GLEN RIDGE, NJ — The Art Garage, which holds classes for seniors every Tuesday morning, from 10 a.m. to noon, has moved those classes from Montclair to the Glen Ridge train station on Ridgewood Avenue.
A new instructor has also been in place for the last several months. His name is Max Fuchs and, according to the students in attendance on Tuesday despite the inclement weather, media which they have not used before are being tried for the first time in the class. Watercolor, acrylic and pen and ink are being tried out.
“We’re experimenting with different techniques with every painting,” Fuchs said while finishing up a demonstration painting. “I tend to let these guys chose the subject matter.”
At the Montclair studio, the students worked at two large tables. Here they are more spread out on smaller tables. Ordinarily, the class has six seniors. On Tuesday, there were three.
“It’s too slippery out there for some people,” a student called out. “This is the die-hard group.”
Another attendee commented that they were there during the recent snowstorm.
The students said Fuchs does more painting demonstrations with them then previous instructors. The image in his demonstration, of his girlfriend, came from a photograph.
The other students were working from photographs, too.
Lynne Palmer, who joined the class in 2009, was combining a photo from a magazine cover, of a boy, with one of a dog she found on the Internet.
“With Max, we’re trying things we’re not use to,” Palmer said.
She was working in acrylic. Ordinarily, Palmer, who has had successful painting exhibits, works in oil.
“I don’t remember doing an acrylic,” she said. “I have done it but not recently.”
Fuchs said if a student uses a photo for a painting, they have to interpret it, paint it with their own voice.
“Everybody comes with a whole lifetime of experiences for the images we choose,” he said.
Another student, who did not want to be identified, was working in acrylic from a photograph their daughter took on a vacation out west. They were extending the surface of the picture to include the side of the canvas stretchers. The person said they were taught this technique from another instructor at the Art Garage.
“I’ve never worked in acrylic before,” they said, adding they preferred oils and watercolor more.
They said for the pen and ink picture, each student brought in an object which Fuchs made into a composition.
The third student was Maureen Cooper, a new arrival to the senior group and the area. Cooper moved into Bloomfield in August 2015. She explained why.
“I did a whole bunch of demographic surveys,” she said, “and Bloomfield was my No. 1 choice.”
She lives near The Green and said she appreciated the live Christmas story performed at the Church on the Green this past December. She thought is was amazing and moving. She has taken painting classes before.
“I wanted to keep it up,” she said. “I’m not great but I like doing it. I’m not so much about what it turns out to be but the fun of putting paint on a canvas.”
Cooper was doing a self-portrait made from a selfie — a photo she took of herself.
“I took a bunch of pictures for a dating site and none were working out,” she said.
So she made a face at the camera, snapped the picture, and was using this for her portrait.
Some of the others in the class said they were learning more than they knew before about Maureen.
Anyone interested in joining the senior painting class should call Glen Ridge Director of Recreation Jim Cowen, at 973-748-2924; or Suzanne O’Connor, at 973-744-6484.
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