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Todd M. Casey is an American artist, author, and educator known for his masterfully crafted still lifes and contemporary realist paintings. Born and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, Casey studied Communication Design at Massachusetts College of Art and Design before pursuing advanced training in classical painting under Jacob Collins at the Water Street Atelier in New York.
His work blends traditional techniques with a modern sensibility, often featuring carefully arranged objects that suggest narratives beyond the canvas. Drawing inspiration from classical art, literature, history, and personal experience, Casey creates paintings that are both technically refined and rich in atmosphere and storytelling.
In addition to his painting career, Casey is the author of the acclaimed books The Art of Still Life and The Oil Painters' Color Handbook. He teaches painting and color theory through workshops, online courses, and institutions including Lyme Academy of Fine Arts. His award-winning work has been exhibited widely and is held in private and public collections throughout the United States.
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Medium: Oils
Skill Level: All Levels
Duration: 3 Hours
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Todd Casey Live Stream
Todd Casey’s Materials List
Todd Casey’s Reference Image
Todd Casey’s final painting (image)
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How to approach a still-life painting from start to finish
How to use the limitations of your palette to capture light effectively
Fundamental classical-atelier skills
Practical & conceptual takeaways to continue beyond the recorded video
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This video will be available to re-watch at your leisure until 28th of June 2028.
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Yes! As soon as you purchase, you will have access to Todd’s materials list, so you can paint along from home.
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We do sell some of them, yes! We have listed them below.
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Todd Casey’s materials, available from our online store…
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Inorganic – This is a version of Burnt Umber that has heavier and more red-brown undertones than the raw umber variant. This is the colour in its presentation from the last two centuries, invaluable for underpainting and showing a range of sandy pinks in hues.
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Inorganic – Viridian is about the fastest curing colour in my entire range, along with Stack Lead White. This hydrated variant of Chromium Hydroxide, introduced in the mid-19th century, is a valued support colour used for influencing greys in underpainting. The vivid blue undertones apparent in thin layers are soon eclipsed in thicker applications. Landscapists and some portraitists still prefer it to the more brutal power of the Phthalo Greens. When combined with reds, an interesting range of blue-greys results. Placing it as local colour in the proximity of vermilion can also produce some interesting complementary effects.
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Inorganic – My Cadmium Red is a powerful, orange shade red with the usual cadmium characteristics of high tint power and opacity. This red presents warm, almost fiery hues when mixed with a more transparent white.
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Inorganic – Prussian Blue was created in Berlin in 1704, and its popularity spread through the early 18th century. Prussian Blue is one of the first synthetic inorganic pigments and one of the most controversial as well. The earlier and less purified versions had mixed reputations; they were said to fade in hues and migrate or leech through succeeding paint layers. But modern standards of washing have corrected the tendency to fade, and migratory problems are no longer reported. I suspect that this was the result of poor stabilizing. At any rate, Prussian Blue, like Alizarin, is one of those colours some painters find essential. It has a deep, inky beauty. On its own and in more concentrated mixes, it exhibits a slight bronzy sheen that can be used as a complementary glaze. Its tint power is frightening, so beginners beware!
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Inorganic – A powerful orange shade red with the usual cadmium characteristics, Cadmium Red Light has high tint power and opacity. This red presents warm, almost fiery hues when mixed with a more transparent white.
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Inorganic – Yellow Ochre is a higher-keyed and more green-gold shade of manufactured Iron Oxide. Its hues yield mustardy yellows quite close to Genuine Naples Yellow Dark. No. 119 possesses an almost viscous texture and is a lovely colour for flesh tones, landscapes, and non-figurative works.
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Inorganic – The deepest of the Cadmium range, this red has distinct bluish undertones that produce lovely purplish hues.
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Cadmium Green (No. 412) is a vivid colour created from pigments PY35 and PG18. With excellent lightfastness and opaque transparency, it adds depth to compositions. Its average drying speed and linseed oil binder make it a versatile choice for artists seeking reliability and vibrancy in their work.
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Inorganic – Cadmium Sulphide is a ‘tangy’, bright, high-tint power yellow. It’s an inorganic pigment that lightens and increases the opacity of warm mixes without overthrowing them. The Cadmium range of pigments was introduced into production between 1840 and 1890, as costs permitted, and it has proved the most artistically reliable of all the metal compounds discovered in the 19th-century.
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Inorganic, Natural Earth – Raw Sienna is powerful to use as a ground tone and for underpainting. Its origins date back to the 17th century, and it’s one of the indispensable Earth Iron Oxides! As the name suggests, the best grade comes from central Italy, where I acquire my pigment.
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Organic – Alizarin Claret has a slightly lighter mass tone than that of Alizarin Crimson, and yet it has greater resistance to UV light than Alizarin Crimson. I specifically formulated this beautiful, full-bodied colour for those artists who are reluctant to use Alizarin Crimson. With its versatility and beautry, Alizarin Claret is perfect for portraitures, landscapes, and non-figurative works, and it’s a delight for mixing with other transparent colours.
Artefex Lead White Oil-Primed ACM Panel is a professional oil primed art panel with Rublev lead white oil priming on a two-sided aluminum composite panel, consisting of two aluminum sheets laminated to both sides of a black polyethylene core.
Organic, Natural Earth – An impure, amorphous Carbon in Calcium Phosphate, Ivory Black is no longer made from burnt ivory scraps but from charred animal bones. It is denser in shade and cooler than Lamp Black, with stronger tint power. Ivory Black, the blackest of the blacks, is the most frequently used black in the range.
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Inorganic – This is a version of Burnt Umber that has heavier and more red-brown undertones than the raw umber variant. This is the colour in its presentation from the last two centuries, invaluable for underpainting and showing a range of sandy pinks in hues.
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Inorganic – Manganese Ammonium Pyrophosphate is a bold, heavy Violet that was first made in Germany in 1868 as one of the mid-19th century wave of synthetic inorganic metal salts that prompted a change in artists’ palettes. Manganese Violet has mild, reddish overtones that do not cut through mixes and that some find useful when making reflex or shadowy greys. Its average tint power allows it to be added without greatly lowering the tonality of the result.
Gamsol is the safest solvent that allows oil painters to utilise all traditional painting techniques without compromise.
Primary Uses for Gamsol:
Thinning oil colours. A little goes a long way; stiff oil colours relax immediately when a little Gamsol is added. Be careful not to thin oil colours too much with solvent alone, this can compromise the ability of the paint to form a paint film.
Modifying painting mediums. Gamblin's Galkyd line of painting mediums is formulated with Gamsol, so they readily accept Gamsol as a thinning agent. Note: Gamsol should not be added to painting mediums made with natural resins (dammar, copal, mastic). They require strong solvents such as turpentine.
Studio clean up: brushes, palettes, palette knives, etc.
How does Gamsol achieve this level of performance and safety? Most solvents available to artists come from the industrial paint industry where solvent power and cheapness is prized. Gamsol is special: it is made for products and processes that come into more intimate contact with the body such as cosmetics, hand cleaners, and cleaning food service equipment.
Gamsol is a petroleum distillate but all the aromatic solvents have been refined out of it, less than .005% remains. Aromatic solvents are the most harmful types of petroleum solvents.
These facts are detailed in the MSDS for Gamsol, this document shows that it has an Exposure Limit Value higher than most solvents available to artists.
All of these factors have lead to Gamsol being used widely in oil painting classrooms; in those classes there are no solvent odours, only the wonderful smell of oil colours.
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Titanium White No. 1 is the most brilliant white in my range, suitable for crisp, cool, opaque, light shades. If you want a powerful mixer that lightens , then this is it. Although not subtle, this white is the most suitable for a bright, fresh palette. It forms a strong and durable film when cured. PW6 is an inorganic pigment.
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Inorganic – This Iron Oxide has been used as a wood dye, and I realised that its capacity to enrich the grain of hardwood made it a wonderful candidate for paint making. Michael’s Transparent Red Oxide is an Iron Oxide manufactured to such a small pigment particle size that like its yellow counterpart, it possesses Lake-like characteristics. No. 220 has terrific tint power that produces wonderful results in mixes with yellows and brings gravity to mid-red tones. Mix it with phthalocyanine blue for an interesting surprise!
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Inorganic – Introduced at about the same time as Ultramarine, Cobalt Aluminate is a synthetic, inorganic pigment. It is more greenish-blue, with a heavier, more mineral appearance when seen as a dry pigment. The hues formed from it are correspondingly heavier and greyer. But it has a certain shade that the less expensive ultramarine cannot quite match. The paint film, when cured, is quite soft.
The Highland palette provides a true ergonomic fit and soft curves. The New Wave unique three point design distributes the palette weight between the hand, rear forearm, and torso providing maximum balance and comfort. This significantly reduces stress on muscles and tendons in the hand, wrist, arm and shoulder.
This palette will fit in most landscape boxes, allowing for ease of transportation and convenience while outdoors. Please note, this palette is designed to be held in the painter's left hand.
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Inorganic – No. 113 is an obviously beautiful mid-blue. The discovery in the 1820s of a Sodium Sulphosilicate compound, which had appeared as a mysterious blue deposit on soda-ash furnaces, was a liberating moment for financially challenged artists everywhere. Up to then the only available version of this compound was the often-unobtainable Lapis Lazuli ore, mined in Afghanistan. Ultramarine has a high tint power, and our chosen shade produces strong green shade blue hues and makes wonderful violets with Magenta and the red Lake colours. It is also useful in greens and greys. The only chemical weakness is a recorded sensitivity to atmospherically borne acids, which can bleach it out. Ultramarine Blue is one of the more difficult paints to make, as it forms an intractable runny syrup when first ground into oil, which must then be stabilized with a small amount of wax.
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Inorganic – This is a strong, deep orange with high tint power and opacity, yielding surprisingly pinky hues in mixes with Titanium Whites.
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Inorganic – For landscape, portrait, and non-figurative painters, this is a delicious, vivid colour! Introduced into the range for its incomparable colour, handling, and coverage, No. 513 is a staple for artists who discover the range of colours and values they can create when mixing and applying.
Compact, comfortable and conversational, the Expressionist Confidant palette is perfect for artists who desire a small "go to" palette in their studio or for working en plein air. The New Wave unique three point design distributes the palette weight between the hand, rear forearm, and torso providing maximum balance and comfort. This significantly reduces stress on muscles and tendons in the hand, wrist, arm and shoulder.
This open palette design features an open hand grasp to hold brushes or a mahlstick, and a lower quadrant that can be used for additional mixing, or to hold your medium palette cup and/or paint cloth. The surface area has ample room for colour, and is ideal for finishing or detail work because the design will allow you to work extremely close to your canvas.