Painting + Drawing Lessons with Ari

Ari's painting lessons are tailored to unleash students' unique artistic voices, whether they're beginners exploring visual expression or advanced artists seeking critique and refinement. With a background in Fine Arts from SAIC and UCLA, Ari fosters creativity through personalized mentorship, introducing students to new materials and guiding them with generative questions to deepen their creative practice.

Available Locations

Ari's studio in Downtown LA

Online

Book Your Intro Lesson Book A Consultation

Any questions? Email us at hi@louderla.com

For details on pricing and booking policies, visit our Pricing page.

How It Works

Schedule a one-time intro lesson to meet an instructor, share your goals, and experience how lessons work.

1. Book an Intro Lesson

If your intro lesson feels like the right match, we’ll help you enroll. If not, we’ll set up another intro lesson to connect you with the right guide.

2. Find your Instructor

Once you’ve found your guide, start your weekly lessons—your dedicated time each week to create, learn, and grow. Enrollment renews monthly.

3. Enroll in Weekly Lessons

Meet the Instructor

Tell us about yourself!

I am continuously exploring the relationship between concept, intuition, and intellect, through mark making in my paintings. As a tutor in painting and drawing, I specialize in supporting students of all ages to find their voice, using two-dimensional space to reveal their content and narrative. My lessons are based on each student’s distinctive interest and curiosity to experiment with the medium. Whether my students are advanced painters looking for a second set of eyes and criticism, or beginners looking to take their first steps at creating visual expressions, there is so much to explore! As an art teacher, I offer a unique opportunity for students to work at their own pace. I introduce them to new materials and engaging practices. Asking students generative questions is instrumental to our creative process.

I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from School of the Art Institute of Chicago and my MFA in Painting from UCLA. While at SAIC, I was the first student in ten years to be nominated and accepted to the Norfolk Summer School of Art Residency at Yale University for the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship. I believe creativity is within us all. Fostering artistic growth through mentorship is one of the best ways to move forward in developing a creative practice.

I have teaching experience with beginning advanced studio art classes in painting, drawing and printmaking as an assistant instructor at UCLA from Spring 2017 to June 2019. From 2019 to 2021, I have been tutoring and coaching artists of all ages online (around the country) and in person (local to the Los Angeles area). My passion is to offer students the opportunity to form a relationship with their work and to engage with artists who came before them. Helping students to find purpose and self-reflection in their work, as well as, sharing the historical context, brings me an immense amount of joy and fulfillment as a teacher.

Testimonials

I highly recommend Louder LA platform for various creative help but most notably Ari Salka for art classes. I was so scared to take art or painting lessons and have always felt that I needed to find a way to express myself in that way. I felt really supported and was able to work through some blocks that I've always had around drawing. The class had beginning painters and also advanced artists who I guess knew of Salka's body of work. I am looking at taking private lessons in the future, but I did really love the small class aspect of it.

Rebecca

So grateful to have come across this drawing class in Los Angeles! As someone who has never formally drawn before, I had a very uncomfortable relationship to my creative self in this regard before taking this class. Ari is such a kind and caring teacher who has provided immense support and encouragement to play and learn more about materials and practices in a way that promotes self expression and discovery rather than a prescriptive approach to drawing. Ari is a fantastic and knowledgeable art teacher who is attentive with each student and is able to meet everyone’s needs and curiosities, recommending books and further techniques to explore if desired. I’m very glad I learned about these art classes in Los Angeles and I look forward to joining the next session when I return to Los Angeles.

Hal R.

I highly recommend painting and drawing lessons with Ari. The way Ari brings a warm, encouraging, and experienced presence to our lessons always makes me feel at ease and really excited to see what I'm able to do! Art lessons with Ari are truly expansive and deeply enriching, I could not recommend them more!

Lorie X.