Paint Anything with Confidence, a Masterclass with Nancy Tankersley

• January 30th, January 31st & February 1st, 2026
• 9am - 4pm (3 Session Workshop)
• Includes Free Art Chat on January 30th 9-10am (open to the public)
• $550 (supplies not included, see list below)
• All Skill Levels welcome
• Ages 18+

How is a vase like a farm silo? Designed for the plein air painter who doesn’t want to paint in extreme weather, this class will help students see that they don’t need to wait for pleasant days to practice their outdoor painting skills.

Students will set up and paint still life in a way that can replicate conditions that one might see outdoors. Through daily demos, lecture and painting exercises, the instructor will show how the principles that apply to painting the landscape can help make one a better painter of any subject. Through careful analysis of each situation, students will learn to start slow but finish fast. Students will paint a different set up each day.

About Nancy:

Nancy works in both oils and acrylic, has years of experience with pastels, and is open to working with artists in any medium, including watercolor and gouache. She believes that technique is an ever evolving journey (and best learned though personal experimentation), but understanding the underlying principles of how to observe and translate your observations to a 2-D surface is key to becoming a good painter. You will work with a limited choice of colors so that you gain mastery over your paint mixing before adding extra pigments to your palette.

• Paint
• 3-4 canvases or paper 9 x 12 up to 16 x 20
• Brushes
• Mineral spirits for oil painters. Please bring odorless.
• Water or Turps container
• Medium: anything you have available. A quick drying medium would be good for this workshop, such as: Liquin Light or Gamblin Solvent Free Gel. Not needed for acrylic.
• EASEL: The d’Art Center has a small number of easels but if you own a plein air set-up, please bring it. If you need to reserve one of the center’s easels, please let Deanna know (ZHN0cm90aGVyIHwgZC1hcnRjZW50ZXIgISBvcmc=)
• Please bring from home one vase or still life object. No glass or silver, plain or slightly decorated pottery preferred.
• One cloth to be used as backdrop. Plain or small prints preferred.

I encourage the use of a limited palette containing a warm and cool yellow, warm and cool red, and warm and cool blue plus a white and burnt sienna (for underpainting). You may use your own colors as long as there is a distinct difference in the warm and cool version of each primary color.

Any professional quality brand may be used, avoid the student grade. They don’t have enough pigment, makes it harder to mix color and may end up being more expensive in the long run. The most important thing is to have both a warm (moving toward orange on the color wheel) or cool (moving towards blue) version of each of the primary colors red, blue and yellow.

Here are my typical choices:

Hansa yellow light

Indian Yellow or Cadmium yellow ( or any warm yellow) (Make sure the two yellows are very

different)

Cadmium red light (warm red), Fanchon Red (Williamsburg), Naphthol Red

Alizarin crimson permanent or Quinacridone Red

Ultramarine blue

Cerulean blue, manganese blue or phthalo blue

Titanium white (large tube), Flake White Replacement (Gamblin)

Burnt sienna - convenience mixture, not essential

Most people work with brushes that are too small. For this workshop, push yourself to use larger brushes than usual.

At minimum have:

• #12 white hog bristle filbert or long flat
• #8 white hog bristle filbert
• #6 hog bristle flat
• One medium flexible palette knife for both painting and scraping the palette. Or you may buy one for each purpose. I like the long diamond shape best.

Info: Free and open to the public, this Art Chat & Demo will take place in our Main Gallery in the hour before the three-day Masterclass Workshop begins. Meet the artist and hear about her process and background while she provides a quick demo.

Friday, January 30th, 2026, 9:00am-10:00am

Also check out other Arts events in Norfolk, Workshops in Norfolk, Fine Arts events in Norfolk.