Art Schools

Zoll Studios

Zoll Studios is an art school in the Baltimore area. There are a couple of others, but it might be considered the best of 3 good schools. They have some very talented instructors. One interesting one is Palden Hamilton, whose mother was a princess from a small kingdom of Sikkim that is now part of Nepal. He recently gave a talk about his travels there, showing photographs and pictures of the paintings and drawings he did while there. It was very entertaining and interesting.

They teach portrait painting, sculpture, landscape painting, still lives, almost anything you can think of, and in a variety of mediums. Carol Thompson is another teacher there who does very nice work.

The students are quite impressive as well. Of course they have beginners but many rapidly progress. They also have classes for children. You would not believe the work that these kids are doing. It is quite impressive.

Annual Show

Dog Portrait Scotty & Oreo

Each year they have a big show where they show off the works of the instructors and the students. The paintings and sculptures are for sale and usually a good number of them get sold. Considering there are usually something like 700 paintings hung, this means a fair number of paintings sold. And it indicates that they must be fairly good or they wouldn’t sell.

In 2015 it is going to be November 20-22. They always open with a reception on Friday from 6 to 9 which includes free
wine and a buffet table. There is usually a good crowd, in fact sometimes it is hard to move around. But a good time. What more could you ask for, good art and a glass of wine in your hand.

Dog Portrait Springer

If you go, you will be impressed by the one room where they show the works of the children. Some of the students in middle school and high school are so good that they are shown with the works by the adults.

To give an idea of the quality of the work, to the left are a couple of paintings done by one of the adult students, Carol McClees. These are quick photos that don’t do justice to the paintings. Come and see the wide variety of work on display.…

Maryland Art Schools

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.…