Paint on location at Philadelphia's historic Fairmount Park mansions! Built in the 18th century, these houses feature amazing architecture, beautiful gardens, and scenic views. Each week will feature a different instructor including: Lisa BergerLentz, Mark Bockrath, Roger Chavez, & Lou Schellenberg, demonstrating oil, watercolor/gouache and pastel techniques, reference art historical examples, cover the ins-and-outs of working outdoors and encourage personal expression. Includes a tour of each historic house (optional)! Work with the materials of your choice including watercolor, oil, acrylic and drawing media. Restrooms and free parking will be available.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Various
Cost: $250
Sponsor: Cerulean Arts Gallery & Studio
Website, email, 267-514-8647

Having a well-chosen limited palette is not only incredibly useful but also highly practical for plein air painting and all other studio work. That said, many artists find that a limited palette sometimes falls short—there are always a few colors they need that simply can’t be mixed from the ones they have. Through rigorous investigation, Qiang has examined color performance using a systematic process. His findings are backed by scientific evidence that supports clear reasoning and informed decision-making. He will introduce a new seven-color limited palette that he has found to be effective across nearly all genres, both in the studio and outdoors. To test its versatility, Qiang spent about a year painting exclusively with this palette.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Qiang Huang
Cost: $10
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Take an energetic painting journey with Susan Sullivan in this live Zoom Sunday class! Learn the basics of direct oil painting including composition, color mixing and paint handling. Create paintings from observation based on your own still life arrangements, window view/landscape, self-portrait, and through copying a master artwork. Receive helpful feedback and critique along the way. All levels welcome in this informative and fun class!
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Susan Sullivan
Cost: $195
Sponsor: Cerulean Arts Gallery and Studio
Website, email, 267-514-8647

This painting-essentials course presents an in-depth and practical examination of the role of color in oil and acrylic painting. Instruction will explore mixing strategies and the effects of color choices and relationships upon depth, atmosphere, and luminosity. A variety of painting methods will be addressed, with a focus on how to exploit glazing, scumbling, and velatura layering techniques to achieve richer and more lively color. The still-life subject matter is appropriate for painters of all experience levels, although those with prior experience will benefit most from the color-emphasis in content.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Frederic Kaplan
Cost: $450
Sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Website, email, 215-972-7632

Learn to explore new possibilities and paint more intuitively under the guidance of artist/critic/mentor Kassem Amoudi. Work from personal subject matter (objects, images, emotions, or ideas) to find your own visual language, informed by examples from contemporary and modern art. Examine how to use concepts of color, harmony, focal point, space, and mark-making as powerful tools of personal expression. Instruction is geared toward open painting time supported by critiques and advice from the instructor as he works one-on-one with students to guide them in their personal style and goals. This course is excellent for students pursuing abstract or nonobjective imagery, seeking knowledgeable feedback and a focused community painting environment. Painting experience recommended.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Kassem Amoudi
Cost: $450
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

Geometry has been a source of interest, beauty and creative inspiration for the artist through the ages. Geometric forms, lines and shapes are all around us and can be seen in everything from architecture to plant life to seashells. Learn non-mathematical strategies inspired by geometry designed to enhance your ongoing body of work or be the starting point for a new one with focus on simplifying subject matter, building a unified composition and creating or enhancing a color palette. Work in the medium of your choice: acrylic, gouache or watercolor while working from your own reference photographs, drawings, books or digital imagery. Designed for both beginners and experienced art makers.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Michael Smith
Cost: $175
Sponsor: Cerulean Arts Gallery and Studio
Website, email, 267-514-8647

Enjoy open-air painting in beautiful Valley Forge National Historic Park on the National Historic Register. The church site of George Washington’s Continental Army in 1777-1778 and now home to lush scenery and historic architecture! Located in Montgomery County, 35 minutes northwest of Center City Philadelphia, with ample parking and access to restrooms. Working from diverse landscape subject matter, students will learn essential plein air approaches, including color mixing to achieve a sense of light and air, capturing time of day, compositional fundamentals, and sound drawing and painting practices. Instruction is geared toward oil/acrylic painting and pastel drawing/painting. Meeting at the Washington Memorial Chapel parking lot.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Joseph Sweeney
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Push your color and simplify forms in this one-day expressive workshop. Working from sunny landscape photography of your own, you will explore ways to use an arbitrary approach to color and create compositions in the style of fauvist painters Henri Matisse and Andre Derain. Plan to paint no larger than 11 x14. A demo and examples of their fauves will be shared to better understand this vibrant style of painting.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Abby Ober
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Don't miss this opportunity to work with renowned painter Bill Scott to explore the sensuous yet thoughtful abstract construction of space in this two-day, intensive studio workshop. Color will be the focus as participants paint from an expansive still life environment with special prompts from Scott. This workshop is designed for intermediate/advanced painters.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Bill Scott
Cost: $395
Sponsor: Cerulean Arts Gallery and Studio
Website, email, 267-514-8647

Learn the basics of painting outdoors as you work on location at beautiful and historic Laurel Hill Cemetery featuring terraced grounds, sculpture, and amazing views of the Schuylkill River. Instruction will address the ins-and-outs of working outdoors, color and composition, art historical examples, and personal expression. You may work in the media of your choice including oil, acrylic, watercolor & pastel. Free parking and restrooms available.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Michelle Oosterbaan
Cost: $175
Sponsor: Cerulean Arts Gallery and Studio
Website, email, 267-514-8647

Too much of the same green? Discover the importance of using a range of greens to make your landscapes more impactful. Begin with creating a variety of color swatches of your chosen landscape, pushing some warmer or cooler or lighter or darker. Work on balancing these with other colors in your piece to create a harmonious and balanced composition. Various examples of paintings will be shared a short demo as well in color mixing from a limited palette of color. You can choose to work on smaller landscape studies or a larger finished piece.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Abby Ober
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Before a painting deserves a large canvas, it must survive the study. In this intensive one-day workshop, professional artist Vlad Duchev guides serious painters through the disciplined process that separates hesitation from mastery: structured, intentional studies. In today’s art culture, artists are often encouraged to “just paint.” But strong paintings are not accidents. They are built. A study is not a warm-up. It is not a quick sketch. It is a focused investigation. When you isolate one problem at a time — value, composition, temperature, edge, brushwork — clarity replaces guesswork. Confidence replaces correction. Authority replaces uncertainty.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Vlad Milan Duchev
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553