Search this site

Explore a wide range of art programs including adult classes, kids’ workshops, private lessons, and seasonal creative experiences. Our Programs Book Online Birthday Parties School Partnerships The Plein-Air Art Academy Mastery. Meaning. Community. Award-winning programs for children, adults, and organizations seeking more connection, confidence, and creative thinking. ADULTS Painting, drawing, watercolor and mixed-media classes for beginners and experienced artists. CHILDREN & TEENS Build confidence, technique and creative voice. SCHOOLS & ORGANIZATIONS Creative programs for schools, teams and communities. Adult Art Classes in Brookline, Near Boston More than an art class, this is a creative practice. Our small-group adult art classes combine painting, drawing, watercolor, charcoal, pastel, clay and art history with thoughtful instruction and individual guidance. Designed for both complete beginners and experienced artists, classes help you strengthen technique, experiment with new materials and develop your own artistic voice in a welcoming gallery studio. Whether you're returning to art after years away, looking to deepen your skills, or simply craving a meaningful creative practice each week, you'll find both serious instruction and a warm creative community here. View Adult Classes Our Signature Curriculum for Teens Designed for serious young artists, this advanced class helps teens develop both technical mastery and creative confidence. Students progress through drawing, charcoal, pastel, watercolor, and oil painting while building a strong foundation in observation, values, color theory, composition, anatomy, and artistic problem-solving. Guided by practicing professional artists, they learn not only how to create stronger artwork, but also how to develop their own artistic voice. Throughout the semester, students study artists and movements from art history, explore a variety of media, and learn how to make thoughtful creative decisions rather than simply follow instructions. Emphasis is placed on perseverance, risk-taking, self-expression, and bringing ambitious projects to completion. Whether pursuing a portfolio, strengthening artistic skills, or simply seeking a deeper creative challenge, students leave with greater mastery, confidence, and a stronger connection to their unique perspective. See Programs Our Signature Curriculum for Kids Helping children build confidence through creativity. Parents don't enroll for art. They enroll because they want children who are: confident resilient creative problem-solvers comfortable expressing themselves Our award-winning art program helps children develop mastery, meaning, and community through creativity. Each semester, students explore a rich art history theme while working with a wide range of materials, including watercolor, clay, collage, drawing, painting, and mixed media. Guided by practicing artists, students build technical skills while developing confidence, creative problem-solving abilities, and their unique artistic voice. Unlike template-based art projects, our curriculum encourages both skill development and self-expression. Students learn how artists throughout history have responded to the world around them, then use those ideas as inspiration for creating work that is distinctly their own. Our youngest artists begin each class with engaging stories from art history and culture, building a foundation of knowledge and curiosity. Through hands-on exploration of varied materials, they strengthen focus, imagination, and perseverance while discovering the joy of making art. As students grow, projects become more ambitious and individualized. We honor each child's pace and encourage thoughtful observation, attention to detail, and the satisfaction of bringing meaningful work to completion. Along the way, students learn not only artistic techniques but also resilience, self-expression, and confidence in their ideas. Every semester culminates in a visit to a local art museum, where students experience original works firsthand and deepen their connection to the broader artistic community. At Diana Stelin Gallery & Creative Studio, art education is about more than learning techniques. It is about helping young people become confident, capable, and self-expressed through meaningful creative experiences. Book Your Class Summer Camp Additional Offerings Summer Camps This is our Best of Boston program that explores varied themes in the art world and introduces an array of materials to artists of all levels. Learn More School Partnerships We're happy to partner up with local public and private schools for their after-school programming. Learn More Kids Birthday Party Unique customized birthday parties run on Sundays. Learn More

Helping students build creativity, confidence, and cultural literacy through art history, storytelling, and hands-on mixed media experiences. / Our Programs / School Partnerships / School Partnerships Unlock Creativity with Art History, Mixed Media and the Outdoors Inquire Learn More "Diana Stelin's programming is fantastic. She brings an extensive artistic background and experiences as an art educator to her classes and we are lucky to have her return to campus this winter for Anime Art with our Lower Division students." – Caitlin Robinson Park School "I run the after school program at Lincoln School in Brookline where Diana teaches after school classes. Our students have loved being a part of her art classes and have made really creative pieces. Diana teaches the students about famous artists and explores different artistic techniques with them so they are learning about art as they create art. She is a joy to work with for both adults and kids. I highly recommend enrolling your child (or yourself) in one of her classes." Lena Berc Lincoln Public School in Brookline "My kids attended the summer camp and loved it. Diana created a wonderful art camp experience, learning about different art techniques in a variety of mediums and settings. I appreciated the dance classes and time outside as well as the fun art projects and visiting artists. 100% recommend!" Parent Local Guide School Art Programs That Build Creativity, Confidence, and Cultural Literacy Schools partner with us because they want more than a craft activity. Our programs combine art history, storytelling, observation, and hands-on studio practice to help students build confidence, creativity, and cultural literacy. Founded by artist and educator Diana Stelin after a search for a more meaningful art education experience for her own child, the program has evolved into an award-winning curriculum serving schools throughout Greater Boston. Why Schools Choose Us Turnkey programming with all materials provided Curriculum aligned around a cohesive theme Professional artist instructors Flexible onsite or studio-based options Adaptable projects for varying ages and abilities Designed for both public and independent schools Learn More About Diana's Story What a Six-Week Program Looks Like Each week students explore a new story, artist, culture, or historical theme before creating original artwork inspired by what they've learned. Recent themes include: Ancient Egypt Greek Mythology Studio Ghibli Chagall & Matisse Students experiment with watercolor, clay sculpture, printmaking, collage, oil pastel, and mixed media while learning how artists communicate ideas across cultures and time periods. What Students Gain What Students Gain By the end of the session, students can: Explain key concepts from the theme Discuss artists, stories, and cultural influences Demonstrate new artistic techniques Present and discuss their creative decisions Build confidence in self-expression and problem-solving Trusted by Schools Across Greater Boston Flexible Partnership Options After-school enrichment In-school workshops Artist residencies Vacation week programs Field trips to our Brookline gallery Getting Started Tell us about your students, schedule, and goals. We'll recommend a program structure and provide a detailed curriculum outline.

Learn more about Diana Stelin, an award-winning artist and educator specializing in contemporary abstract landscapes and experiential art workshops / Gallery / Artists / Diana Stelin / Diana Stelin Diana Stelin is an award-winning landscape artist and educator, author and fashion designer. Her lush, layered, shimmering gold leaf, oil and wax pieces are featured in dozens of private and corporate collections. Her interviews can be found in Boston Globe, HyperAllergic, Huffington Post, Mother Nature Network among others. Learn about Commissions "I admire the expression Diana achieves through her energized marks. They animate each painting and really bring them to life. They are very well painted and capture not just an interesting cross between the actual and the abstracted, but really provide a sense of place with quite positive energy.” – Elizabeth Erdreich President at Erdreich White Fine Art, Inc. "Her sense of color and tone rivals that of the Modern Masters. Her compositions flirt with fantasy yet somehow keep two feet planted firmly on the ground." Caroline Cox Fine Art Consultant, Salem, MA "So grounding! All the while the wind is blowing in so many directions and there is such fervor in every day these days - but the center is there holding it all together! Art can give strength. This is proof." Petra Brookline, MA Get to know Diana Bio Founder of the Flow Method, and recipient of Best of Boston award, Diana Stelin is on a mission to reduce Burnout through Creativity - the topic of the Ted talk she presented in March'22. Her pieces are in private and corporate collections nationwide. Diana's life of creative exploration began when she was 13. Her family relocated from Moldova to Bloomfield, New Jersey and she enrolled in an art class. Through her difficult teenage years, she found solace in expressing herself through creating art. Her BFA degree at Cornell University was followed by a MS at Boston University, where she continued to develop a unique free-flowing painting style. After graduation, she managed the world-renowned DTR Modern Galleries. She subsequently founded The Plein-Air Art Academy, and received a Best of Boston Award for kids' art classes. Diana published a highly acclaimed novel about the importance of art for our psyche, and in recent years has presented a TedX talk on using creativity to fight burnout, appeared as a guest on multiple podcasts, wrote a children’s book, founded a clothing line based on her art, and exhibited her work at the 2022 Venice Biennale. She lives in the Boston area but her pieces are in corporate and private collections worldwide, and she uses her expertise in her proprietary flow processes as a consultant in creative corporate workshops and talks. Technique Stelin paints multilayered palette knife landscapes in oil and cold wax, which she partially melts with a heating lamp to dissolve different objects on canvas into one another. The drips are her signature element: the dark ones are emotional strokes that create grids within a painting. The lighter ones are semitransparent, and partially show the layers of paint beneath them. Stelin's technique is a dance between realistic and abstract landscapes, between watercolor and oil techniques. She begins with a watercolor in plein-air. Stelin subsequently translates the drawing to canvas in the same expressive manner adopted for the initial watercolor painting, employing an impasto technique of oils mixed with cold wax. The last and most rewarding part of the process is the melting of wax. It comes as a 4th or 5th layer of the painting. It requires patience, has an element of surprise, yet can be controlled, and it connects various sections of the unique oil on canvas. Because it's a textured layer on top of other layers, it breaks down lines between subjects, and literally melts one state into another. It also creates mini compositions within a painting, so that your eye always wanders around the canvas and catches new nuances hidden within the layers. At the same time Stelin adds in authentic gold leaf to the now abstract landscape, as well as 3-D sculptural elements. Artist Statement "We're but a small speck in this universe" Diana Stelin's artwork is an exploration of humanity's interaction with the natural world - the attitude of overarching control and distancing, the physical space around us and our perception of it. To what extent can we dissolve into our surroundings and co-exist with the natural world? Stelin's artworks appeal to an audience from varied angles. Their initial reaction to the full compositions brings back expressive Van Gogh and Gauguin landscape explorations. Past the initial impression, there's a deeper understanding: a more in-depth look into the interaction of man-made and natural forms. The abstract, Richter-influenced patterns emerge. Stand close enough and you see how Stelin expertly catches that moment when a viewer allows herself/himself to truly melt into the surroundings, and when borders break between the sky and the trees, when the architecture blends beautifully into the natural world.

Then each week students get introduced to a new material, be it clay, watercolor, tempera paints or collage. Our rolling admission model allows you to try any class for a month and decide if you'd like to continue on a monthly basis. Over time, we've learned that children typically need about four sessions to fully acclimate to the group dynamic, get to know the teachers, and explore the variety of media we offer. Each week features something new, one session might focus on painting, the next one on clay, and another on printmaking. While your child may take a little to feel completely at ease, a month gives you a clear sense of whether the class is the right fit for them!

Then each week students get introduced to a new material, be it clay, watercolor, tempera paints or collage. Our rolling admission model allows you to try any class for a month and decide if you'd like to continue on a monthly basis. Over time, we've learned that children typically need about four sessions to fully acclimate to the group dynamic, get to know the teachers, and explore the variety of media we offer. Each week features something new, one session might focus on painting, the next one on clay, and another on printmaking. While your child may take a little to feel completely at ease, a month gives you a clear sense of whether the class is the right fit for them!

Then each week students get introduced to a new material, be it clay, watercolor, tempera paints or collage. Our rolling admission model allows you to try any class for a month and decide if you'd like to continue on a monthly basis. Over time, we've learned that children typically need about four sessions to fully acclimate to the group dynamic, get to know the teachers, and explore the variety of media we offer. Each week features something new, one session might focus on painting, the next one on clay, and another on printmaking. While your child may take a little to feel completely at ease, a month gives you a clear sense of whether the class is the right fit for them!

This week, Brookline.News published a feature about my work, and reading it made me realize how closely the different parts of what I do have become intertwined. The article begins in Venice, where my work is currently part of BOREANA: Isola del futuro, a satellite exhibition during the Venice Biennale. My double-sided piece contrasts a foggy Venice with the intensely colorful island of Burano and is partially submerged in the lagoon, allowing wind, water and algae to become collaborators in the work. But the story quickly comes back to Brookline. Creating the Art Education I Couldn't Find I immigrated to the United States from Moldova when I was 13, and art became my refuge through the culture shock and language barriers. It gave me a place to experiment, listen to myself and learn to trust my own intuition. Years later, when I looked for art education for my own children, I kept encountering templates and rigid instructions. It felt like the opposite of creativity. So I created Plein-Air Art Academy around a different idea: teach children real techniques, materials, art history and principles, and then give them room to decide what to do with them. As I told Brookline.News: “I give people tools and fill their toolbox with different materials and techniques, but then it's really up to them what they want to do with it.” More than a decade later, around 1,000 children and adults have participated in our programs. More Than a Gallery Something similar happened when I opened the Diana Stelin Gallery in Coolidge Corner in 2023. What began as a contemporary art gallery gradually became a creativity hub: exhibitions, hildren's and adult art classes, artist talks, book clubs, dinners, music, community partnerships and our annual Carnevale celebration. It has become a place where you don't have to already consider yourself an artist to feel comfortable around art. And that's where Venice comes back into the story. My plein-air practice influences how I teach. The uninhibited colors my students use have found their way into my own paintings. Brookline's Italian community became part of our gallery community. And now a piece shaped by all of those experiences is hanging in the Venetian lagoon. As I said during the interview, “It's bringing that full circle.” Maybe that's the thread through all of it: art as a way to slow down, observe, experiment and learn to trust ourselves. And somehow, a little piece of what we've built in Brookline has made its way to Venice. Fall art classes for children, teens and adults at Plein-Air Art Academy begin September 12. I am also accepting a limited number of commissions inspired by meaningful places and travel memories.

Watching The Odyssey with my boys recently, I had an unexpected realization: I've had an incredibly fulfilling life. As scene after scene unfolded, I realized that so many of the landscapes chosen for the film were places I've experienced with my own eyes, recorded with my brush, and quietly absorbed over the years—Iceland's stark volcanic beaches, the sweeping landscapes of Sicily, Moroccan medinas and ancient stone cities. They weren't just destinations on a map. They became part of the way I see the world. As a professional artist based in Boston, people often ask where I find inspiration for my landscape paintings. The answer is rarely a single location. It's the experience of truly being present in a place. Searching for Home Through Art Because I immigrated to the United States more than thirty years ago, I've often felt that I've been searching for home ever since. Not necessarily a physical home, but a sense of belonging. Over time, I began to realize something unexpected: each place I visited became home to a different part of me. Rather than replacing one home with another, every journey expanded my understanding of what home could be. That realization has shaped both my life and my artwork. Whether I'm creating a plein-air painting on the French Riviera, sketching in Provence, standing before glaciers in Iceland, or wandering through the quiet streets of Venice, I'm less interested in documenting a location than in understanding what it feels like to be there. Those sketches eventually become larger oil paintings, layered with memory, emotion, and light. From Plein-Air Sketch to Oil Painting Every trip begins with small plein-air studies. Working outdoors forces me to slow down. I notice the direction of the wind, the changing light, the sounds, the heat, even the smell of the landscape. Those sensory experiences become just as important as the visual composition. Back in my Brookline studio, I revisit those sketches. Recently, I found myself deciding which travel study to develop into a large oil painting. My first instinct was to choose the image I thought others would connect with most. Instead, I chose the one that wouldn't let me go. Sometimes the work chooses you. The painting depicts seven layers of hills ascending toward a quiet sanctuary, with a celestial star suspended overhead. Looking at it now, I realize it carries something of an Odyssean journey—a search, an ascent, and ultimately a return. Trusting intuition over people-pleasing has become one of the most valuable lessons in my artistic practice. Why Plein-Air Painting Matters This is also why I continue teaching plein-air painting to both children and adults. Painting outdoors isn't simply about learning watercolor or oil techniques. It's about learning to observe more deeply, tolerate uncertainty, make decisions with confidence, and trust your own perception. When students join our Brookline art classes, summer camps, or adult plein-air workshops, they're developing far more than technical skill. They're learning to slow down, notice the world, and discover their own visual voice. Those are skills that extend far beyond the studio. Bringing Meaningful Places Into Your Home One of my favorite parts of being an artist is creating commissioned paintings. Many clients don't ask me to paint famous landmarks. They ask me to paint the places that shaped them—a family beach, a favorite street in Europe, a garden where they found peace, or a landscape tied to a meaningful chapter of their lives. A painting becomes more than decoration. It becomes an anchor for memory. If there's a place that lives in your heart—whether it's in New England, Europe, or somewhere halfway around the world—I would love to help transform it into an original commissioned oil painting that brings that feeling into your home. Learn to See the World Differently If this way of looking at the world resonates with you, there are several ways to join our creative community: Adult Plein-Air Painting Classes in Brookline: Learn watercolor and oil painting while working outdoors in some of Boston's most beautiful gardens and landscapes. Children's Art Classes and Summer Camps: Our award-winning Brookline art programs combine art history, observation, creativity, and hands-on studio practice to help young artists develop confidence and independent thinking. Fall Art Classes: Semester-long classes for children, teens, and adults begin each September, blending fine art techniques with art history and creative exploration. Original Art Commissions: Commission a custom landscape painting inspired by a place that holds lasting meaning in your life. Perhaps that's what The Odyssey reminded me of. The journey isn't simply about arriving home. Sometimes the journey itself teaches us that home was never one place at all. It's every landscape that changed us, every sketch that helped us see more clearly, and every painting that reminds us who we've become.

I spent the last two weeks on vacation with my family and our closest friends, and as always, that included almost daily outdoor sketches inspired by the places we visited throughout the Côte d'Azur and Provence. It's rare that I get this opportunity to paint every day, and what struck me as I settled into this new routine was that my hand movements were almost becoming automatic. It was so effortless to ease into each painting that it felt as though my hands simply created without involving my brain in all the overthinking and overanalyzing. It was as if I was channeling Cézanne, Picasso, Miró, and Chagall, whose work surrounded and inspired me throughout our travels. I came home thinking about why that happens. Daily practice doesn't create masterpieces overnight, but it does create confidence, ease, and a certain comfort in your own skin. It teaches your hands to trust your eyes and your instincts before your inner critic has a chance to interrupt. I witness the same thing every summer with the children in our Brookline summer art camp and throughout the year in our Brookline art classes. Daily exposure doesn't create masterpieces, but it brings confidence, ease, and a certain comfort in one's own skin. I hate watching kids lose that momentum after the summer, and it's so thrilling to see them return each fall and continue building on the routines they developed. It's especially amazing to realize that well over a dozen students have now grown through every stage of our program, starting as four-year-olds in my Little Mondrians class, moving into Growing Matisses, then Delicate Dalis, and now into our High School Portfolio Prep program. Art isn't just another after-school activity for them anymore. It's become part of their lives. It's a way to calm down, process the world, work through emotions—both good and bad—and learn to trust themselves. Many of those journeys began with a single week of summer camp. I love seeing adults return too. There are so many familiar faces joining our next adult plein-air painting cohort in just a few weeks. They remind me that this isn't something we outgrow. We simply forget how good it feels until we start again. As I unpacked my suitcase this week, I also unpacked a stack of little sketches. Most were painted in an hour or two, but that's never where they end. Over the coming weeks they'll become larger paintings in oil, wax, and gold leaf, holding not just the image of a place but the wind, the smells, the heat, the sounds, and the shimmering Mediterranean light that first inspired them. If you've been following along on this journey and one of these places has spoken to you, I'm now accepting commissions based on this new collection in any size. If your child could use a summer filled with creativity, friendship, and confidence-building, we still have a handful of openings for single days and full weeks in late July and early August. It's a wonderful way to experience our program before the school year begins. For adults, our next plein-air painting cohort begins July 29. We'll spend six Wednesday evenings painting outdoors, slowing down, sharpening our observation skills, and rediscovering the joy of creating in community. And finally, Fall Semester registration is now open for children, teens, portfolio students, and adults. Whether you're joining us for the first time or returning for another season, we'd love to welcome you. My hope is that whether you're 4 or 84, creativity becomes something your hands simply remember.s simply remember.