There are several art schools in the Baltimore area that teach oil painting and other disciplines. There are colleges such as MICA, Maryland Institute, College of Art. And there is the high school made famous by the movie Step Up, The Baltimore School for the Arts. The high school focuses on all areas from dance to music to painting and sculpture.

Art Classes for Individuals

But what about for individuals who want to improve their skills. The best know of them are the Mitchell Art School, The Schuler School of Fine Arts, and Zoll Studios. Zoll is known for teaching the techniques and materials used by the European masters in creating fine oil paintings. The Schuler school developed from Hans Schuler who was a well know sculpture as well as a painter. The Mitchell School was started by a wonderful woman, Elizabeth Byrd Mitchell who was one of the top portrait artists in Baltimore.

Zoll

A recent reception and show at Zoll Studios showed a range of talent, but also impressive talent. The teachers and the students displayed their work. Naturally, the teachers work tended to be better, but some of the students were quite good as well. Most amazing was the work done by children 8-12 years old. If they keep with it, they could be masters some day. These were not simple stick figures. Some of the work they did was quite impressive.

Schuler

The Schüler School had a competition that they do annually and it just ended. They accepted paintings to the competition not only from their students but anyone who wanted to enter. All the paintings had to be of animals. Some seemed like they wanted to jump out of the painting at you.