By Michelle Saturley
Staff Writer

On the outside, the Ingbretson Studio may not seem like anything remarkable. Located on the third floor of Langer Place, the studio is hidden behind a plain green door and a small, opaque sign with gold lettering. But once a year, the plain green door opens to reveal the wide, soaring corridor of a teaching studio, filled from floor to ceiling with figure drawings and paintings that make you feel like you’ve stepped back in time to the height of the Renaissance Era. The feeling is reinforced by the steady north light pouring through the windows that highlights carefully arranged still life settings, work-in-progress cast drawings and easels graced with oil-on-canvas portraits of a skill level more suited to a museum than a converted mill.

This cast drawing by Deidre Riley in vine charcoal shows the beginning stages of what will eventually become an almost photographic rendering of the statue.

Artist Paul Ingbretson, studio owner and instructor of the Great Masters Program, has inhabited this breathtaking space for about 10 years, with the mission of passing on what he has learned about classical drawing and painting. His studio is closed to the public most of the year, to allow his students the ability to focus on their instruction. But for Langer Place’s Holiday Renaissance event, Ingbretson and his students make an exception.

“The name of the event is Holiday Renaissance, and that’s the era we are preserving here,” Ingbretson said.

Ingbretson’s students are serious about learning, with the ultimate goal being to succeed as professional artists. After a fairly rigorous application and screening process, the students receive concentrated instruction in traditional drawing and painting, beginning with the basics. “I’m not terribly concerned with the portfolio or previous instruction at the beginning,” said Ingbretson. “I’m more focused on the potential student’s desire to learn.”

Many of Ingbretson’s students have come to the studio after a stint in art college, looking to hone their fine drawing skills. Ingbretson studied with Boston-based master artist R.H. Ives Gammell, but he said he had to do a great deal of investigating on his own after art school to find a master artist to study with.

“Most art schools today do not give students the classical education they need to make it as professionals,” he said. “I believe no matter what discipline an artist ultimately chooses, they must have that classical training as a base.”

Ingbretson said that even abstract artists like Picasso began their careers with a solid classical education. His students begin their training the same way he did – using casts as models for rudimentary charcoal drawings that gradually progress to fine finished pieces.

“I call the method the ‘grammar’ of painting,” he said. “We start with the basic lines of figurative drawing. Once the student has mastered drawing, they move on to painting, learning how to express color and light and shape. All of the steps along the way are used to teach the artist how to see, and how to translate what they see onto the canvas.”

The Holiday Renaissance, scheduled this year for Dec. 3, is a chance for the students at all levels to show their work to the public. Many of the students land portrait commissions, and Ingbretson often finds new students through the event. Ingbretson said his favorite thing about participating in the event is the look on the face of a person who has never been inside the studio.

“People are fascinated. It’s an inside look at how artists work. There is a definite ‘oooh’ factor,” he said. “Part of it comes from the fact that once you step inside the studio, it’s a surprise how large it is. And then, when people look around and see the kind of work being done here, they are astonished.”