Combine your love of artmaking and nature through the practice of open air painting at the Haverford College Arboretum. Featuring meadows, gardens, and wooded areas, including the college’s impressive historic tree collection in autumnal colors, this scenic location is the perfect place to learn the essentials of landscape painting. Veteran plein air artist Joe Sweeney will guide artists of all levels through both the artistic concerns and practical matters of open air painting. Topics include the basics of working outdoors as well as the aesthetic how-tos of color mixing to achieve a sense of light and air, capturing time of day, composition fundamentals, and sound drawing and painting practices. Instruction is geared toward oil/acrylic painting and pastel drawing/painting. Restrooms and parking available.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Joseph Sweeney
Cost: $375
Sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Website, email, 215-972-7632

Working from still life set-ups, learn the various techniques of aqueous media used for creating light, structure, texture, transparency and opacity. While the focus of the class is water-based acrylics, students are welcome to work in pastels or oil if they prefer. Instructor demonstrations and group discussion, as well as individual attention, provided during each class session.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Joeseph Sweeney
Cost: $570
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Whether it is portrait, still life, landscape or abstracts, the presence of light against shadow gives the subject form and dimension. Bring your own inspiration to class and with this principle in mind, watch your paintings come to life! Composition and color mixing will be a focus in this class. All mediums and skill levels are welcome!
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Stefanie Lieberman
Cost: $570
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

This class is designed for painters looking to further develop their skills and strengthen their work. Whether you focus on still life, the figure, landscape, or other subject matter, all are welcome. The class offers a supportive and relaxed environment where the instructor provides personalized one-on-one guidance to help you refine your unique style and approach. Bring your preferred materials and any current work-in-progress to the first session. Students will work from their own reference material and/or still-life set ups.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Claudia Rilling
Cost: $570
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

In this intermediate-level landscape course, students will begin with a foundation in strong composition and shape, learning how to distill the complexity of expansive scenes into simple and expressive forms. The focus will be on shape and color, gradually eliminating non-essential details to reveal the essence of the landscape. Please bring your favorite landscape references to class- ones that have an apparent variety of shapes and values. Students will begin on small surfaces to complete small studies in week 1 and 2, progressing to larger formats in weeks three on. Please note that beginning oil painting skills will not be covered in this class. Medium: Oil, pastel, or acrylic (class is taught in oil).
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Claudia Rilling
Cost: $570
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Working from your own reference material, we will spend each week focusing on a particular aspect of landscape painting. Individual techniques will be held each session in a supportive atmosphere. Syllabus will be provided. Please bring painting materials to the first class. All mediums welcomed.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Bonnie Mettler
Cost: $570
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Using your own inspiration e.g., photos, tablets, still life objects etc, you will learn different techniques to give your paintings life and energy. Composition, value, color mixing and technique will be the main focuses of this class. All mediums and skill levels are welcome!
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Stefanie Lieberman
Cost: $570
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Working in oil or pastel from photographic reference, this class is about translating the photographic image onto either canvas or paper. Focusing on color, value and mark making as essential tools, students are encouraged to move a step beyond the restraints of a camera to create a successful and personal work. Discussion will include working with painting mediums and exploring different techniques.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Anne Graham
Cost: $570
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Discover the expressive world of pastel with artist Barbara Berry in Still Life and Landscape in Pastel. Known for her emphasis on suggestion rather than precise detail, Barbara guides students on a journey of creative interpretation—inviting both beginners and seasoned artists to explore the rich possibilities of soft pastels. Through dynamic in-class still life setups and personal photographic references, participants will learn to capture atmosphere, emotion, and form with bold color and evocative strokes.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Barbara Berry
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

This course is designed to help you develop the skills needed to paint a portrait and achieve a likeness of your subject, working either in a traditional or contemporary style. Focus will be on observation, composition, and color with an emphasis on skin tones as well as learning to translate the various planes of color and light that are so important in painting the figure. Students may work in Pastel or Oil. Tuition includes model fees.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Anne Graham
Cost: $470
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Painting the human form from observation is one of the cornerstones of PAFA's long tradition of rigorous instruction. Working from the nude model, investigate color mixing, proportion, and composition. Focusing on alla prima painting techniques and a limited flesh-tone palette, learn to model the human form through gesture, shape, volume, and temperature – excellent for painted sketches and preparatory studies, foundations for extended work, or an introduction/refresher to figure painting. Intended for all skill levels, this course also offers the valuable opportunity for more advanced students to continue to hone their skills to deepen their understanding of the language of painting. Instruction will be geared toward oil, but students may draw-only, or use other appropriate media, if they wish.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: David Wilson
Cost: $330
Sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Website, email, 215-972-7632

Paint from a life model in long, multi-class poses to develop and refine your figure painting compositions. Extended poses will allow students to adjust and resolve issues of surface, color, and composition. Instruction will cover a variety of topics including glazing, broken color, surface texture, composition and design, the relationship of the figure to the environment, the creation of atmosphere and color harmony, disrupted realism, and open- versus closed-form painting. All levels welcome. Instruction will be geared toward oil, but students are welcome to draw-only, or use other appropriate media, if they wish. Note: Tuition includes a $35 models fee.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: David Wilson
Cost: $330
Sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Website, email, 215-972-7632

Discover the expressive world of pastel with artist Barbara Berry in Still Life and Landscape in Pastel. Known for her emphasis on suggestion rather than precise detail, Barbara guides students on a journey of creative interpretation—inviting both beginners and seasoned artists to explore the rich possibilities of soft pastels. Through dynamic in-class still life setups and personal photographic references, participants will learn to capture atmosphere, emotion, and form with bold color and evocative strokes.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Barbara Berry
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

This 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. The pattern of its branches, roots and rippling bark tell each tree’s life story. Our goal in this class is to simplify the tree's structure and capture its essence as effectively as possible. We will describe tree trunks using intentional brush marks and explore how small adjustments in color and value will bend branches into the foreground and background. The class will include lots of one-on-one instruction and a lecture exploring how both historical and contemporary painters approach tree construction.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Claire Haik
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

This workshop will focus on understanding color temperature, its ability to bring vitality to the painted surface as well as its use as a powerful tool in identifying and controlling color in your work. Students can work from still life or photo references and in any medium, however, oil painting will be the primary focus. Daily demos will be followed by individual instruction and general discussion.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Jon Redmond
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553