The Shelton Art League
art classes &
The Shelton Art League offers art classes every fall and spring, available to members only. Members can sign up for classes at our September 14 meeting, at the Shelton Community Center, 41 Church Street, Huntington, CT 06484.
The Shelton Art League also offers workshops - check out our upcoming workshop below!
workshops
ART CLASSES | FALL 2026
Drawing With Colored Pencils
Instructor: Carmina Palarino
Location: Derby Neck Library
307 Hawthorne Ave, Derby
Dates: Thursdays - Sep. 24, Oct. 1, Oct. 8, Oct. 15, Oct. 22, Oct. 29
Time: 11:00am - 1:00pm
Cost: $60.00 paid to instructor at the first class plus a nominal supply fee. Payment due to instructor at first class. Membership required.
Description: How to draw using colored pencil for beginners and refresher for more advanced students.
Decorative Acrylics
Instructor: Sue Zelanakas
Location: Shelton Community Center
41 Church St, Shelton, CT 06484
2nd floor, Room 2, (elevator in building)
Dates: Wednesdays - Sep. 23, Sep. 30, Oct. 7, Oct. 14, Oct. 21, Oct. 28, Nov. 4, Nov. 18
Time: 11:45am - 1:45pm
Cost: $2.00 supply fee for paint (cost of surfaces to print on vary at each class), and $80.00 class fee, expected at first class.
Membership required.
Description: Teaching the techniques and brush strokes necessary to decorate different items using acrylic paints, various mediums and brushes.
Watercolor Painting
Instructor: Diane Podrat
Location: Shelton Community Center
41 Church St, Shelton, CT 06484
2nd floor, Room 2, (elevator in building)
Dates: Wednesdays - Sep. 30, Oct. 7, Oct. 14, Oct. 28, Nov. 4, Nov. 18
Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Cost: $10.00 per class, payable weekly
Supply list will be available when signing up. A face mask is required to attend each class. Membership is required.
Description: Watercolor classes are open to all levels of ability. We will discover the special features that only watercolor can achieve.We use a variety of different subject matter and students can use my suggestions or their own ideas.
Pencil Drawing
Instructor: Diane Napolitano
Location: Shelton Community Center
41 Church St, Shelton, CT 06484
2nd floor, Room 2, (elevator in building)
Dates: Wednesdays - Sep. 23, Sep. 30, Oct. 7, Oct. 14, Oct. 21, Oct. 28, Nov. 4, Nov. 18
Time: 9:30am - 11:30am
Cost: $10.00 per class: $80 (for 8 classes) expected at first class
Supply list will be provided. Membership required.
Description: Students will start this class drawing a portrait, using a grid method. As time permits we may also be able to draw a landscape. I am open to having students bring (show) picture(s) that they would like to be considered for their artwork.
Create A Masterpiece in an Evening in Acrylic
Instructor: Connie Manna
Location: Shelton Community Center
41 Church St, Shelton, CT 06484
2nd floor, Room 2, (elevator in building)
Dates: Tuesdays - Oct. 20, Oct. 27, Nov. 3, Nov. 10, Nov. 17
Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Cost: *$100 (for 5 classes) *to be paid at Registration (check made out to the Shelton Art League)
Supply list will be available when signing up.
Description: Leave your inner critic at the door. Paint at your own pace and embrace what comes off your brush, as I guide you to complete your painting in one session, using an impressionist masterwork for inspiration. Each session is a stand-alone with a different masterwork for inspiration. This program was created for beginners through professionals. No experience necessary.
FALL WORKSHOP
Using the Naturalist's
Techniques in Watercolor
Instructor: Dorie Petrochka
Location: Shelton Community Center
41 Church St, Shelton, CT 06484
2nd floor, Room 2, (elevator in building)
Dates: Saturday, November 14, (Rain date TBA)
Time: 10:00am - 1:00pm
Cost:
Members: $40.00
Non-Members: $60.00
Registration: Open Now! Seating is limited.
Register by printing and completing the Registration Form. To guarantee your sea,t please sign up and send the form with your check as soon as possible. In person sign-up will be available at our meeting on October 19, 2026.
Supplies: Bring your own. This class assumes you have a basic understanding of watercolor paints, brushes, and paper.
Description: Dorie Petrochko is an award-winning painter residing in Oxford, CT. Explore the techniques that a naturalist and artist can use with her to capture part of the world around us.
INSTRUCTOR BIOGRAPHIES
Sue Zelanakas
Enjoys and takes much pleasure in painting, especially decorative acrylic painting and watercolor. likes to teach the many techniques and skills needed to be able to create a decorative painted piece. Also has experience in early American decoration such as theorem painting and freehand bronzing. Likes to paint on glass and on old or used items such as light bulbs, bottles and jars, and wood fan blades. Has been painting and teaching for many years and sells decorative painted items and watercolors at craft shows and art shows. Has won many awards.
Into painting and related artistic and crafted subjects all through life. Studied art and teaching at Southern Connecticut State College and under many professional artists and instructors teaching various mediums. Taught many classes and workshops other than decorative painting, such as beading, tassel making, frame making using decorative papers, painting on glass, constructing and painting gourd birdhouses and many other projects.
Diane Podrat
Diane Podrat is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design and has painted professionally since 1969.
Her art is in the collections of the American Red Cross, Heart Association, West Haven Historical Society, Milford Public Library and many private collections.
Since retiring from teaching on Branford, she now paints in watercolor and teaches for the Shelton Art League.
Podrat is an elected member of the Connecticut Watercolor Society, Guilford Art League, New Haven Paint & Clay Club, Clinton Art Society.
She has received awards from Clinton Art Society, Stratford, Waterbury & Stony Creek Art Festivals, Milford & Hamden Art Leagues and Connecticut Watercolor Society.
The artist studied with Charles Reid, Lou Bonamarte, John Massamino, Judi Betts, Ruth Baderian and Leo Stoutsenburger.
Diane Podrat lives and paints in Milford. Her art is displayed at the Gilded Lily Art Gallery, 101 River St. in Milford.
Carmina Palarino
Carmina Palarino has painted in oils since her early years. In partial retirement she devoted serious time to exploring acrylics, pastels, watercolors, cold wax, and colored pencils. While all are interesting and fun, oils and colored pencils remain her passion. She finds realism in these two mediums inspiring and meditative. Experimenting in the other mediums, however, has produced some jazzy abstract work.
A deep love of gardening, hiking, and bird watching, along with several visits to her native Portugal and travels throughout the United States, allow her the luxury of immersion into nature. These experiences transfer beautiful, memorable moments emanating peace and joy onto a canvas. When the canvas is too small, the walls and stairways of her home will do, with actual birch branches, bird nests, and insects.
Although not professionally trained, Carmina has studied with a multitude of fine artists. Her art has been exhibited in many group shows and solo shows. She has received several commissions and numerous awards.
Diane Napolitano
Diane has been painting for over 30 years. Though mostly self-taught, she has studied with many well known artists, including Frank Covino, Charles Solvek, Charles Reid and George Sutherland over the course of her career.
Diane has won numerous awards for her watercolors, portrait drawings and porcelain paintings. Her work is owned by individual collectors as well as corporations throughout New York, New Jersey and New England. From 2004-2007 Spire Awards in N.Y. commissioned her to paint oil portraits of corporate headquarters for various companies.
Diane has taught watercolor and/or oil painting at Trumbull High School Adult Education, Naugatuck High School, Valley Regional Adult Education and at Goldsmith's in Waterbury.
Connie Manna
Connie Manna is a contemporary artist based in New Haven County, Connecticut and holds a BFA from School of Visual Arts, NYC. A member of the Westport Artists Collective, she is the winner of the 2019, 2021 and 2025 Dan Long Sponsorship Grant through the Drew Friedman Foundation. Her paintings have been in juried exhibitions and solo shows in NY, CT, NJ, DC and MI.
Connie, a freelance illustrator skilled in pre-press services, created a client base of ad and travel agencies, trade magazines, newspapers, medical and educational journals.
She created and instructs an acrylic painting program Paint a Masterpiece a Day in response to student feedback from learners of all ages and skill levels. Students consistently report that her approach of engaging in positive self-talk stays with them in their personal lives after they leave each class and makes the class worth returning to. Her greatest accomplishment is knowing that students take personal areas of success in her class to other areas in which they struggled with renewed determination to succeed. She offers an en plein aire version of this class during summer in CT and NY.