The Art School · by Ethan Semmel
Learn oil painting with clear guidance—and direct feedback from a classically trained painter and teacher with 35 years of experience.
I am a classically trained painter and I have been painting and teaching for about 35 years. The membership is where I put the full course, the studio notes, and the room where you can post your own work and I will tell you what I would change.
Monthly through Circle · cancel yourself anytime
What is inside
The Lessons course
A sequential oil-painting curriculum — materials, drawing, underpainting, colour mixing, and working a painting through in stages.
Studio Notes
Shorter posts from the studio: what I am working on, what went wrong, and the small decisions that change a painting.
Learning Paths
Guided routes through the material so you always know what to work on next instead of guessing.
Ask Ethan
Post a question about your painting or your materials and get a real answer, not a forum shrug.
Critiques
Share your own work in progress and get specific, usable feedback from me.
The Members Lounge
A quieter room to talk painting with other people who are actually doing the work.
Who it is for
People who want to actually paint — not just watch painting. Beginners are welcome; the lessons start at the beginning and go in order. If you already paint, you can skip to the parts you need.
It is run by one person. The community lives on Circle, the email goes through Loops, so a welcome message might take a minute to land. Nothing here pretends to be a big institution — it is my studio, opened up.
Questions
- What do I get when I join?
- A $59/month membership to Ethan Semmel Art School inside the Circle community: the full Lessons course, Studio Notes, Learning Paths, and the discussion spaces — Ask Ethan, the Members Lounge, and Critiques, where you can post your own work for feedback.
- How does payment work?
- Billing runs monthly through Circle, which handles the checkout and the subscription on Stripe. You can cancel yourself at any time from your account settings; access ends when the subscription does.
- Do I need any painting experience?
- No. The lessons start from the beginning — materials, drawing, underpainting, mixing color — and build in order. If you already paint, you can jump to the parts you need.
- I already have an account. Where do I log in?
- Use the log-in link at the bottom of this page to go straight to the community sign-in.
- What if it is not for me?
- Cancel in a couple of clicks from your account settings and you will not be billed again. There is no long-term commitment.