About Margie

Margie Samuels is an award-winning artist and instructor.  She is an elected member of the New Jersey Watercolor Society and the Essex Water Color Club.  She was awarded the Matilda Grech Memorial Award at the 2018 International Northeast Watercolor Society Show in Kent, Connecticut. Samuels was also selected for the Inner Canvas Show at the Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey.  

After studying fine arts at Brandeis University, Samuels went on to get additional training at Harvard University, the Arts Students League and the New Jersey Visual Arts Center.  Over the years, she has painted with notable artists including: Elaine DeKooning, Peter Grippe, Skip Lawrence, Pat Dews, Sterling Edwards and  Don Andrews.

Samuels teaches painting workshops at various locations throughout the United States. Samuels’s artwork is sold directly through her own gallery. 

My Philosophy

I have been an art teacher for many years now….instructing adults, teens and children in various forms of art.  Mostly, I teach beginner and intermediate levels of watercolor.  Many of my students come to me totally new to the process of painting; often they are anxious and afraid. Will the class be too hard? Will everyone else create “better” pictures? Will they be able to follow what the instructions? These are common concerns for first level painters.  I address these worries by keeping my classes small, and the studio environment calm and supportive.  Also, I begin at the beginning with the basics, moving step by step through the process of how to hold the brush, mix the paint, choose colors, set up a painting, etc.  But the most important thing that I can teach is the sheer joy of creativity….  If my students leave my classes with a smile on their faces, then I have a smile too. 

I believe that beginner and intermediate watercolor projects do not have to be juvenile, simplistic compositions.  I value the unique experiences and opportunities that test each of my students, regardless of their painting level.  There is almost nothing that I haven’t adapted for these classes.  Consequently, my students paint all types of landscapes, including those with complicated skies, buildings with perspective or multiple figures.  We tackle still lifes and abstracts, floral compositions and collages.  On occasion I arrange for a nude model to pose for us; my beginner and intermediate painters have produced wonderful watercolor figure works. 

I offer more than just a pretty landscape to paint.  We start each session with painting techniques, and often delve into rules of composition, principles of design and color theory.  I give out supporting reading materials to my classes, and I make reference notebooks for my workshops. I want my students to be able to apply what they’ve learned to any future painting opportunity.

My goal is to make every class and workshop that I teach both exciting and challenging, whether it is a beginner class or an advanced class.  I want all of my students to feel both artistically pushed and excited by the projects we paint ….and my hope is that they are proud of each of their paintings.