REAL Academy of Art Colorado

08/13/2026

Headline: A Historic Return to Colorado!
​Are you ready to elevate your artistic practice to a master-level? We are thrilled to announce that the world-renowned artist Juliette Aristides is returning to the REAL Academy of Art Colorado for an exclusive, highly anticipated event!
​Join us for "Life Painting Intensive: Bringing the Figure to Life," a transformative workshop designed to help you master the nuances of gesture, proportion, and form.
​This is more than a class—it is an immersive, hands-on experience. Over three intensive days, you will learn directly from Juliette through daily demonstrations, deep-dive discussions, and guided studio sessions working from a live model. Discover the secret to combining rigorous classical technique with genuine emotional expression.
​Event Details:
​Workshop: Life Painting Intensive with Juliette Aristides
​Dates: Friday – Sunday, September 25-27, 2026
​Time: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
​Tuition: $1,150 per participant
​Limited spots are available for this unique opportunity! Secure your place and strengthen your foundation through focused, professional instruction.
​🔗 Register now: realacademyartco.org
📧 Questions? Contact us at [email protected]
📞 Call us: 720-813-9845
​Don't miss the chance to learn from one of the finest instructors in classical art. We look forward to creating with you!
​

07/16/2026

Headline: A Historic Return to Colorado!
​Are you ready to elevate your artistic practice to a master-level? We are thrilled to announce that the world-renowned artist Juliette Aristides is returning to the REAL Academy of Art Colorado for an exclusive, highly anticipated event!
​Join us for "Life Painting Intensive: Bringing the Figure to Life," a transformative workshop designed to help you master the nuances of gesture, proportion, and form.
​This is more than a class—it is an immersive, hands-on experience. Over three intensive days, you will learn directly from Juliette through daily demonstrations, deep-dive discussions, and guided studio sessions working from a live model. Discover the secret to combining rigorous classical technique with genuine emotional expression.
​Event Details:
​Workshop: Life Painting Intensive with Juliette Aristides
​Dates: Friday – Sunday, September 25-27, 2026
​Time: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
​Tuition: $1,150 per participant
​Limited spots are available for this unique opportunity! Secure your place and strengthen your foundation through focused, professional instruction.
​🔗 Register now: realacademyartco.org
📧 Questions? Contact us at [email protected]
📞 Call us: 720-813-9845
​Don't miss the chance to learn from one of the finest instructors in classical art. We look forward to creating with you!
​

We teach visual literacy inspired by the Old Masters, hand-eye skills, and an appreciation for art—culturally, historically, and personally.Our curriculum and faculty challenge our artists to think conceptually as they grow and refine their

07/14/2026

Ready to elevate your wildlife painting skills? 🎨🐾
​Join us for an immersive, one-day workshop with renowned artist Dustin Van Wechel on Saturday, August 15th, 2026. This is your chance to master the techniques that bring wildlife art to life.
​Whether you're looking to refine your style or build stronger foundations, you’ll learn:
🖌️ Expressive brushwork and palette knife techniques for rich texture.
📐 Composition basics and effective color usage.
💡 Controlling values to create depth and impact.
✨ Plus, enjoy one-on-one personal instruction following Dustin’s live painting demonstration!
​🗓 Date: Saturday, August 15, 2026
⏰ Time: 9 AM – 5 PM
📍 Location: Real Academy of Art Colorado (RAAC)
​💰 Investment:
​$200 – RAAC Student
​$250 – General Public
​Don’t miss this opportunity to sharpen your craft and gain new perspectives on wildlife painting. Spaces are limited—secure your spot today!
​🔗 Register now:
Visit: realacademyartco.org
Questions? Email: [email protected]
​

07/14/2026

Ready to elevate your wildlife painting skills? 🎨🐾

​Join us for an immersive, one-day workshop with renowned artist Dustin Van Wechel on Saturday, August 15th, 2026. This is your chance to master the techniques that bring wildlife art to life.
​Whether you're looking to refine your style or build stronger foundations, you’ll learn:
🖌️ Expressive brushwork and palette knife techniques for rich texture.
📐 Composition basics and effective color usage.
💡 Controlling values to create depth and impact.
✨ Plus, enjoy one-on-one personal instruction following Dustin’s live painting demonstration!
​🗓 Date: Saturday, August 15, 2026
⏰ Time: 9 AM – 5 PM
📍 Location: Real Academy of Art Colorado (RAAC)
​💰 Investment:
​$200 – RAAC Student
​$250 – General Public
​Don’t miss this opportunity to sharpen your craft and gain new perspectives on wildlife painting. Spaces are limited—secure your spot today!
​🔗 Register now:
Visit: realacademyartco.org
Questions? Email: [email protected]
​

Denver Art Museum Colorado Governor's Art Show & Sale

04/16/2026

Yellow Ochre – The Color That Started Painting

Among all pigments used in art history, few are as ancient and enduring as Yellow Ochre. Long before oil paint, academies, or even written language, this humble earth pigment was already in the hands of artists.

Yellow ochre is a natural pigment made primarily from iron oxide–rich clay. Its warm, earthy tone appears in some of the earliest known artworks, including the prehistoric cave paintings of Lascaux Cave and Altamira Cave. For tens of thousands of years, artists have trusted this pigment for its stability, permanence, and beautiful muted warmth.

One of the secrets of yellow ochre is its versatility. It can appear soft and golden in light passages, yet when mixed with darker pigments it produces rich greens, natural skin tones, and subtle earth harmonies. Many classical painters relied on it as a foundation for flesh mixtures and underpaintings.

Because it is an earth pigment, yellow ochre is also incredibly durable. Unlike many synthetic pigments that fade or shift, ochre has remained remarkably stable across centuries. Paintings created hundreds of years ago still carry the same warm glow that artists originally intended.

From prehistoric caves to contemporary studios, yellow ochre reminds us that some of the most powerful colors in painting come directly from the earth itself. Simple, reliable, and timeless—this pigment is truly one of the foundations of painting.

classicalpainting oilpainting artiststudio

03/25/2026

Augustus Saint-Gaudens: When Simplicity Becomes the Highest Form of Sculpture
(Insights from rare letters revealing a master’s artistic philosophy)
In the letters of the great American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens—preserved through his son Homer Saint-Gaudens—we are not reading casual correspondence, but witnessing a complete artistic philosophy in action.
He repeatedly returns to one central idea:
true sculpture is not complexity—it is clarity, structure, and power of form.
The Core Vision: Large, Simple Forms
He writes that the essentials are:
large simple lines and planes with strong dark shadows.
From this emerges his foundation:
Sculpture is built from large readable masses
Forms are understood as planes, not decoration
Light and shadow are structural, not surface effects
For him, clarity was not a style—it was discipline.
Even a Lion Must Be Architectural
In his critique to A.P. Proctor, he evaluates a lion study not for skill, but for structure:
It must be more “in planes” for architectural use
The mane must express power and nobility
The head must hold visual dominance within the body
His idea is clear:
In sculpture, importance is not added—it is distributed.
A subject is never just a subject—it is a system of visual weight.
A Rare Admission: Learning from Others
On the work of Albert Jaegers, he writes:
“It really taught me a lesson in my own work… I wish I could have done that figure with such dignity, directness, and simplicity.”
A rare moment where a master acknowledges:
Simplicity can surpass experience
Directness can outperform refinement
True dignity comes from clarity, not complexity
The Hidden Method
From these letters, a clear system emerges:
Start with mass and silhouette, not detail
Think in planes and structure
Let light and shadow build form
Remove anything that weakens clarity
Aim for instant readability from distance
Why It Still Matters Today
In an age of excessive detail and over-rendering, his philosophy feels almost radical:
Great sculpture is not what you add—
it is what you are brave enough to remove.