Instructors
Meet The Instructors
The instructors for the Maurice River School Master Class sessions are all highly regarded professionals who will offer participants group and one-on-one instruction during the week-long course.
Matthew Daniels
Director of the Maurice River School Workshop
Matthew is the Advanced Placement art teacher at Millville High School and Professor of Fine Art at Rowan College of South Jersey. He holds a BFA from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University and worked with the renowned Philadelphia Mural Arts Project in the early 2000s. Matthew is the former Friday Night Teen Class instructor at The Barn Studio and has worked for the Barn for over 15 years.
Larry Francis
Larry Francis Is a graduate of the PAFA where he currently teaches painting. He is the recipient of numerous prizes for painting and his work is in multiple collections including the Noyes Museum Collection. His primary medium is gouache. He also teaches Landscape classes year-round at The Barn Studio and the Burcham Farm.
Jill A. Rupinski
Jill A. Rupinski A and a BFA from the Philadelphia College of Arts. Awards include: A Medal for significant achievement in the visual arts from the Philadelphia Sketch Club, a Senior Artist Initiative Oral History Project, a recipient of a Faculty Venture Fund Grant for Travel to France from PAFA; a Spanish-American Artist Exchange Travel award from the Creative Artists Network; the Percy Owens Memorial Award for a Distinguished Pennsylvania Artist from the Fellowship; and the Cresson Travel Scholarship, both from PAFA. Jill’s art is represented in the University of PA, Arcadia, Colgate, and Villanova Universities. Jill has been an instructor with the Maurice River School at The Barn Studio of Art since 2010. She also shows at Cerulean Arts Gallery in Philadelphia, PA.
Stan Sperlak
Stan Sperlak studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia, and with Pat Witt at The Barn Studio of Art. He maintains a studio on the Crow Creek in Goshen, NJ. Stan is a member of the Pastel Society of America, the Maryland Pastel Society, The Mid Atlantic Plein Air Painters, and the Cape May County Art League. The workshop kicks off Sunday afternoon at 4 pm with a Meet and Greet by the pond at The Barn Studio of Art in Millville, NJ. The week-long schedule will be distributed at that time.
Betsy Tasker
Betsy Tasker graduated from PAFA as a painting major and the University of Pennsylvania with a BFA. She also received an MAE from Rowan University. Betsy’s art studies began at The Barn. After teaching art in the New Jersey public schools for 35 years, Betsy has returned to The Barn to teach. MauriceRiverSchool.org
Elena Shackleton
Elena began her art journey at an early age at the Barn Studio of Art; Millville, NJ, and was there exposed to the teaching of many professional artists and instructors. She went on to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with a concentration in painting and drawing. Elena earned a living working in illustration and graphic design, rising to the level of Assistant Art Director. She changed careers in the early 90’s and returned to painting and teaching. From her experiences at The Barn & The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, to workshops and continuing education from renowned teachers, she has developed her realist style and approach. Elena is a devoted Plein Air and studio painter. Active in the arts community, she serves the Lehigh Valley and local artists as President of The Lehigh Art Alliance.
Download an Adobe Acrobat® PDF of the class brochure.