Oakdale Painting Studio

I started painting when I was 13 years old. I would paint with my dad to «The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross». Aside from those shows, I never had any formal training or classes in visual arts. I wanted to improve my skills and get a solid foundation of techniques.
I took a ‘Drawing Fundamentals’ class at UC Berkeley Extension and low and beholden, Larry Robinson was our instructor. The pace of the class was great and we spent most of the class drawing. He started us out with warm-​up exercises, and then introduced a new concept (i.e. perspective, shadows, etc). And then we would get right into the drawing. All still life but he made it interesting by having us bring in items from our homes or he would bring in items (i.e. animal skulls).
Very little «lecturing» occurred — which is totally what I wanted and I believe that is the best way to learn. The encouragement and the embracing of everyones personal style are encouraged.
The final project was amazing. He handed out little cards with an image of something that was mostly unrecognizable; we had to draw it as we saw it. I had an eye. Later, I found it was actually the left eye. 16 students drew there pieces and each piece would become part of a whole image. Quite an amazing idea and we were all impressed with how far we had come. Everyone’s point of view came out in the drawing yet, it was still one complete idea.
I will be taking more classes from Larry. He is a true artist and an amazing instructor.

Larry Robinson has to be one of the best teachers I’ve ever had! It’s fine to learn painting and drawing from a talented person but that doesn’t necessarily mean they will teach you well. Glad to say, Larry is both talented and a tremendously nurturing and wonderful instructor.
Unlike any other teacher I’ve had before, he has a keen sense of how to get you to where you want to go in a painting project. He is patient, kind, supportive and extremely humble (rare in the art instruction world, I’ve found!). His primary goal: help you to see things differently and let things flow naturally.
Most important of all, he treats all of his students equally. Yes, trust me, he does! He works with you to develop not harp on what’s wrong or not right but to improve! He has great «painting points», he’s knowledgeable and incredibly well versed in both materials and art history! Trust me, take a course from him and you won’t regret it.
He’s GREAT with beginning painters!