About Driftless Art Academy
Contemporary education for exceptional traditional skills.
Realism, or art that looks like what it represents, is the underlying foundation for whatever style of art you want to pursue. Whether you wish to continue to refine your abilities in realism, or you want to create impressionist or even abstract art, having solid skills as a realism artist will empower you to create art that you choose, so you never have to say "I hope this turns out."
The Driftless Art Academy Story
Driftless Art Academy was founded in 2021 by Rochester portrait artist Joseph Alexander, as a program of fine arts education through oil painting. The Academy offers representational realism classes in oil painting for adults, teenagers, and children in grades 3 and up. With a focus on providing structured art education and attaining unparalleled results, Joseph has taught hundreds of students the foundations of good art, and has given professional-level skills in realism art to those who choose to pursue them.
Why is Driftless Art Academy in Rochester?
Rochester is a city in the middle of southeastern Minnesota, on the Zumbro River. About 90 minutes outside the Twin Cities, and further from other metropolitan areas, Rochester has a wonderfully diverse and growing population, and much more of an art scene than most people would think. Even so, places to learn and develop fine art skills have been limited. As a working artist in Rochester, Joseph saw the need for a more structured approach to learning two-dimensional fine art. The Academy has been well-received since it opened. With expertise and experience in curriculum design and implementation, Joseph is alert to finding the best ways to support each student through the process of becoming an artist.
Why Driftless?
Joseph chose the name Driftless Art Academy because of his love for the area in which the school is situated. The geologic region known as the Driftless Area--really a paleozoic plateau--extends from south of the Twin Cities through the southeastern corner of Minnesota, into western Wisconsin to Madison, across northeastern Iowa, and even includes the northwestern corner of Illinois. The karst-defined topography is marked by rolling hills and river valleys that grow as they approach the bluffs of the Mississippi River, tens of thousands of surface sinkholes connecting with springs throughout the aquifer, and hundreds of caves, along with forests and wildlife that bring beauty to this fragile biome.
