4-week LIVE online course

the realist still life method

The Complete Approach to Painting Still Lifes from Life

enrollment is open

Mondays, September 21- October 12, 2026
1:00-2:30 p.m. Pacific Time
Four weekly live sessions on Zoom
All sessions will be recorded, so you can watch even if you can’t attend live.

you want to create a realist still life,

but knowing where to begin and how to move from one stage to the next can be difficult. Developing a compelling composition, creating a strong drawing, seeing and mixing colors, making objects look convincingly three-dimensional, and building the painting in layers each require different skills.

If this sounds familiar, this course is designed to help. I’ll take you through the method I’ve developed over decades of painting, showing you how I approach each stage and how they work together to create a finished realist still life.

A NOTE FROM YOUR INSTRUCTOR, LINDA MANN…

35 years ago, when I discovered that I wanted to become a realist still-life painter, educational opportunities were limited. Most art programs focused on loose contemporary styles, while I longed to learn the luminous, realistic techniques of earlier centuries–and use them in paintings that still felt entirely my own and of my own time.

I searched for guidance in old books, scouring used-bookstores−this is before the internet−for texts on classic techniques. But many were written in archaic, confusing language, and the materials they described were often no longer available. I absorbed what I could and refined my technique through years of trial and error. Along the way, I took drawing, perspective, and painting classes whenever I could find them. I also spent countless hours in museums, studying the paintings of the old masters (while trying to stand much too close!) and examining reproductions in art books, trying to understand how these artists achieved such a convincing illusion of reality and light.

Through sustained study of drawing, perspective, color theory, composition, and the behavior of light on forms, I gradually developed a technique capable of representing reality in all its luminous beauty.

Now I’m ready to share it with you, saving you precious time and money - teaching you in this 4-week Live Online Course: The Realist Still Life Method.

This Course is for those who…

….Painters who have some familiarity with oil painting and want to progress quickly without years of formal art school
….Experienced painters who’d like to refine their technique and learn a new approach to realist still life painting

What’s inside this course

We’ll meet live on Zoom on September 21, September 28, October 5, and October 12 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. Pacific Time
You will learn the following topics, and there will be a live Q+A, at the end of each session.

Learn the following in four (4) live 90-minute online group sessions:

Week 1
Learn to Draw What You Actually See
A convincing painting begins with an accurate drawing. If the drawing is off, no amount of paint will correct it. In this session, you’ll strengthen your observational skills and learn practical ways to measure what you see using simple tools, a viewfinder, and simple perspective. These methods help you draw the correct angles and proportions of forms and understand how three-dimensional objects appear when drawn on a two-dimensional surface.

What changes: You’ll stop guessing at shapes and proportions, and your paintings will begin to look more realistic and convincing.

Week 2
Learn How to Compose a Still Life
Many still lifes feel fragmented or uninteresting because the objects aren’t arranged with intention. You’ll learn how to position objects so they relate to each other in a way that creates a dynamic composition and emphasizes what matters most to you in the painting. We’ll cover clear compositional principles that guide these decisions, including how to use lighting to clarify form, how to direct the viewer’s eye with line, and color, how repetition and variation create rhythm, how to balance shapes and negative space, and how to choose the right canvas size to strengthen the illusion of reality.

What changes: Your paintings will be dynamic, have a clear focal point and stronger relationships between objects.

Week 3
Use Color to Strengthen the Illusion of Reality
Color is one of the most common frustrations for painters. In this session, you’ll learn how to mix colors with control and accuracy by understanding hue, value, and saturation—and how these shift in highlights, mid-tones, and shadows. You’ll learn how to see color like a painter, discovering subtle colors in your set-ups and how to include them in your paintings. We’ll consider how to choose a color scheme for your painting and how color shapes the overall composition, creating harmony and emotional energy in the image.

What changes: You’ll see colors more clearly, mix what you see with confidence, and choose colors that work together harmoniously to express your intention.

Week 4
Build a Painting Through Layers
Many painters struggle because they adon’t know exactly where to begin. They try to solve everything at once—drawing, color, value, and detail—all in a single pass. This makes the process confusing and often leads to frustration. You’ll learn a structured approach to building a painting step by step—from drawing to underpainting to layered glazes and scumbles, so you’ll always know what stage you are in and how to proceed. You’ll also learn why allowing time for layers creates subtle effects that can’t be achieved in a single sitting.

What changes: You’ll have a clear process for constructing a painting and bringing it to a strong finish.

THE INVESTMENT

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