Still Life Painting Class and Workshop with Karen O'Neil at the Art Students League of New York

I have spent four wonderful years studying at the Art Students League of New York. All the classes I took at the league were figurative oil painting classes. They had live models posing for students. I took figurative classes with different instructors and learned a lot. I’ll forever love painting people.

The only class that didn’t involve painting the human form was a still life painting class with Karen O”Neil. One day I was walking along the corridors of the ASL and saw an ad for her workshop. The artwork was so beautiful that then and there I decided to take the workshop even though I had never taken workshops before and was never even interested in painting still life.

Karen O’Neil April Blue/Green, oil on linen 24” x 24”.

Karen O’Neil is a wonderful painter whose artwork amazes me with beautiful fresh, clean, and often translucent color. She is also a great teacher. I never thought I’d be painting still life but I was always interested in color. Her class helped make my artwork so much more colorful. I also started to really think about shape distribution through canvas which then led me to painting abstracts.

Karen O’Neil is a very generous teacher. I was so grateful for the wealth of information she shared during her workshops and classes. Karen did several painting demos not only during her workshops but also during regular classes. She also tirelessly did rounds helping students with their work. Among all the teachers at the Art Students League of New York she was the one that had the most interaction with students during class.

Here are some photos I took during my classes and workshops with Karen O’Neil.

Karen lays her paints on a white palette and uses linseed oil as her painting medium.

She doesn’t use any underpainting choosing to work on white canvas instead. She draws with the brush using a light yellow color. (I believe it’s yellow ochre).

Karen emphasizes the use of big brushes to cover blocks of color.

Here is her painting station. Big bright brushes on the left. She uses a palette knife to mix exact colors that match objects in front of her.

Here is how Karen mixes beautiful darks and greys.

Karen’s palette when painting with juicy pinks and reds for a glass demo.

She did a closeup of a glass with cherries and an orange slice. She often preferred to do a closeup composition.

This is the beginning of an orange painting demo by Karen O’Neil. One can see big brush strokes on the canvas.

Karen’s palette during the orange demo.

Both workshops and classes had plenty of still life setups for students to paint. The setups incorporated cups, plates, fruit, and interesting accessories like ribbons.

A setup with a glass bowl, apple, and cherries from which I painted the following painting Cherry, Apple and Ribbons, oil on canvas, 12” x 16”.

I chose to do a vertical composition following Karen’s advice with a tight crop approach. In the background is another painting of mine, also done during my still life painting class with Karen.

A different setup with colorful fruit, a glass and ribbons.

I added stripes in the pink background at home to balance the composition. Still Life with Green Apple, Plum and Nectarine, oil on canvas 12” x 16”.

A cheerful cloth and colorful fruit was my setup for the following painting Orange, Lime and Cherry Tomatoes, oil on canvas 11” x 14”:

Here are several more of my paintings done during Karen’s Still LIfe Painting class. I enjoyed painting them and would strongly recommend taking her classes if you are interested in learning color whether you are planning to paint still life or not. I took what I learned and applied it to my abstract paintings as well as figurative and illustrative paintings.

Pepper and Cherry Tomatoes, oil on canvas 12’ x 12”.

Cup and Polka Dots, oil on canvas 11” x 14”.

Oranges, oil on canvas 12” x 12”.

Please check out my paintings on my website. Thank you!