Blair Atherholt — Master Still Life Oil Painter and Artefex Ambassador

Blair Atherholt is an award-winning traditional still life painter whose career is built on the rigorous disciplines of the Old Masters. Trained at the Schuler School of Fine Arts in Baltimore — an institution rooted in the legacy of Hans Schuler Sr. and Jacques Maroger — Blair completed the full four-year program and an additional post-graduate year before launching his professional career in 2015. He holds two of the most respected designations in American representational painting: Master Artist of the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society (NOAPS) and Signature Member of the Oil Painters of America (OPA).

The Blair Atherholt Standard: Why He Chooses Artefex ACM Panels

Blair Atherholt's still life paintings are exercises in control — precise brushwork, deliberate value structure, and a finely tuned command of light and shadow built up one careful layer at a time. That level of technical discipline demands a panel surface that is equally uncompromising: rigid enough to eliminate any flex that could disrupt fine detail work, archival enough to protect the investment of time and craft in every painting, and consistent enough to perform the same way session after session. Artefex ACM panels deliver on all three counts, making them the natural choice for a painter whose work regularly earns Best in Show, Gold Medal, and Purchase Award recognition at the national level.

Blair Atherholt's Favorite Artefex Panel: Oleopanel 411 Smooth Finish

Blair's panel of choice is the Artefex Oleopanel #411 — Smooth Finish. For a still life painter whose signature is precision, the smooth finish of the Oleopanel 411 is ideal — offering a refined, oil-primed surface that accepts paint with exceptional control and allows the kind of tight, measured brushwork that defines Blair's style. The smooth ground supports clean edges, subtle tonal gradations, and the luminous finish his work is known for, while the oil-primed surface bonds naturally with oil paint for long-term archival integrity. It is the surface that lets Blair's precision speak.