2026 July 20-24 10 am-4 pm EST @Townsend Atelier instructor: Mia Bergeron A great class to jump start a new or existing interest in oil painting! Mia will guide students each day through the basics of learning this tricky medium. We will be discussing materials, drawing proportions, notans, color charts, values, mixing, lighting, and composition. We will start the class using only black and white oil paints, but will progress to primaries the second half of the week, making for stable understanding of values and color. The goal of this class is to answer questions, explain and demonstrate firsthand techniques, learn to paint what you see, and to create curiosity and interest for further experimenting. Open to all levels- whether you are a total newbie, coming back to oils after a long pause, or are a seasoned painter looking to revisit the basics! There will be a one-hour lunch break each day. Lunch is on your own. For students traveling from out of town, please contact us if you need accommodation recommendations. Click here for materials list About the Instructor: B.1980 Mia Bergeron is a classically trained oil painter that uses modern techniques and concepts to create layered imaginative works. Imagery in her work often oscillates between the fictitious and the observed in equal parts. Rooted in her upbringing in New York City with continuous exposure to modern art, her paintings also reveal her choice to study classical painting in Florence, Italy under Charles H. Cecil in her twenties. For Mia, painting is about an experiential cohabitation; we are driving in our car, seeing landscapes, people, stoplights, and trees- but we are also thinking about places far away, imagined outcomes, wild and mysterious fantasies . We are a species that lives in two places at all times- internally and externally. It is this dynamic contrast that is at the center of Mia’s paintings. Mia has been published numerous times in international magazines. In January 2024, her painting was published in The New Yorker Magazine alongside writer Joy Williams’ short story. Her painting “Tranquil Ghosts” was the cover image for the January 2022 issue of American Art Collector Magazine. Her work is part of Bennett Collection of Women at the Muskegon Museum of Art, and also in the permanent collection of the New Salem Museum of Art. She continues to teach and exhibit her work throughout the United States and Europe. She and her husband, artist John McLeod, live in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
