I came into the class after vowing to never paint in oil again because of my chronic migraines. I had just finished an uninspired commission, and was exhausted, dispirited, and sick with COVID (it turned out). After 25 years of oil painting I felt creatively spent. I was telling all this to a painter friend who asked offhandedly “do use a lot of solvents?” (I used OMS like a water colorist). She suggested the book The New Oil Painting. I read it in one sitting and then saw that you gave workshops.

The lectures and live sessions have been transformative and reinvigorates my passion for art-making. Your unique voice in teaching, and your approach to working with the materials gives me permission to explore with a kind of knowledge that was previously hidden to me. I feel as though I’m in some kind of hidden alchemical mystery school.

This is, hands down, the most informative program I’ve taken in oil painting. The amount of material covered in the lectures is incredible generous as is the time you give to each student in the live sessions and in your office hours. I watch the lectures on color and painting architecture over and over. Other classes I’ve taken are more geared toward plein air painting or the business side of art, which is fine but not where I’m at.

A defining moment of my childhood was reading the classic book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”. It taught me how to draw by teaching me how to see. Objects became lines instead of what the mind’s logic was telling me. After reading it I couldn’t stop drawing.  

This class is the equivalent for the elusive art of oil painting. I learned to “see” paintings. To see in forms instead of just lines. To see in three dimensions. To see in layers. Most importantly, I began to see my own potential as a painter if I continued the journey. That is something money can rarely buy.

• Anne H. LA

This program is absolutely amazing, like a very strong foundation that you can build your wildest oil painting practice on. It is everything you wanted to know about oil painting but were afraid to ask, um varnishing anyone, glazing? Kimberly generously shares all the knowledge she built over the years, so you don’t have to spend years making mistakes to gain it. Surfaces, materials, brushes, tips on how to build up a painting, history of pigments - all covered. Interviews with working contemporary artists are inspiring and energizing, it makes “being an artist” very tangible and real. Plus live sessions with critiques - just love it.

It is really puzzling that the fundamental pillars of oil painting are no longer taught well. I don’t know if I had been very unlucky but a number of painting courses I took in college taught me very little. I’ve had a couple of books on oil painting but none of them addressed safety at all, which led me to painting in my bedroom with jar of turpentine open for days - I slept breathing it in! Never again.

Lenna F., OR

“The more you have going on the more you will learn about the civilization that exists within you” - KB. 

I now rely less on copying my source material and more on working out larger paintings with smaller maquettes.  Also, working on several paintings at the same time is crucial to allowing one’s creativity to flow. 

Kimberly’s lessons on the architecture of a painting have forever changed the way I work, think about and view works of art.  I have been painting 8-10 years and from this class I have learned so much practical information that I can actually use.  My experience of NYC art schools is really that you are on your own to figure things out.