Summer Session
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New York Studio School Summer Session Marathons explore drawing, painting and sculpture as direct methodologies for understanding one’s experience in the world. Participants experience a wide range of activating, first-hand strategies for making art, in tandem with the intellectual rigor of extensive group and individual critiques.
Summer Session is held each year during the months of June and July in three intensive two-week long sessions. The innovation and depth inherent in these 10-day programs expand participants’ engagement with their materials of choice and lead to ways of creating which continue far beyond each program’s conclusion. Open to artists of all levels, courses are taught daily In-Person or Virtually in real-time from 9am – 6pm ET, excluding weekends.
Virtual Marathons
Virtual Marathons are an incredible opportunity for artists from around the world to experience the high caliber NYSS Marathons from their respective homes and studios. Taught through a combination of Zoom and Padlet, these courses bring the rigorous exercises, profound insights, and deep connections of in-person Marathons to participants via virtual means. Artists of all levels are welcome to join.
Join us this summer on 8th Street or virtually from anywhere in the world to elevate your practice and connect with a community of dedicated artists.
Please email info@nyss.org with any questions.
Marathon Tuition
Summer Marathon – $1,800
Arbor Vitae Marathon – $2,300*
*The higher cost for this Marathon reflects location fees and additional costs of transportation to and from Old Westbury.
Generous partial scholarships are available.
SUMMER 2023 MARATHONS
Session I: June 5 – 16, 2023
Painting Marathon – VIRTUAL: The Enigma of Color and the Shock of Sensation with Graham Nickson & Guests
Drawing Marathon – IN-PERSON: Portraiture and Presence with Linda Darling & Guests
Sculpture Marathon – IN-PERSON: Life-Size Figure with Brandt Junceau
Session II: June 19 – 30, 2023
Drawing Marathon – VIRTUAL: Pathways to Abstraction with Fran O’Neill
Painting Marathon – IN-PERSON: Arbor Vitae Revisited with Graham Nickson, Sam Levy & Guests
Sculpture Marathon – IN-PERSON: Mold Making and Casting with Sam Nichols
Session III: July 10 – 21, 2023
Painting Marathon – VIRTUAL: Why Paint the Figure with Elisa Jensen
Painting Marathon – IN-PERSON: Pompeii, Harmonics and Mystery with Sam Levy, Kaitlin McDonough, Clintel Steed
All levels are welcome.
Apply On SlideroomNYSS Marathons occur throughout the year in January, June, July, and September in a two-week format. Five-day Intersession Marathons occur in March and November. Visit our Marathon page to learn more and view upcoming courses.
Painting Marathon – VIRTUAL: The Enigma of Color and the Shock of Sensation with Graham Nickson & Guests
9am - 6pm ET
In this Painting Marathon, size, scale, and mark will be investigated using acrylic paint. The language of the marks will change each day, along with the extreme formats of our painted surfaces. We will experience returning to a painting to develop it over time and discovering a complete idea in just a day. The acrylic will empower us to make bold and brave color changes.
Drawing Marathon – IN-PERSON: Portraiture and Presence with Linda Darling & Guests
9am - 6pm ET
In this intensive two-week Marathon, we will engage in the practice of drawing for eight hours per day, a rare opportunity. The focus will be on portraiture, closely observing the unique features and character of the model.
Sculpture Marathon – IN-PERSON: Life-Size Figure with Brandt Junceau
9am - 6pm ET
The life-size figure is a touchstone of sculpture. Making something our own size, standing like oneself, with every surface, each feature– a head, a face, a gaze like our own– that’s a very peculiar proposition, unlike anything else mankind makes for itself.
Drawing Marathon – VIRTUAL: Pathways to Abstraction with Fran O’Neill
9am - 6pm ET
This Drawing Marathon will encourage students to make many works and studies, with the idea of pushing students past their thresh hold of what they might consider to be the final product, into new arenas of abstraction.
Painting Marathon – IN-PERSON: Arbor Vitae Revisited with Graham Nickson, Sam Levy & Guests
9am - 6pm ET
Working outdoors in the fields and gardens of the impressive grounds located at Old Westbury Gardens, this two-week Painting Marathon will take on the challenge of painting the landscape from direct perception. Working between morning and afternoon paintings, at times extended to multiple days on the same image, students will learn how to translate their experience of light, color, space, and form into paint.
Sculpture Marathon – IN-PERSON: Mold Making and Casting with Sam Nichols
9am - 6pm ET
This Marathon will explore the process of mold making and casting sculpted forms using a variety of materials. Through demonstrations, presentations, class discussions, and direct experience, participants will learn to prepare a form before making a mold of it; learn how to design and build a variety of molds.
Painting Marathon – VIRTUAL: Why Paint the Figure with Elisa Jensen
9am - 6pm ET
This figure painting Marathon will explore in depth the development of figurative imagery in art. Focus will be on finding personal imagery and developing that imagery to the fullest extent by working from drawings, from the imagination and from memory.
Painting Marathon – IN-PERSON: Pompeii, Harmonics and Mystery with Sam Levy, Kaitlin McDonough, Clintel Steed
9am - 6pm ET
Buried under two days of the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, the frescos in Pompeii, Italy, lived frozen beneath time and space until archaeological digs exposed its wonder mostly in the 19th & 20th centuries. These paintings contain mysteries upon mysteries.
