Our Methods

SARA’s three-year education is designed as a systematic progression that breaks down the complex challenge of learning to draw and paint realistically from life into manageable, practical stages. At each stage, the student must acquire and demonstrate specific skills before advancing to the next more challenging stage. Students progress from drawing with a graphite pencil all the way to free and confident oil painting by following a logical, step-by-step program.

Along the way, students also learn a wide variety of practical studio skills, including hand grinding oil paint, preparing wood panels and other supports for painting; stretching and gessoing raw linen canvas as a support; mixing mediums and grounds, using varnishes, and more.

SARA is devoted to preserving, promoting and developing not only the technical skills and craftsmanship that were the hallmark of great art for centuries, but also the humanistic values that were expressed through them.  Although SARA’s methods are rooted in traditions of the past and built upon the solid foundation of knowledge that has been passed down to us, SARA is proud to be a part of expanding those traditions and moving them forward in the 21st-century.

In fact, students of SARA can trace their training in a direct and unbroken line of descent, from their instructors as far back as the 14th century. They have a genuine connection to numerous old masters such as Andrea Del Sarto, Leonardo Da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Jacopo da Pontormo, as well as François Boucher, Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and many other masters.