Has the book on painting been closed?

[Michele Rushworth]

...drop the class and spend those 15 hours a week painting from life and good reference photos when I do not have a model in front of me?

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Whenever I take a class I make sure I have a very clear idea of what the instructor will be teaching, as well as a clear idea of the kind of work they themselves are capable of. I wasted years and lots of dollars "studying art" at the University level learning how to talk about art but nothing at all about how to paint realistically.

I won't get into distinctions about what is "good art" and "bad art". I like to look at all kinds of things in varying degrees of realism. What I like to paint myself, though, makes up only a very narrow subset of all the art education that is available out there. You may have to take an out of town workshop to get some solid realism instruction.