and effort you can donate.

The Studio School is an incorporated non-profit organization, (501.C.3) with programs partially funded through the Virginia Commission for the Arts. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, political affiliation, ability or disability. Easel Society Contributors of $250 or more will receive end of the year summaries for their records.

Click Here for a printable Spring Registration Form (form will open in an new window or tab).

Spring Youth Classes

Perfectly Picasso—with Patti Kapral
Ages 5-9 • Tuesdays, March 12 & 19 and April 2 & 9 • 5:00 p.m.–6:30 p.m. • $100 (all supplies included)
In this four session class, we will learn all about one of the most famous artists of all time, Pablo Picasso. We will explore different media as we create artworks inspired by Picasso and his many different styles such as cubism, assemblage, and surrealism. All supplies are included in this class and space is limited, so register early! Click Here to contact Patti with questions.

Crazy Critters—with Patti Kapral
Ages 5-9 • Saturday, March 16 • 10:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m. • $45 (all supplies included)
Be prepared to get creative! In this Saturday morning workshop, students will use their imagination to create a one-of-a-kind “critter” and then paint with acrylic on canvas their newly dreamed up beasts. We will explore different ways to give our critters personality through the use of color, emotion, and line quality. A great way to spend a Saturday morning for sure! All supplies are included in this fun workshop and space is limited, so register early! Click Here to contact Patti with questions.

Dragon’s Eye Painted Rocks—with Patti Kapral
Ages 10-14 • Saturday, April 13 • 10:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m. • $45 (all supplies included)
Who doesn’t love the idea of painting rocks? In this Saturday morning workshop that’s exactly what we will do! We will discuss which rocks are best for painting, learn how to prepare them for painting, and then explore different effective techniques for painting a dragon’s eye on a rock. Students will be able to choose their rock, colors of the dragon’s eye and scales, and leave with a unique painted rock to set outside or indoors. All supplies are included and space is limited, so register early! Click Here to contact Patti with questions.

About Face—with Patti Kapral
Ages 10-14 • Tuesdays, April 16–May 7 • 5:00 p.m.–6:30 p.m. • $100 (all supplies included)
In this four week session, students will learn all about faces and how to draw them. We will break it down by features and build on what we learn as we go until we can put all the features together to create a realistic face! Anatomy of the face, proportion, and placement will be utilized and practiced as well. We will also examine portraits by famous artists and emulate their styles as we learn. All supplies are included and space is limited, so register early! Click Here to contact Patti with questions.

Classes for Adults

Oil

Oil Painting Basics—with Brett LaGue
6 classes: Fridays, April 26, May 3–31 • 9:30 a.m.–Noon • $230
Even if you’ve never painted before, oil painting is a great place to start. With plenty of instruction and demos you’ll be on your way to success with this traditional and flexible medium. Learn about tools, color mixing, composition, glazing techniques, direct painting and more. Brett provides printed images and still life to help understand the lessons in each class. Discover your creative side with oils! Email brett@brettlague.com for supplies.

Drawing

Drawing, the Sketcher’s Way—with Brett LaGue
3 classes: Fridays, March 29 and April 5 & 12 • 9:30 a.m.–Noon • $130
Struggling to get paintings started? Intimidated by drawing? Here’s a quick class to help get you going. Brett’s a lifelong sketcher who doesn’t worry about erasers, straight lines or fussy details. No matter your experience level, he’ll show you how to get images down quickly and easily without fuss and bother! Along the way you’ll discover that pretty much everything in life is sketch worthy. Email brett@brettlague.com for supplies.

Watercolor

Exploration in Watercolor—with Robin Poteet
5 classes: Wednesdays, March 27–May 1 (No class April 24) • Morning session: 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. • Afternoon session: 1:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. • $180
Watercolor is part technique, part magic, part planning and part letting go! This session is for anyone that wants to build on their general watercolor knowledge while exploring something different each week such as copying a master, pouring a background, focusing on value and color or zeroing in on detail. Robin starts each week with a demo and talk. Some weeks there are slide shows or group exercises—always, there is ample time everyone to paint from their own subjects with individual attention as Robin circulates the room. Click Here to contact Robin with questions.

Beginners—Welcome to Watercolor!—with Robin Poteet
4 classes: Saturdays, March 30 and April 6, 13, 20 • 9:00 a.m.–Noon • $165
Is learning to paint on your bucket list? Watercolor can be explored and enjoyed at any age, so why not see if this sparks a new hobby or passion? This portable and expressive media is ideal for travel journals as well as large, richly detailed paintings. Your class will be packed with demos, discussions and exercises and over the course of 4 weeks you’ll gain an understanding of materials, washes, color mixing and technique, PLUS, you’ll complete paintings each week. This is a no-pressure class that encourages making mistakes and having fun. Sign up and begin your creative journey. Click Here to contact Robin for suggested materials.

Watermedia

Everything But The Kitchen Sink—with Vera Dickerson
6 classes: Tuesdays, March 12–April 16 • Same class: Thursdays, March 14–April. 18 • 1:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. • $200
If it’s soluble in water or can be attached with acrylic gel, we can incorporate it on paper or canvas. Acrylics, gouache, collage, chalk pastels, metal leaf, light weight fabrics and acrylic pens and inks all work together. Images are your choice and we will use brushes, foam rollers, collage, stamping and stencils in our process. Demos and critiques. Come with a sense of experimentation and play. Click Here to contact Vera with questions.

Painting Basics and Beyond—Value, the Loud and Quiet Conversation—with Tracy Budd
Mondays, March 25–May 13 • 1:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. • $260
So . . . it’s true for me that Value does all the work, and Color gets all the credit. It’s truly a light bulb moment when we realize that the dark and light of a color molds form and shows distance through a painting. This eight week class will concentrate on value and the pitfalls that arise, and how value may need to be altered in a painting when using our photo references. We will work on subjects of our choice and Tracy will demo weekly. All levels welcome. Click Here to contact Tracy for a supply list.

Rework Old Paintings Workshop—Acrylic and Mixed Media—with Tracy Budd
Monday, May 27 • 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. • $75
Sometimes we just get tired of old work laying around. It might have a few nice parts, but overall it’s not resolved. This is a chance to breath new life into these projects. Bring two unfinished paintings to this class… (come on, I know you have plenty). We will turn the Apple cart upside upside down to create new where you may only see a failed painting. Using gesso, stencils, markers and watermedia crayons and new shapes, we will create something completely new with these pieces, asking ourselves,“what else can this be?” Collage artists welcome also! Click Here to contact Tracy for a supply list.

Mixed Media

Vessel Project in Collage—with Tracy Budd
6 classes: Tuesdays, March 26–April 30 • 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. • $210
The “Vessel” shape can be symbolic of many things. A symbol of femininity, a vessel can hold life, spirits and the dead. The vessel can represent our capacity to realize love, life and truth. Vessels carry, hold and contain our most precious feelings about the past and the future. WHAT will your vessel hold? We will create collage papers, paint and glue these fabulous mixedmedia pieces and maybe realize something about ourselves. Ah…. That just might be ART! Click Here to contact Tracy for a supply list.

Tiny Landscapes in Collage—with Tracy Budd
Monday, May 20 • 9:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m. • $85
In this day long collage class, we will create tiny abstracted landscapes using collage papers, stamping and stencils. We will keep them simple and work with shape, value and color to get the most bang for the buck. Hopefully this will be a very productive collage day where will create multiple pieces. The tactile adherence of Collage is great for our brains and composition making…. come give it a whirl! Click Here to contact Tracy for a supply list.

Painting

Cold Wax and Oil Painting—with Gina Louthian-Stanley
2 classes: May 4–5 • 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. • $295
Discover the beautiful layers, textures, and marks that only oil and cold wax can achieve finding inspiration within your own marks, compositions and intuition using non-traditional oil techniques. We will explore various techniques such as working methods, substrates, drying times, opaque and transparent color, pigments and powders, blending, color schemes, glazing, solvent reduction, transfer and printmaking techniques, creating textures, adding collage and more. Plenty of demos and individual discussions. A great class for beginners and those who want a refresher with advanced options. Gina will provide cold wax, some oils, tools, and R&F pigment sticks for class use, samples of Arches Oil paper, birch panels, various mark making tools and other samples of substrates. Additional tools will be available for sale. Click Here to contact Gina for a short material list and with questions.

Crop, Turn and Transform—with Vera Dickerson
2 classes: Tuesdays, May 21 & 28 • Same classes: Thursdays, May 16 & 23 • 1:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. • $70
Bring your old and not so loved paintings on paper to rethink, crop and perhaps collage with other remnants. We may even trade a few pieces back and forth for ideas. Then we will rework and transform into a new art being. Some critique, and lots of hands on creative thinking. Click Here to contact Vera with questions.

Critique Class—with Tracy Budd
4 classes: Mondays, March 25, April 8, 22 and May 6 • 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. • $100
Painting can be a very solitary process, and we all do well to get regular constructive feedback from a group of like-minded people! We will discuss our process and progress in these four sessions. What is working, how to make it better and the all important question….“Am I finished?” All mediums welcome in this class as it makes it so interesting for all of us! Click Here to contact Tracy with questions.

Diego Sanchez — 2024 Workshop

As of our March publication date, we still have space available in Diego’s workshop, but we do anticipate this workshop will fill soon. His work incorporates strong design, bold color and intriguing abstract shapes. He is an accomplished painter, instructor and juror and we are delighted to welcome him as our 2024 workshop instructor.

diegosanchez.com

In his own words, “This body of work continues to reflect my interest in finding a comfortable place between representational and non-representational elements in the picture plane.”

The workshop will be held at The Studio School
Tuesday–Friday • June 25–28 • 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Total cost is $450

Those that have paid their 2024 Easel Society dues may register for the workshop beginning December 1st. A deposit by check for $200 will reserve your space. All others may begin registering with their deposit January 2nd. The balance of $250 is due on April 10, 2024.

Mail all workshop checks to:
Brett LaGue
P.O. Box 725
Fincastle, VA 24090