Yelena Lamm, 3-Day Animal Portraiture Workshop
May 22 @ 9:00 am – May 24 @ 5:00 pm
Have you ever wanted to know how to paint an animal?
Join Yelena Lamm in Centerville for her third, amazing workshop here teaching, but this time, she will demonstrate how to paint animals. It doesn’t matter if it’s a cow, a dog or cat, she can teach the structure and process of how to build a successful painting of animals. Join us for this 3-day event May 22, 23, 24, 2026: YELENA LAMM ANIMAL PORTRAITURE
3-Day Animal Portraiture Workshop, $495 per person. Register now, spaces are limited.
Painting Caption: “Why are you still at home,” by artist Yelena Lamm, oil on canvas.
Artist Bio
Yelena Lamm was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where she received her formal art training from the N. K. Roerich Fine Arts School. Since 1995, she lives in Pittsburgh, PA. Yelena is painting primarily in oil. She is known for her portraits of pets and animals, in which she reflects on her subjects’ characters and personalities, as well as for her lively and colorful floral compositions. Yelena is a Signature member of Oil Painters of America (OPA), Society of Animal Artists (SAA), American Women Artists (AWA), American Impressionist Society (AIS), and National Oil and Acrylic Painters’ Society (NOAPS). Yelena’s works were selected for and won awards in juried regional and national shows. Her list of awards includes both 17th and 18th ARC Salon ARC Staff Awards, First Place in the Animals as the Subject category in 2024 and 2025 Portrait Society of America Members Only Competition, Most Original Award of Excellence in OPA 2023 Eastern Regional Exhibition, Outstanding Achievement Animals in AWA 2023 Annual Online Juried Show, and SAA 63rd Art & the Animal Exhibition Purchase Award. Britain’s most popular magazine for practicing artists, Artists and Illustrators, featured Yelena’s animal portraits in a 6-page article and on the cover of their June 2023 issue. The October 2025 issue of the Artists & Illustrators features Yelena’s step-by-step painting process in a 5-page feature article. Yelena’s works are represented by Reinert Fine Art in Charleston, SC, Main Exhibit Gallery in Ligonier, PA, The Zebra Gallery in Easton, MD, The Lucy Clark Gallery & Studio in Brevard, NC, and Picket Fence Art Studio in Woodinville, WA.
3-Day Animal Portraiture Workshop
May 22-24, 2026, 9am – 5pm
Workshop Description
In this three-day workshop, you’ll learn to bring animals to life on canvas using traditional alla-prima oil painting techniques. Each class includes a live demonstration, guiding you from an expressive oil sketch to a finished painting. Explore key concepts like proportions, values, temperature shifts, and the power of brushstrokes. Discover how to paint fur with shape and movement, add sparkle to the eyes, sculpt form, capture black (or white) in all its shades, and tell a story through your composition — even down to the tail.
Workshop Materials
Surfaces:
3 stretched canvases, canvas boards or panels, recommended size between 10˝x8˝ and 14˝x11˝. I use Centurion Deluxe Professional Oil Primed Linen Canvas Panels.
Brushes:
Small to medium bristle and soft. I use Rosemary and Co. brushes. My favorite are Evergreen Short Flat sizes 2-10; Eclipse Fan (1.5-2”, optional).
Palette:
Minimum 12˝x16˝ in size; glass or wood, disposable paper palette acceptable.
Medium:
I highly recommend Michael Harding Miracle Medium MM0 (replaces Gamsol) and MM1 (replaces linseed oil), if not, Gamsol and/or linseed oil.
Oil paints:
Ivory Black
Transparent Oxide Red (or Transparent Earth Red)
Chinese Orange (Sennelier)
Vermilion (Sennelier) or Cadmium Red Light
Alizarin Crimson
Ultramarine Blue
Viridian
Radiant Green (Gamblin)
Radiant Turquoise (Gamblin)
Yellow Ochre
Titanium White
Other items: containers for medium, paper towels or rags, easel or pochade box, gloves, brush cleaning soap.
