One of Lorraine Skelskey-Chapin's weekly classes meets at The Stable Studios, the arts and crafts facility in a converted stable inside Heritage Village, the active adult community for people 55 and over in Southbury. It is open to the public. You do not have to live in Heritage Village to take it, and people come in from the surrounding towns to sit at one of the easels.
The class at The Stable Studios
Wednesday afternoonWednesdays, 1:30pm to 4pmUp to 12 paintersAsk about current rates
Held at The Stable Studios in Heritage Village. Open to the public, not only to residents. It is a group class in oil and acrylic. The room holds beginners, people returning to painting after decades away, and painters far enough along to be showing work.
An afternoon slot suits a lot of people better than an evening one. You are not driving home in the dark, and if you live in Heritage Village you are not really driving at all.
It is the same class she teaches at her own studio
This is worth saying plainly. The teaching at Heritage Village is not a lighter version of anything. It is the same instruction Lorraine gives in the wednesday morning class at her studio in Southbury, taught by the same person, in the same two media, to the same standard. The differences are the room, the hour and how far you have to travel.
So if the afternoon at the stable does not fit your week, nothing is lost by taking a different session instead. The full list, including the studio classes and the outdoor painting, is on the classes page.
Starting in your sixties, your seventies, or later
A first painting at seventy is an ordinary way for this to begin. Plenty of people arrive having wanted to paint since they were young and never having had a free weekday to do it, or having done a little of it in school and nothing since. Retirement is when the hours finally exist.
There is no prerequisite. You do not need to be able to draw. Painting from observation is a set of habits about looking, mixing and putting the right value in the right place, and those are teachable at any age. Lorraine is in her sixties herself and has taught long enough to have watched a lot of people go from a blank canvas to a finished painting they wanted to hang.
The thing people are actually worried about
Almost nobody says "I am worried I will be bad at this." What they say is some version of "everyone else will already be good." It is a reasonable fear and it is the main reason people put off a first class for years.
The honest answer is that yes, some people in the room have been painting for a decade. It does not matter, because Lorraine works easel by easel. Your painting is discussed with you, about what you are trying to do with it. There is no critique in front of the room, no going around the table, and no moment where your canvas is held up next to someone else's.
Pace, and the absence of pressure
Everyone works on their own piece at their own speed. Nobody is assigned the same subject and made to keep up. A canvas can sit unfinished from one week to the next, and people often spend several sessions on a single painting, which is usually the right call anyway.
Class size is capped, which is what makes the individual attention possible. 12 easels is a room where the instructor gets to everybody properly and more than once. A room of forty is a lecture with paint in it.
Getting there
For Heritage Village residents this is a very short trip to an art class, in daylight. For everyone else, both rooms are in Southbury.
On accessibility, one thing is confirmed: the Southbury studio has a wheelchair accessible parking lot. Beyond that, ask rather than assume. If you use a walker, need to sit for the whole session, or want to know how far the walk is from the parking area to the door, call and get a real answer before your first class rather than discovering it on the day.
Materials, before you spend anything
There are two lists on this site, one foroil painting materials and one foracrylic painting materials. Read them, then talk to Lorraine before you buy. Art supply stores are very good at selling a beginner a cart full of equipment they will not touch for a year. She would rather tell you which few things matter at the start, what can wait, and whether the box of paints in your basement from 1994 is still usable. Often it is.
If a group is not what you want
Some people would genuinely rather not start in a room with other people, and that is a fine preference rather than a problem to talk anyone out of. She teachesone to one lessons as well, scheduled around you. The instruction is identical; only the audience changes.
Questions people ask first
Do I have to live in Heritage Village?
No. The class at The Stable Studios is open to the public. The building sits inside the community, but the class is not restricted to residents.
I am in my seventies and have never painted. Is that too late?
No. It is one of the most common ways for someone to walk into this class, and it is not treated as unusual when you do.
Will everyone else be better than me?
Some will have painted for years. Because the teaching happens at your easel rather than in front of the group, it does not change what your own session looks like.
Do I need to buy supplies before the first class?
Ask before you spend. The two materials lists are linked above, and Lorraine will tell you what is worth buying now and what is not.
What if I am slow?
Then you are slow, and your painting takes four sessions. Nobody is timed and nobody is waiting on you.
Is the studio accessible?
The Southbury studio has a wheelchair accessible parking lot. For anything more specific, including inside The Stable Studios, call and ask.
Asking about a seat
Seats open when they open, so calling is the only reliable way to find out. Lorraine Skelskey-Chapin answers the phone herself and will tell you whether there is room, and what to bring.