The Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art, an ARC-approved school, located in the unique setting of Duluth, MN, is a small, private studio offering classical training programs. It is modeled after and descended from the great, traditional European Atelier system that flourished in Paris in the latter half of the 19th century. The focus of our program is to bring out an individual’s level of craftsmanship based solidly within the great and unbroken Western art tradition. Just as writers learn their craft to become wordsmiths, dancers train their body in how to move, and musicians master their instruments so as to let the music flow through, we train the eye and the mind so as to recreate on canvas the subtle beauties that this world offers in full abundance.
The full-time program consists of up to sixteen students; we accept three or four a year. We keep our costs as low as possible to avoid finances prohibiting talented students from receiving a solid, practical foundation. Richard Lack, with whom Jeff studied with, did this for his students and we are just paying it forward.
Drawing and painting are all that we offer, there are no classroom settings or written exams. All of your time is spent in front of the easel learning to see and translate the light-filled, three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface using pencil, charcoal and oil paint. Day one the student starts with a pencil in hand, and over the course of studies students systematically work their way through the program at their own pace, eight hours a day, five days a week. The cost is primarily taken up with studio rent which they will have access to 24/7-365 days a year. They will be challenged with increasingly more advanced and difficult assignments throughout the four years. Exercises are just as much about training the eye as it is about learning the actual craft.
The instructors are very clear that they are “painters who teach and not teachers who paint”. They are instructing at a practical, professional level. Teaching consists of weekly critiques, including students showing their mistakes and demonstrating how to correct them. “Talent” and “Intuition” are set aside while logical and analytical processes are taught and mastered.
Our specific focus is what we refer to as “Classical Impressionism”. We define that as “rendering form within a unified light effect” (think Vermeer, Velazquez, and the American impressionists). This foundation, which has been passed on from teacher to student going back to Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), through Paul Delaroche, Jean-Leon Gerome, William McGregor Paxton, R.H. Ives Gammell, Richard Lack (1928-2009), to Jeffrey T. Larson and Brock Larson. This methodology is an extrapolation of the tradition that came through the French Academies and was honed through the Boston school, which worked to integrate the development of French Impressionistic color to an academic training in draftsmanship, form and composition.
After over thirty-five years of working full-time in his studio, Jeffrey T. Larson (head instructor and co-founder of GLAFA) has learned that there are no “secrets of the old masters”. Rather, it is a continued refinement of the basics, tied to a solid understanding of the limitations within our materials in translating the three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface. The only ‘secret’ and key to success is time spent under the tutelage of the master artist with the trained eye, and hard work. Copies, casts and figure work are only the means to the end of training the eye to see shapes, keying values and color relationships, and the training of the mind to conceptualize form through the logical flow of light. Each exercise has been carefully and specifically designed to develop each of these skills progressively and to bring them together as a student advances throughout the program.
St. Peter’s Church
During Brock Larson’s study at The Atelier, his father began teaching there. Brock also began to teach part-time during his last year and a dream began to solidify. They dreamt of opening a small studio/school in Duluth, MN. The dream began to take shape with the purchase of an old, historic, stone church that had been sitting vacant for a few years. This dream has blossomed into The Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art (GLAFA).
The Academy is located in what was formerly St. Peter’s Catholic Church. It is located on “Observation Hill” in the heart of what was known as Duluth’s “Little Italy”. This area was populated by Italian immigrants, many of them being the skilled stonemasons and bricklayers who built much of Duluth’s beautiful architecture and landmarks, such as the Enger Tower and this church. Observation Hill overlooks Lake Superior’s harbor where on any given day you will see huge ocean-going ships and barges making their way under the famous Aerial Lift Bridge.
St. Peter’s Church was the spiritual and cultural heart of this proud Italian community. The building itself was hand-built in the early 1920s by skilled craftsmen within their congregation. These hard-working artisans would volunteer their time after work and weekends to harvest the natural Duluth stone from the hills above the church. In the winter they would load the heavy rock onto sleds and were able to slide them down to the building site. It took them two years and much manual labor to complete their church. The bell in the north tower was cast in France in 1885.
The last church service was held at St. Peter’s in 2010 and the church sat empty, dark and without heat as it began to fall into deterioration. Jeffrey T. Larson purchased the building in the Fall of 2015 and work on a complete renovation and overhaul of this structure, with its vast artistic potential, began. New heat, electrical, and stairwells were just a part of the renovation which maintained the church’s integrity, especially on the exterior of this piece of Duluth’s history and pride.
In addition to the inherent beauty and historical significance of this 8,000-square-foot structure, the layout, large north-facing windows, 28-foot vaulted ceiling, and overall feel, are ideal for a fine art studio. The first level with its 14-foot ceilings allows for private studios, dorm rooms and a part-time classroom along with a kitchen and common area.
The view from the back of the property is simply breathtaking. It looks out over the largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Superior. The Ojibwa call the lake gichi-gami, meaning “big sea”.
“The early history of Western art is so very much entwined with the history of the Roman Catholic Church that I think it is fair to say that one had a hand in shaping the other. For many centuries the scriptures came alive for a primarily illiterate population in the form of frescoes, oil paintings, sculpture and stained glass windows. It feels right, in this secular age, to be able to offer the opportunity to help pass on to this generation of young artists, from within the walls of St. Peter’s, the skills to someday become someone whose unique vision, combined with solid craftsmanship, will create images that resonate in the eyes of others in a manner that is both relevant and profound today.”
Jeffrey has been trained in the manner of the Old Masters at the prestigious Atelier Lack, a studio/school whose traditions and training methods reach back through impressionism and the 19th-century French academies.
Patrick is a graduate of GLAFA and is now an assistant instructor at the school. He is a believer that a painter is eternally a student of nature and of the great artists of the past. He hopes to extend this reverence to students, guiding their learning. He is represented by Collins Galleries.
Austin Jasurda completed his academic journey at GLAFA in the spring of 2024. Subsequently, he transitioned to a role within the faculty, contributing to the instruction of the full-time program.
