Clouds and trees are common and important features in landscape paintings, their masses frequently encompassing significant portions of the composition. But how does the artist imbue these elements with texture, individuality, and detail without making them appear contrived or overfussed? Examine types of cloud masses and how they may best be translated through additive and reductive methods. Explore means of mimicking organic tree forms through brush movement and how to use color and detail to suggest distance. Instruction includes painting demonstrations as well as a review of how master artists have represented these features in historic and contemporary works. Open to all levels. Demonstrations will be conducted in watercolor, but this class presents valuable information for painters of all media.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: James Toogood
Cost: $225
Sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Website, email, 215-972-7632

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

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

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

Given the priority of authentic light in my work, it is this element that I like to focus on during the three-day workshop. As such, we will focus on value and color temperature relationships above all else. While good drawing is paramount to our effort—since nothing spoils a painting faster than drawing errors—our time is better spent on the more difficult and crucial concepts of value and color temperature. Elements such as appropriate edges, surface texture, composition, and others will also be discussed as needed. We will be painting in oil.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Mark Boedges
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Come discover the surprising history of how landscape painting, once confined to the artist’s studio, moved out into the open air. This talk will consider the work of artists, some forgotten today, responsible for transforming landscape painting from a minor, marginal genre subject to a platform for personal expression. Explore this fascinating story with Bill Perthes and celebrate its ongoing impact in the Wayne Art Center’s 18th Annual Plein Air Festival.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: William Perthes
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553