Michael Las Casas had been teaching watercolor at the Armory Art Center for more than a decade before I was hired as their educational director. I sat in on one of his classes, and about five minutes in, I knew exactly why his classes were so popular. Michael is knowledgeable, hilarious, real, but not at all the stereotype I'd imagine for someone who teaches (and produces) unbelievably beautiful watercolors. He wears jeans and work boots and carries his paints in a tackle box, for Pete's sake. You'd think he'd be more Sherwin-Williams than Winsor and Newton.

 

But when I was his boss, I watched his classes fill while other classes struggled to make. He's been building and rebuilding the same curriculum for decades — constantly tweaking and refining it. When he notices his students need something different, he pivots. When his snowbirds fly north for the summer, he finds a way to keep teaching them, despite the geographic divide. He gives students what they actually need, not what he thinks they need.

 

Doesn't matter if you're a total beginner or ten years in; he knows what to do with you.

 

Michael is magical. If you want to learn, he's your guy.

Abby Mathews,

former Education Director at the Armory Art Center