Most people who ask about a private lesson are not asking for a different teacher. They are asking for a different calendar. The group classes happen at a set hour on a set day, and that is the one thing some weeks cannot absorb. Private lessons exist for that first: you and Lorraine agree on a time, and the lesson happens then.
There are two arrangements, genuinely different rather than two names for one thing. Both happen in her studio in Southbury, in oil or acrylic, at any level.
The two arrangements
Wednesday evening
Wednesdays, 6:30pm to 8:30pmClass size on requestAsk about current ratesSouthbury, CT
Private or semi-private. How many easels depends on who is coming, so ask first. It is a standing slot at the end of the day, which suits people who work through the daytime hours and want a lesson that repeats without being renegotiated every week. Private if you book it alone, semi-private if you bring someone.
One-to-one, on your schedule
Scheduled around youOne to oneAsk about current ratesSouthbury, CT
Scheduled around you rather than around a timetable. No fixed day, no standing hour. You work out when with her directly. If your free hours move around from one month to the next, that is a conversation about timing rather than a reason to give up on lessons.
What one to one actually changes
The subject is yours. Bring the photograph from the coast, the garden you keep meaning to paint, a still life from your own kitchen table, or a dog. Lorraine paints landscapes, gardens, coastal scenes, still life and animals herself, so none of it is a detour for her.
The pace is yours. If a colour takes forty minutes to mix because you have never mixed it before, it takes forty minutes and nothing is lost.
A painting already in progress is welcome. The canvas leaning against the wall of a spare room since last spring is exactly the sort of thing to walk in with. She works on the painting in front of her rather than on a prepared exercise, so the lesson picks up where you actually stopped.
One problem can take the whole session. Edges. Skies that turn chalky. Getting values right before you touch colour. Drawing a boat so it sits in the water instead of on top of it. In a full room, two hours on one painter's sticking point would be unfair to everyone else. On your own it is simply the lesson.
Who tends to book these
Painters coming back to it. People who put the brushes down when work or family took the hours, and would rather not do their relearning in front of a dozen strangers.
People with work due. A submission deadline, a juried show, a wall to fill. That work is mostly judgement calls: which of these six is finished, what to frame. Those go faster with one person at your shoulder.
People whose week will not take a morning class. Shift work, a commute, someone at home who needs them at particular hours. The group timetable is not negotiable. This is.
People who would rather not start in a group. Some painters cannot think with an audience, and that is a preference rather than a failing. A few private sessions first and the group later is a normal way through. So is never joining the group.
How semi-private works
Semi-private is a small handful of people, usually people who already know each other, working in the same room with her moving between them. More of her attention than a full class allows, plus company, which some people want and some do not. Class size on request rather than printed, because the slot is one slot: what is free depends on who booked it that week and whether they came together.
What it costs
Ask about current rates. Lorraine has not set a published rate for private work, and a number invented for a web page is worse than no number at all. Call (203) 525-1949 and say whether you mean the standing slot or something arranged around your schedule. Materials are your own: theoil and acrylic materials lists say what to bring, and if you are unsure, ask before the first session rather than buying twice.
Common questions
What does a private painting lesson cost?
Ask about current rates. She has not set a published rate for private work, so the honest answer is to ask. Call (203) 525-1949 and say which of the two arrangements you have in mind.
Can I bring a painting I have already started?
Yes, and it is one of the better reasons to book. She works on the painting in front of her rather than a set exercise, so a canvas stalled for a year is a good thing to arrive with.
Do I need to have painted before?
No. Private lessons run from complete beginner to advanced, in oil or acrylic. A first-timer and someone returning after twenty years get very different lessons, which is the point of teaching one to one.
Can two of us book a lesson together?
Yes. That is what semi-private means here, usually people who arrive together: a couple, two friends, a parent and an adult child. Class size on request, because how many easels fit depends on who booked the slot.
Where do the lessons happen?
In her home studio in Southbury. Painting outdoors is a separate arrangement:the plein air sessions run periodically through the warmer months, weather permitting.
If a group would suit you better
Plenty of people are better served by the weekly classes, where you learn something from watching the canvas beside you. The full class schedule lists every session, where each meets and how many places it holds. If you are not sure which suits you, say so on the phone.