Art Studio 308

Art Studio 308 sits on East Rich Avenue in the heart of downtown DeLand, just off the Woodland Boulevard corridor that anchors the city’s small business district. The studio operates as both a working art school and a gallery, a combination that gives visitors a chance to see finished work hanging on the walls while classes are happening in the same building. It is run by Georgia E. Dickson, an artist with more than 27 years of painting experience who serves as the studio’s sole instructor.

The class list at Art Studio 308 covers a wide range of mediums: oil, acrylic, watercolor, colored pencil, pen and ink, graphite, charcoal, pastel, and even more specialized techniques like stippling and pointillism. That breadth means a student can walk in with almost no background and leave with a working knowledge of several different approaches to drawing and painting, rather than being locked into a single medium from day one. Dickson teaches students from complete beginners through more advanced painters who already show and sell their own work, which keeps the classroom mixed in skill level and keeps the conversation among students lively.

Framing is the other half of the business. Art Studio 308 does custom framing and repair work, so a piece finished in class, or brought in from somewhere else entirely, can be matted and framed on site rather than shipped out to a big box framer. The studio also offers scanning and digital reproduction services, including Giclee fine art prints, which lets local artists turn an original painting into archival quality prints for sale without leaving downtown DeLand. Print enhancement services round out that side of the operation.

What makes Art Studio 308 worth knowing about, even for someone with no interest in taking a class, is the gallery wall itself. The art on display is created exclusively by studio students, so the space works as a rotating showcase of local, largely self taught and semi professional talent rather than a commercial gallery reselling outside inventory. That makes it a genuine window into what people in DeLand are actually making, not just what a dealer decided to stock.

The studio is a registered Florida limited liability company, Art Studio 308 LLC, and has operated at its East Rich Avenue location for close to a quarter century, according to its own listing history. In a downtown known for its collection of small, independent shops and galleries along Woodland Boulevard and the surrounding side streets, Art Studio 308 stands out as one of the few places doing double duty as both classroom and framing shop. Anyone looking to commission a custom frame, sign up for weekly painting instruction, or just see what local painters have been working on can reach the studio directly by phone or email, and walk-ins are welcomed at the Rich Avenue storefront during open studio hours.

For collectors and casual browsers alike, the appeal is straightforward: original, locally made art at a scale most people can actually afford, framed on the spot if needed, in a building where the person who painted the piece might well be teaching a class in the next room.