The Roslyn School of Painting: Spreading Art Through the Post-Millennials
On a quiet Saturday morning in November, two children scuttle into a small cottage. The calm atmosphere and the smell of paint welcomes them in, as they set up their easels and paints. A lady, already working on her own canvas, looks approvingly at the children’s artwork. One is of a forest, the other a still life of some flowers. She gives some pointers on their color scheme and usage of depth.
The Roslyn School of Painting, where the children are taking their art lessons, was established in 1977 by Lydia Pasqualina and her husband Charles.
“A real goal of ours is to not have our students to become cookie cutter painters,” said Mrs. Pasqualina. “A lot of modern art classes that teach young artists to be carbon copies of the teacher.”
The original purpose was to have a space to better themselves in their art. The school appears small on the outside, but has 10 private lesson rooms, and a large central room sprinkled with easels. After a few years, Mr. and Mrs. Pasqualina opened up their establishment to teaching. To this day, Mrs. Pasqualina and six other artists teach over a 100 students from over 27 different countries and backgrounds and ages to start drawing with charcoal, and slowly move on to oil painting.
Mrs. Pasqualina and her colleagues start off teaching beginners anywhere from the age of 5 to 95 the fundamentals with perspective and tone. After they learn the fundamentals, Mrs. Pasqualina encourages them to develop their own style. The quality the differentiates The Roslyn School of Painting from other art schools, is their desire to inspire the students to uncover who they are as an artist.
Although Mrs. Pasqualina teaches a wide demographic of people, her favorite age to teach is 9 years old. “They’re mature enough to absorb information while understanding what to do with it and they’re unafraid to take risks,” said Mrs. Pasqualina. At this age, children are motivated and quick learners.
“Let the kids put on paint on the way they want to put the paint on,” she commented. “That’s their expression.”
