We had a lovely visit to the Oregon Arts Center to check out their small gallery. The receptionist…read moreeagerly greeted us and told us about the current exhibition. Several other folks strolled through while we were there, all getting the same gracious welcome and offers of water, coffee or a restroom. We were encouraged to vote in their People's Choice Awards to recognize the artists and vote for our favorite artistic work. Plein aer style was represented today, and we enjoyed picking a favorite. The Oregon Society of Artists name is still on the building, same folks, for a hundred years! Note the artists on the wall tiles outside, and don't miss the lovely front butterfly garden with benches and a cool metal sculpture in the center of a patch of giant daisies. Gorgeous and peaceful! Just a short walk from our hotel or Providence Park, open 10-4 weekdays!

Great place to take classes. Staff and teachers are very professional…read more The environment is welcoming and the gallery is an extra bonus. The teachers have an excess of knowledge and they know how to teach the students. You can be a beginner or an advanced student. All are welcome.

I use to draw at Hipbone weekly. I moved a couple hours away. I miss it so much. I was telling a…read moreteen about it today. OMGoddess there are EVEN more opportunities now! The everyone can hang a piece of art and the artist gets 100%. I have Never Ever seen that anywhere. Thank you, I might need to drive the two hours.

I really am grateful that this place still operates. I come here for the live drawing sessions…read more They have 2 , 3 hour sessions on the weekends that I attend as much as I can. The nude figure drawing in the mornings and the clothes/costumed figure drawings in the afternoons. They also offer several different, affordable drawing/painting classes depending on their schedule, which is so easy to find online. On the weekends that I've attended, the models are great and professional, they have both male and female models and if you check out their instagram, they usually post who the model is going to be on the clothed/costumed figure drawing, plus they list the name of the models for the nude figure drawings on their website. The place is big, as well as the stage and the lighting is very nice. Lots of seating (old movie seating on one side, a big sharing table, and 2 or 3 smaller tables with folding chairs and "horses") and lots of easels, you can also borrow a drawing board and or clips, if you forget yours. Otherwise, come prepared. It's $15 for the weekend sessions, but don't forget to tip the model. They are so, so good at posing for artists ( foreshortened poses, posing with props, etc) and holding whatever pose they are at. They have a couple minutes of gesture poses in the beginning and then they will hold a pose for 30 minutes at a time. Never the same pose, but very impressive. Especially for someone like me with adhd, who can't even sit still long enough to finish this review in one go. Minus one star for letting people in 30 minutes after the session has started, because of all the easel and supplies of that person setting up can be very disruptive. Also I wish they would put photos (even just a passport photo will do) OR just add make or female, of their models online, so I have an idea of who's going to model that day. There are days that I just do not want to have to even look at a penis, and I'd want to know if that is what I'll be seeing that day, you know? No hate on penises, just, sometimes it can be a bit much. Having the names listed doesn't necessarily help all the time, especially with gender neutral names. Other than that, I highly recommend this place for anyone who wants to do some live drawings. Also check out their other art classes.

This studio is amazing! I took my 6, 4 and 2 year old here and all loved it. There's paint, clay,…read moreglue stations, coloring, you name it. We'll definitely be back!

What an amazing place to take your kids! The creative atmosphere is beyond words. You just have…read moreto go to know what I'm talking about! This place is inside the same building as the NW Children's Theater. The paint on the walls from a year of kids' paintings is just fabulous! I love the sculptures too. I definitely recommend the classes!!

What a lovely way to learn how to create art, and to learn something about yourself at the same…read moretime. So much of what Phil teaches spills into other areas of life too--areas where perfectionism and self-criticism reside. He helps us be more gentle with ourselves as we approach creativity. The energy in the room is not competitive, it is supportive and helpful. People return, year after year, to retake the "beginner" classes, in part to stay in touch with the beginner mindset and sense of wonder. The Drawing Studio is wonderful!

If you're looking for an art class where the instructor shows you how to hold your brush to paint…read moreclouds, this is not the class for you. Phil Sylvester does something much more valuable: he helps you to ignore critical thinking when you paint (or draw--he has drawing classes, too). Keeping your left brain from sabotaging your artwork can be a formidable task for some people, myself included. Phil basically helps you become that 5 year old kid with crayons again, where you have no expectations of what your art is supposed to be. His exercises encourage you just to paint, while he cites mantras from himself and other artists amid occasional music. This process leads you down a path where you find yourself and lose yourself at the same time. I can honestly say, in the short time I have been painting, that Phil has made me a better artist. Any class which does that is a good thing. So I suggest taking classes that teach techniques and color theory as well as taking the types of classes offered at the Drawing Studio. Every time you expand your horizons as an artist your soul will benefit.

Real cool space for showing local artists right around the corner off Belmont. We were walking…read moreback to our car and the art just jumped at us from the inside of the building so we walked in to have a closer look. They are showing Ben Perkins stuff right now and while it's big it fits the space fine. Really strong, dynamic and interesting work. The gentleman that was there was very approachable. He was also very knowledgeable and supportive of this artist that was being shown. We were wondering about a piece and it seemed to have sold at a very reasonable price. As the person (owner?) stated, that's how you get the art out to folks.. make it affordable, this helps the general audiences to share it more if you can hang it on your walls at home, and spread it around quicker. Looks like they are going to have a "group" showing coming up so we might just pop on in again and see what else jumps out at us.

Seriously fantastic art at this place. Real neat little gallery. They have some crazy contemporary…read moreart, the kind of stuff you'd see in Juxtapoz or Hi- Fructose magazine. They had an artist there, cant remember the name, and I was totally blown away. So awesome I stumbled upon this place. I definitely recommend this place.

Very disappointing experience. Only a few instructors knew what they were teaching and even then…read morewere NOT great educators. Management was god awful. Attended for two years with mostly Ds and a 2.3 GPA before I had enough and switched to UofO despite my advisor insisting it would be more difficult. Got a 3.6 GPA my first term at UofO, and funnily enough, it was cheaper to attend despite my grants and scholarships for PNCA. Other places are better. PNCA is a good idea if you want to pretend you were held back and want to attend a disjointed summer school. Thats the vibes of this establishment. God awful. I'm sure it was once great before it was bought out by willamette but now? save yourself the money and poor GPA and just go somewhere else.

this school gave me no education. one of my required classes was a foraging class where we foraged…read morenatural plants to make into paint. i paid thousands of dollars for it and we only ever met in person every two weeks to basically bullshit about nothing. i learned nothing. another required class we had was to make costumes out of cardboard. thousands of dollars. on cardboard costumes. it felt like i was in pre-k most of the time. none of my actual drawing classes taught me anything, and when covid hit they let us take a 'Pass' in our classes if we didnt want to attend the online course. which means i basically paid to pass a class but not actually earn the grade. we also had to pay for facility fees, etc. even though we were online! theres a reason why the dropout rate is so high. there was an incident where a gun was fired from outside into the dorm windows, and students get assaulted often near the school. the school is in a horrible, horrible part of town. none of the professors stay for long. the acceptance rate is ridiculously high because of how high the dropout rate is, so most of the students (esp illustration) are....not high standard. financial aid doesnt give a fuck about helping you, and the department head never cared about helping me with my schedule or anything else. students and professors say slurs and nobody cares. the school advertises that theyll help you get jobs after you graduate but the job website was never updated and only had about 6 outdated postings. this school is my hellhole and im in so much debt and learned. absolutely. nothing. if you actually care about an art degree go somewhere else.

It was so cool to see the glass blower working and all the beautiful examples of art they had done…read more If you are ate Edgefield, don't miss this fun experience!

I bought a blown glass picture from Peter about 10 years ago, it was for my mother's Christmas…read morepresent She passed last Decembe. I am at her house now and holding the piece of dark blue glass with gol swirls It is a beautiful piece and I am so glad that she got to see and display it The Gorge shop is one of the best places in the Portland area I want to Thank the shop and Peter Neff for the beautiful work and for being there that December! Jon Reynolds

Sad to report that open studio times and preschool classes are no more! The business model has…read morechanged and the space is no longer open to the public. Sad face.

We went for the Preschool Painting "Class" today and were disappointed. They essentially tack a…read morepiece of paper to the wall and offer several containers of paint colors. I really wanted to like this place, as I'm often in the area, and at $5 a class, it would have been a great deal. Unfortunately, I was expected more direction, more variation, and more engagement. The session was supposed to last an hour, but the staff disappeared after thirty minutes to eat their lunch. If I wanted to do self-serve paint on paper, I could have used my own supply and stuck at home. Maybe consider letting kids use clay (don't even need to take creations home, but just a little varied play time), or add glitter, or stickers...?