Looking for more space to spread out and work on a project? Or maybe you want to work amongst other artists to feel inspired and get some helpful feedback on your work. Join other local artists any time between 9am-12pm, for Open Studio. Please pay $10 cash at the door. Bring all supplies you need to use, NRAS has easels available. 

No registration, drop in only, cash or check.

Additional Information:

Please help us be respectful to our neighbors.
Do not park in front of neighbors or turn around in their driveways.

No registration required – all are welcome! $10 cash only 

Looking for a creative way to kick off your week? Join us and Artist, Nina Cherie Cahill, every Monday night at North River Arts Society for Drop-In Craft Night! Bring your own project—whether it’s knitting, sketching, embroidery, sewing, collage, or any craft you're working on—and enjoy a relaxed, welcoming space to create alongside fellow makers.

All skill levels are welcome. This is an informal, social night perfect for getting inspired, sharing ideas, and making progress on whatever you're into. Come solo or with friends—stay the whole time or just pop in!

If you prefer, Nina will have materials available for loom weaving and can assist those who wish to get started on their own small weaving. Some materials for purchase through Nina. 

This group is open to all ages, levels, skills and crafts. 

Additional Information:

Please help us be respectful to our neighbors.
Do not park in front of neighbors or turn around in their driveways.

Join North River Arts for Friday Night Figure Drawing!

Settle into a relaxed, creative atmosphere and spend your Friday evening drawing or painting from a live model. Each session begins with a series of short, dynamic poses designed to help you warm up, loosen your hand, and explore gesture. We then transition into longer poses, giving you the opportunity to dive deeper into proportion, anatomy, shading, and more refined detail at your own pace.

This is an uninstructed studio session, making it a wonderful option for artists of all levels who are looking to practice, build confidence, or simply enjoy dedicated time to create in community with others. Bring your preferred materials and enjoy a supportive, inspiring environment to grow your figure drawing skills.

Easels provided by NRAS. $20 drop in fee at the door, cash only. Space limited to 14 students. 

This comprehensive and enjoyable workshop will better familiarize participants with color palettes, the effective blending of colors, use of brushes, and responsiveness of the medium on different papers. A range of exercises will allow painters to explore and apply various wash methods – wet-on-wet, dry-brush, glazing, blending, sharp and soft edges, dilution control, among others. Each dynamic session will address some of the many aspects of color theory. Using still life subjects & from the instructor’s demos, participants will learn ways to structure & simplify a composition, while learning to see and achieve the dynamic elements of light, contrast, values, movement, textures, etc., which make paintings come alive. Experimentation and interpretative methods will also be demonstrated, discussed and encouraged during the workshop. The workshop will comprise two studio classes, for about 8 hours each day, with a 45-60 minute lunch.

The workshop will provide a relaxed place for participants to quickly understand and then develop their skills, with the watchful input of the instructor. Some previous painting experience would be preferable, but not required. Participant’s abilities should include basic drawing, and a comfort level with watercolor. With a likely diversity of skills, capabilities will vary widely, but one-on-one instruction will be tailored to each individual’s level. Expectations are for a creative, exciting environment from which the collective energies and interests will allow everyone to learn much more than otherwise struggling to discover alone. Also, expectations are for making “mistakes”, and for having fun while learning with an award-winning watercolorist.

About the Instructor: Frank is  an accomplished watercolor painter of urban scenes, landscapes, homes, portraits and still life in a plein air, or a direct alla prima colorist style. He is continually inspired by the effortless, masterful works of watercolorists from many eras and cultures; particularly Sargent, Homer, Turner, Wyeth, Zorn, Reid, Prendergast, Hiroshi and fellow Winthrop native, John Whorf. Frank enjoys the fluid challenge and unexpected possibilities of watercolor. Given the inherent transparency of his preferred medium and infinite range of possible values and colors, he strives to express watercolor’s rich, luminous qualities in his pieces. He also enjoys working on figurative sketches in pencil, pen & ink, and other mediums. Frank is a signature member of the New England Watercolor Society (N.E.W.S.) Boston, and elected member of the Salmagundi Club of New York. He is also a multiple award-winning architectural illustrator for over five decades of collaborating with renowned national architects to produce striking illustrations of projects around the world. Frank recently had a highly regarded exhibition of his illustration works at the Boston Athenaeum, and radio & tv spots on Jared Bowen’s PBS Culture Programs.

"Light, shade, shadow, color, values, textures; the substantive and the fleeting, the design and contours of shape and form; the intersection and interplay of the tangible and intangible – these life qualities are always capturing my attention. The interpretative and unexpected possibilities of the watercolor medium present an exciting artistic challenge to capture these very qualities in every work. "

Materials List: Coming Soon

Additional Information:

Please help us be respectful to our neighbors.
Do not park in front of neighbors or turn around in their driveways.

Embrace Winter! If you are a landscape painter in the North you spend a lot of time looking at snow and bare branches. Instead of dreaming of warmer days (they will come) learn how to make the most of what can be a fascinating and beautiful feature of where we live. We will study the color of snow, the effects of shorter days, and how to paint bare branches against the sky, etc. We will paint on black paper and underpaint on sandpaper, exploring winter in its intricacies, and how it relates to pastel painting. Demonstrations and group critique daily, along with indi- vidualized instruction at your easel. All levels welcome!

Instructor Bio:

Liz Haywood-Sullivan, IAPS/EP, PSA-MP, has been dedicated to working exclusively in the pastel medium since 1996. Her attraction to the medium is pastel's unique ability to capture light and atmosphere in the landscape. She is a sought-after instructor and judge for pastel societies and arts organizations around the world. Liz authored the popular book Painting Brilliant Skies and Water in Pastel (Northlight, 2013). Her award-winning pastel paintings have been featured in numerous books and magazine articles, and have appeared in national, international and museum exhibitions worldwide. Liz is a President Emerita of the International Association of Pastel Societies (2013-2017) and past president of North River Arts Society (2021-2025). Her online instruction can be found at

www.epiphanyfineart.com.

www.lizhaywoodsullivan.com

Materials List: Download Here

Recommended Lodging for Out-of-Town students:

Inn at Scituate Harbor

Fairview Inn

Additional Information:

Please help us be respectful to our neighbors.
Do not park in front of neighbors or turn around in their driveways.

Are your still life’s lacking… something? Whether you’re a beginner or looking to refine your skills, this hands-on workshop will guide you through composition, lighting, color, and technique. I will demonstrate how to layout a compelling still life, the block in, and the techniques to bring your painting to life. You don’t want to miss this weekend workshop!

About the Instructor: I returned to my first love of representational painting about two decades ago. At an early age I fell in love with the works of Rembrandt van Rijn, a love which carries through to today. I remember standing in front of a portrait of his of an old man and finding myself brought to tears. That an artist some 375 years ago, from an entirely different world, speaking a different language, and from a different culture could reach through time and speak so profoundly to a person of my time, to me is, the highest form of art. I seek in my art to reach such a pinnacle of truth, to make my work speak so directly to those who view it.

I paint in a direct style, with a simple limited palette. With sensitivity, mastery of technique, and a magician’s sleight of hand, I endeavor to engage you, the viewer. To not only pique your interest, but to reach your heart.

My works have been presented at the Oil Painters of America, Portrait Society of America, and National Oil and Acrylic Painter’s Society, International Guild of Realism, amongst others. I am a Master Artist at the esteemed Boston Copley Society of Art, a member artist at the Salmagundi Club in New York City, co-founder and teacher at the online academy Epiphany Fine Art and currently paint and teach out of my studio in Norton, Massachusetts.

Materials List: coming soon

Additional Information:

Please help us be respectful to our neighbors.
Do not park in front of neighbors or turn around in their driveways.

You can do this! Explore sketching with abandonment. Step out of your comfort zone and draw with a variety of materials, letting all the imperfections, “mistakes,” and corrections lead you to beautiful discoveries and exciting images. Perfectionism is highly overrated. Let fearless mark making lead you to dynamic images that engage and delight! Layer, smudge, erase…it’s all good.

In this workshop, we will look at some of the masters of intuitive drawing (both past and present) for inspiration. You will watch Suzette demonstrate various techniques and be coached through exercises using different mediums. You will utilize still life as subject matter. Please bring 3-5 objects from your home to arrange in your space and a patterned dishtowel or fabric piece to wrap into the still life. Anything goes! Ordinary objects are often poetic. Don’t over think what you bring in. Suzette encourages you to bring the drawing tools you already have in your kit and not to worry if you don’t have every element on the extended

materials list. Get ready to wow yourself…

Materials list:

Must have:

• A book of cheap sketch paper for exercises
• A Bristol pad, Vellum or Smooth, as big as you please but not smaller than 11x14
• A graphite pencil
• Some willow or vine charcoal
• Paynes Gray acrylic ink
• white charcoal or white conte crayon or white pastel
• 3 colors watercolor, acrylic gouache, or acrylic paint and a brush

Nice to have:

• watercolor, gouache, acrylic sets
• pastels, oil or soft
• ink tense pencils
• Cran d’arche Neocolor crayons or like product
• water-soluble graphite
• acrylic markers
• crayons
• gel pens
• prior works you are willing to tear into collage material

About the Instructor: Suzette Lebenzon

Suzette Lebenzon has painted since her childhood in Scituate, MA. She has kept a studio and shown in galleries most of her adult life. Her home and studio are in Wellfleet.

Suzette was a recipient of the Mass Cultural Council’s Unrestricted Artists’ Grants. In 2023, Suzette was inducted to the National Association of Women Artists, as a Signature Member. Her work has been curated into shows at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, the Scollay Square Gallery in Boston’s City Hall, and the Galatea Fine Art Gallery in SOWA.

She is represented by the  AMZehnder Gallery in Wellfleet, MA; and the BBLG Gallery in Smithtown, NY.

Additional Information:

Please help us be respectful to our neighbors.
Do not park in front of neighbors or turn around in their driveways.

One goal of representational painting is to make an image appear three-dimensional on a two- dimensional surface. Understanding light and shadow helps to accomplish this artistic illusion. In this one-day workshop we will work on creating effective lights and shadows in a pastel painting, focusing on composition and value shapes as well as mark-making, layering, and blending. We will discuss form shadows and cast shadows and the way in which a shadow’s definition and color are influenced by the source, quality and temperature of the light casting the shadow. In the morning you will create a number of different studies focusing on how best to capture different aspects of shadows in the pastel medium. In the afternoon you will create a larger piece applying what you have learned. All students will have personalized feedback and guidance as you explore this topic. This class is appropriate for all levels. A materials list will be provided in advance.

About the Instructor: Heather Quay

“My goal is to have my paintings capture the feeling of a particular time and place. I have always been fascinated by the way that painters portray the quality and temperature of light. As a pastel painter, I continue to be drawn to scenes where the light is the central character. Whatever I am painting – from landscapes, both natural and manmade, to figures, animals, and portraits – I’m always striving to render the light I see onto the surface of my artwork.”

Heather’s work has been included in juried exhibits across New England and online, and has won a number of awards. She is an Associate Member of the Pastel Society of America, and a Signature Member of the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod, the Connecticut Pastel Society and the Maryland Pastel Society. She is also a member of the North River Arts Society, the Central Massachusetts Pastel Society, the Pastel Society of New Hampshire and the Lyme Art Association. Heather is a Featured Artist on the Artsy Shark website. More about Heather and her work can be found at www.heatherquay.com

Materials list:

coming soon!

Additional Information:

Please help us be respectful to our neighbors.
Do not park in front of neighbors or turn around in their driveways.