Creative Arts   

The Outdoors Contained will provide all your floral supplies to create a beautiful tabletop flower arrangement. They will teach you tips to choose flowers, color palette, how to cut your flowers properly, and the best ways to make your arrangement last the longest. You will take home a small floral arrangement.

They will also show and teach you how to create a beautiful outdoor arrangement, including the thrillers, spillers, and fillers sequence. Plus, how to choose the best plants, longest lasting, colors, and where to place the plants within the pot. They'll discuss the four seasons of planters and what to use to last through the whole year. The Outdoors Contained will also touch on care and how to successfully make your planters last a full season.

Explore the art of jewelry making and beading and learn a variety of techniques and beading stitches, such as stringing, peyote and herringbone stitches, wire wrapping, simple knotting and braiding. The results will be pieces of jewelry that you will be proud to wear. Printed material and discussions of tools and materials will accompany each class. Beginners are welcome. Although some of the same techniques will be taught each semester, the projects will be different.

Beginners, experienced or lapsed knitters are welcome.  Learn to knit from the first stitch, master new stitches like lace and cables, or receive help with a project. Beginner patterns will be available, such as fingerless gloves, cowls and a toy stuffed rabbit.  If you are beyond beginner, please bring your supplies and a pattern on which you will work and receive help in class.

Anything can be embroidered!  The first class will be dedicated to gaining familiarity with the tools & fibers and learning basic stitches. In the second class, a project of the student's choice will be started which can include embroidered jewelry.  Finishing instructions & materials for all projects will be available.  Students are welcome to bring their own kits or designs on which to work. This course is appropriate for brand-new as well as experienced embroiderers. 

Learn to crochet from the first stitch, learn new stitches, or experienced crocheters can receive help with a project. A pattern for a multi-sized bag will be provided for beginners, and after completing the bag students will bring in their own patterns.

This continuous weave basket features three flowers made of reed to decorate the front. It weaves up quickly with a focus on shaping the pot. Finished size about 6” diameter by 7” high. Choice of colors for the flowers.

This course delves deeper into the world of digital photography. Take your photos to the next level through classroom lectures, demonstrations, and instructor-led photo shoots. Topics covered include advanced exposure control, histogram, focus point selection, custom white balance, shooting in RAW, compelling composition techniques, storytelling, dynamic natural lighting, and light modifiers. Students should have taken Introduction to Digital Photography or have equivalent knowledge.

Instantly improve your photos by learning how to see the world like a professional photographer and create images with interest and impact using composition guidelines. Plus, learn the dos and dont's of photographing your family and friends so everyone looks their best and techniques to capture the beauty and unique aspects of the places in your travels near and far. For all skill levels and all types of cameras and smartphones.

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

This course provides beginners with a comprehensive start to the world of digital photography through classroom lectures, demonstrations, and instructor-led photo shoots. See what your camera is capable of! Topics include camera operation, exposure controls, shutter, aperture, ISO, white balance, depth of field, composition, portraiture and landscape photography.

Create a landscape or still life watercolor painting in each educational and enjoyable class session, using a variety of creative watercolor techniques, including wet-on-wet, dry-to-wet and the dry brush method, just to name a few. A variety of brushes will be used to expand on these techniques and the occasional use of watercolor pencils will create quick and surprising detail to your painting. Each session will introduce at least one of these techniques, allowing you to bring home a completed masterpiece that is created in a relaxed atmosphere (including background jazz!). This course is designed for both the beginner and more advanced artist. This semester will feature all new paintings, and will not repeat paintings from previous semesters.

Create a landscape or still life watercolor painting in each educational and enjoyable class session, using a variety of creative watercolor techniques, including wet-on-wet, dry-to-wet and the dry brush method, just to name a few. A variety of brushes will be used to expand on these techniques and the occasional use of watercolor pencils will create quick and surprising detail to your painting. Each session will introduce at least one of these techniques, allowing you to bring home a completed masterpiece that is created in a relaxed atmosphere (including background jazz!). This course is designed for both the beginner and more advanced artist. This semester will feature all new paintings, and will not repeat paintings from previous semesters.

Like to draw? Dream of taking your sketching to the next level? Beginner and experienced students alike will get individualized instruction to bring out their inner artist and develop their unique style. We'll cover valuable drawing skills, such as shading, contour design, and composition. Bring your desire to advance your art and expect fun and camaraderie as you learn. This class is appropriate for both beginner and repeat students.  Repeat students have the option of working on a project of their choice.

The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns called tangles. Zentangle® can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of skill, experience, or artistic training. This beautiful, artistic, mindfulness practice increases focus and creativity and provides artistic satisfaction, along with an increased sense of personal well-being. In this series, you will also learn how to enhance your Zentangle designs with the use of watercolor. This class is suitable for beginner and experienced tanglers.

Learn to create figurative or abstract prints using three different, approachable, and satisfying hand printing methods: monotype collage, gel printing, and block printing. You will learn how to

• combine original printed patterns with other two-dimensional elements like colored paper, magazine pages, and illustrations to create monotype collages
• use a gel plate, inks, magazine pages, and photocopied elements to create a series of gel prints, and
• plan an original design, carve a “block,” and print your design on paper and/or fabric to create block prints.

This series has been designed with beginners in mind. Those with previous experience are also very welcome.

Photo courtesy S. McDonough

Calligraphy can be a meditation as well as an art form if you slow down and enjoy the beautiful process stroke by stroke. Students will learn the fundamentals of calligraphy by working with three different calligraphy tools. First we'll use a pointed pen and learn a copperplate alphabet, a beautiful, elegant 18th century script style. Then, we will switch to a broad edge marker and learn an Italic alphabet, a versatile 15th century calligraphy style. Finally, we will learn modern calligraphy techniques using a brush pen. Beginner students will progress from learning the basic letter forms to writing sentences. This class is for both absolute beginners and more experienced students who would like to fine tune their skills.

In the five consecutive sessions, we will complete a series of drawings based on observation. We will work with the varied flora of the NYBG and draw the imagery using different techniques and materials introduced in the class. You will learn to render organic forms using expressive lines, negative space, tone, and value as we draw natural forms. In addition, those wishing to draw architectural subjects will have the option to do so at the Conservatory and other pavilions throughout the landscape.

This drawing course is appropriate for both beginner and experienced artists. The instructor can assist you in selecting and also photographing images from the New York Botanical Gardens for your drawings while working on location and optionally develop them further at home.

Have fun learning to paint the still life on the beautiful grounds of the New Dawn Foundation in New Rochelle. A still life will be our focus as artists learn the fundamentals of watercolor painting. Special techniques will also be demonstrated. Those wishing to use the landscape as their subject are also welcome to do so. This class is appropriate for beginners as well as advanced students.

The New Dawn Foundation is located on Davenport Avenue in New Rochelle. There is ample and convenient parking. 

PLEASE NOTE: This class meets outdoors.  In the event of inclement weather, the class will work inside the Foundation house, where social distancing must be observed at all times.

Bring a photo of your pet, and we’ll work on completing a drawing that captures your beloved animal's unique personality.  We’ll start with basic shapes and work with line and shading to create a pencil sketch you will treasure. This class is appropriate for beginner and experienced artists. 

3D printers are everywhere, in schools, libraries, and even in people's homes. It is easy to download a model and send it to the printer, but the real creativity comes from learning how to design your own objects. This two-session workshop will explore 3D printers, how they work, and a free web-based 3D design program called TinkerCAD. Using this simple but powerful program, you will learn how to design a 3D object, and we'll print it for you to keep.