Discover the joy of Intuitive Painting—Under the guidance of Sandi, you’ll learn to trust your instincts, embrace spontaneity, and allow your art to flow freely by intuition and the quiet rhythm of your own spirit. Whether you’re picking up a paintbrush for the first time or you’re an experienced artist hoping to reconnect with spontaneity, this class is the perfect space to explore and play. You’ll learn to bring emotion and energy into your work while developing a stronger sense of composition, space, rhythm, and technique—using acrylics as your main medium. Each session is designed to help you express your inner voice, experiment fearlessly, and most importantly, have fun making art!
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Sandi Neiman Lovitz
Cost: $280
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Discover the joy of Intuitive Painting—Under the guidance of Sandi, you’ll learn to trust your instincts, embrace spontaneity, and allow your art to flow freely by intuition and the quiet rhythm of your own spirit. Whether you’re picking up a paintbrush for the first time or you’re an experienced artist hoping to reconnect with spontaneity, this class is the perfect space to explore and play. You’ll learn to bring emotion and energy into your work while developing a stronger sense of composition, space, rhythm, and technique—using acrylics as your main medium. Each session is designed to help you express your inner voice, experiment fearlessly, and most importantly, have fun making art!
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Sandi Neiman Lovitz
Cost: $280
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

In this one-day workshop, you'll learn how to use color for emotional impact and scenic clarity in your landscape paintings. We will discuss how color is used to create depth, atmosphere, and mood in a painting and how the color of the sky disperses itself throughout a landscape, unifying and harmonizing everything you see. Students will work from photographs in the studio, and together we will do small painting exercises using a limited set of colors. This simplified approach is a great way to learn how to mix and use color effectively and will help you create subtle and sophisticated color worlds. Suitable for anyone excited about slowing down and mixing intentional colors. Students are welcome to work in oil, acrylic, or gouache.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Claire Haik
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

This class focuses on understanding the many expressive ways of starting and finishing a painting in wet paint. Students will learn the excitement of starting with washes of bright transparent colors and building towards opaque color passages. Throughout the course, we will address several fundamental challenges that painters commonly encounter. These include exploration of composition, focusing on how shapes are arranged within the painting and the various ways in which you can manipulate them to enhance your artwork. We will also examine the importance of value, specifically the relationship between light and dark areas, and discuss strategies for linking these values effectively. Additionally, the course will delve into essential color concepts, providing a foundation for making informed color choices in your paintings.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Fred Jackson
Cost: $290
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

In this guided acrylic class, students will all paint the same image using a photo reference while following a step-by-step demonstration by the instructor. Throughout the session, students will explore a variety of subjects. From serene landscapes to vibrant still lifes and intriguing textures, each painting process will help build skills and confidence with every brushstroke. Perfect for beginners or anyone looking to refine their technique in a relaxed, supportive atmosphere.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Nicole Lee
Cost: $240
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Painting and Drawing are languages. Visual languages. And as with learning any language one must grasp the concepts and then dig into the vocabulary. This course is designed to expose the student to new ways of thinking about drawing and painting and how they speak to the viewer. We will explore the language and vocabulary of mark making as we strive to improve our visual skills. The student will be immersed in a series of exercises that with strengthen and reinforce very basic principles that are often overlooked. Lon will describe his approach thru demos each day followed up with one-on-one instruction as students give it a go. Students will be working with dry and wet media to find fresh avenues for art making.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Lon Brauer
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

This workshop will focus on the problem of combining the genres of still-life and interior painting into a single picture. We will start by addressing the problem of finding a subject and the practical and formal problems of setting up a still life. We will discuss how to organize and simplify complex information, how to have a unified sense of light throughout the picture and how to perceive color and tone relationships. We will also cover aspects of drawing that will help in the creation of a convincing sense of space. Students are welcome to bring their own objects or work with objects on hand at the center. You can use, oil paint, acrylic paint, gouache or pastel.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Peter Van Dyck
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Gain the basics you need to step into an acrylic painting practice! Learn to use quick-drying acrylics in thin, transparent layers as well as thicker, more opaque applications that produce textural and impasto effects. Materials like fluid mediums, gels, and pastes will be demonstrated, along with both brush and palette knife techniques. Experiment with both limited and expanded color palettes as you work from still life subjects. This workshop is ideal for students looking for a non-toxic, flexible painting medium, as well as anyone seeking to explore acrylics’ excellent potential for representational and abstract work. Drawing experience is recommended.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Frederic Kaplan
Cost: $195
Sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Website, email, 215-972-7632

Unlocking Composition is a two-day immersive workshop that helps artists create stronger, more visually engaging paintings by putting theory into practice. Working from their own photos, participants will learn to break down complex scenes into simplified shapes and values. They’ll learn how to make and use focal areas that guide the viewer’s eye. On the second day, we’ll delve into understanding balance and unity to create harmony in a painting. Through lectures, demonstrations, and one-on-one- instruction, artists will learn the tools Mark uses to analyze and design a painting. By the end, artists will have practical tools and strategies to approach composition confidently and apply key principles to their own work, helping their paintings feel more cohesive and engaging.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Mark Vander Vinne
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

These two carefully guided, immersive days in the studio will focus on nurturing perceptual discrimination and clarifying observation, asking questions about not what we see, but more importantly, how we see, within the experience of visual encounter. Working both the from the model and from reproductions (including older and 20th century masters,) we’ll paint our way through a sequence of playful visual exercises and explorations, to understand that abstraction – composition/design with color and shape – is THE foundation, the great engine behind all painting.
 
Location: Philadelphia, PA, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Stuart Shils
Cost: $395
Sponsor: Cerulean Arts Gallery and Studio
Website, email, 267-514-8647

Unity ties a painting together—think matching colors, similar brushstrokes, and overall vibe. Rhythm keeps things lively by guiding your eye with repeated shapes, lines, and energetic brushstrokes and marks. When both qualities interact, something remarkable happens: the painting becomes a seamless blend of order and vitality and true beauty emerges. This workshop is all about Unity and Rhythm, and we'll keep things hands-on with some basic techniques you can actually use. Students are encouraged to paint what they love. You can bring objects from home to build your own still life arrangements or bring photo references you like. I will provide a still life arrangement. All skill levels welcome. Work in oil, acrylic, or gouache.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Fred Jackson
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

This workshop will provide an opportunity for those interested in the palette knife and other alternative painting tools to broaden horizons and creative skills. While all mediums are invited, the workshop is particularly geared to those working in oils or acrylics. The format, while reinforcing the basic skills needed for the creation of well-balanced colorful images, is individualized to accommodate a wide variety of experience levels as well as styles of painting; and from those interested in representational to abstract imagery. This is the perfect workshop for those wishing to introduce new tools to their repertoire, better master color usage, and gain a range of techniques for applying paint.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Cynthia Rosen
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Capture the small-town beauty Manayunk's hilly streets, rowhomes, and storefronts. Learn to create a convincing sense of space, light and time of day while depicting streetscapes, trees, water and sky. Color mixing and painting techniques for oils will be demonstrated, but all drawing/painting media are welcome. Located just 15 minutes outside of Philadelphia, Manayunk offers engaging urban and riverside neighborhood subjects with parking, shade, provisions and facilities available. Note: Students are responsible for their own transportation to painting locations.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Larry Francis
Cost: $295
Sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Website, email, 215-972-7632

This workshop focuses on discovering your unique abstract voice. Through a series of small paintings created on the first day, you'll begin to recognize the development of your authentic expression and how it distinguishes you from other artists. These initial works may also reveal insights into how adjusting your approach to using visual language can more powerfully express your abstract voice. The second day features group discussion exploring how artistic inspiration shapes color and composition differently for each artist, followed by individual consultations on integrating the workshop's insights into your personal practice. This workshop is for artists with some painting experience and artists with a lot of painting experience.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Marianne Mitchell
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Water-based paints such as watercolor, gouache, and fluid acrylics are the perfect mediums for landscape painting in the open air! Work in your choice of these portable, fast-drying, and easy-to-clean-up alternatives to oils as you portray the beauty of spring in Philadelphia’s parks in your own personal style. Learn how to choose a composition and mix color for depth and expressive effects as you complete a series of rapid sketches and at least one sustained painting. Explore techniques for achieving transparency effects with stained gesso, working fat over lean, and rendering with ink over washes. Open to all levels. Painting locations feature shade, restrooms, and other amenities. Note: Students are responsible for their own transportation to painting locations.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Michelle Oosterbaan
Cost: $260
Sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Website, email, 215-972-7632

This one-day workshop will concentrate on painting one of the most beautiful and challenging aspects of a tree: its trunk and branches. Trunks are rarely perfectly round; instead, their surfaces present a combination of flat planes and rounded forms that interlock together and describe the tree's surface. The pattern of its branches, roots and rippling bark tell each tree’s life story and are influenced by interaction with other trees, the sun, and the earth. Our goal in this class is to simplify the tree's structure and capture its essence as effectively as possible. Rather than aiming for finished paintings, we will create several small studies focusing on the topography of different trunks and how we can communicate them using paint.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Claire Haik
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Join veteran plein air artist Joe Sweeney for a unique opportunity to paint inside one of the oldest rowing clubs in Philadelphia: the Bachelors Barge Club on Boathouse Row. Work from picturesque views of the Schuylkill River with the benefit of full access to the historic building with access to the dock, rain-/sun-sheltered porch, and amenities including restrooms. Experienced guidance will cover tactics for working efficiently outdoors, selecting a composition, color mixing, and capturing time of day and atmospheric effects. Instruction and demonstrations will be geared toward acrylic, oil, and pastel painting, but experienced watercolorists are welcome to participate. Note: Students are responsible for their own transportation to painting locations.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Joseph Sweeney
Cost: $195
Sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Website, email, 215-972-7632

Working from a limited palette, this one-day workshop focuses on ways to create expressive florals on a larger canvas exploring energetic brushstrokes to create a harmonious and vibrant garden scene of flowers. Students will work from their own or provided imagery. Examples of colorful works by Josef Klimt and Joan Mitchell will be shared to inspire your process. A short demo will be shared on color mixing and simplification of form.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Abby Ober
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Exploring abstracts on a larger scale in the medium of your choosing, this 5-day class will push you into new territory where growth lives… only upsized, because bigger risks equal bigger rewards. You will be shown a system for developing your artistic voice, with a focus on design principles and the language of abstraction. The emphasis is on creative process, exploring new ways to develop and build paintings, create inventive compositions, and build authentic intent in your work. The class is as much a challenge for the experienced as it is for the developing artist, but it’s not for the rank beginner. Bring a sense of humor, a fearless creative spirit, and an open mind.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Larry Moore
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553