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

This workshop explores the evocative world of nocturne painting through the delicate and expressive medium of watercolor. Focusing on landscape scenes at the edge of day—sunset, twilight, and night—students will learn to capture the silvery light and subtle atmospheric effects that define these transitional hours. Learn how to work with restrained hues and layered washes to create a sense of depth and unity, to suggest rather than describe subject matter. Instruction will emphasize tonalist concerns of working with muted color palettes, gentle value shifts, and harmonious compositions. Through individualized guidance, participants will hone their sensitivity to tonal relationships and the expressive potential of nocturne painting.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: James Toogood
Cost: $225
Sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Website, email, 215-972-7632

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.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Peter Van Dyck
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Learn how to paint beautiful landscapes on location! In this class, we will discuss the fundamentals of painting en plein air as well as more advanced topics like drawing, composition, and color theory. The first day will begin with a 30-minute lecture and discussion on the core concepts of plein air painting. This will be followed by a 2.5-hour painting demonstration. After a 1-hour lunch break, students will begin work on their own paintings while Marc gives individualized instruction. Class will end at 4pm, but students may continue to paint if they wish. Days 2 and 3 will follow a similar format. The class will end with a group critique and discussion.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Marc Anderson
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

In this fast paced and fun weekend workshop we discuss the importance of composition and design in our work and then apply what we’ve learned to a variety of subjects in the process exploring the magical qualities of watercolor.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Mick McAndrews
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Inspired by painters like Cezanne such as John Marin, this class will inspire your process to loosen up and reveal what is important in a scene. If you have ever enjoyed sketchbook studies of scenes that are not fully painted, this workshop will give you the opportunity to practice working quickly but thoughtfully to create smaller studies (under 8 x 10) of several images of your own, using rich color but leaving the white of the paper to enhance the light in a scene. There will be short demonstration and discussion as the instructor shares master painters demonstrating this style of painting to inspire your process.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Abby Ober
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Our interest is whether two distinct pictorial genres, the portrait and the nude figure, can challenge each other and make each more interesting. The expressive overlap in portraiture and figure painting has been a central concern in my work for over forty years. To explore this experience the workshop will consist of two all day poses. Participants may use any painting medium (oil, acrylic, pastel, opaque watercolor), but the emphasis will be in pushing the participants’ efforts through changes and revision which may include the model’s change of state from nude to clothed or vice versa. My interest is in “likeness” which is as much involved with gesture, proportion, and spatial context as the disposition of features, complexion, and light.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Scott Noel
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

This two-day workshop explores how artists can use limited palettes, dominant color relationships, and value structure to create landscape paintings with greater mood, atmosphere, and emotional impact. Through demonstrations, discussion, and hands-on painting exercises, students will learn how simplifying color choices can create stronger design, clearer visual statements, and more expressive paintings. Student Level: Open to painters with prior experience (beginner through advanced). This workshop is not intended for absolute beginners with no painting experience. Medium: Oil is preferred; however, painters working in other media are welcome provided they have prior experience in their chosen medium.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Mark Vander Vinne
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Every strong painting begins with a thoughtful foundation. In this one-day workshop, students will first explore applying transparent patches of vibrant color to the painting surface, creating an energetic underpainting that adds excitement and provides color relationships to build upon throughout the process. From there, we'll establish transparent darks to define the value structure, composition, and overall color harmony. You'll learn to mix a variety of rich, colorful darks while connecting dark shapes to dark shapes and light shapes to light shapes, creating visual pathways that guide the viewer's eye through the painting. Once the design is established, we'll transition to thicker, opaque light passages, bringing the painting to life with clarity, unity, and luminous color.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Fred Jackson
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553

Paint loose and intuitive in a workshop where color, shape and line come together to make impactful designs inspired by your color palette and your style of brushwork. Students will work on various small color studies (4 x 6 or 6 x 8) at first to determine color palette and choose a favorite composition to paint larger the second half of the day (11x 14 or 16 x 20). This is a day for those who move away from painting objects or landscapes to emphasize feeling and movement.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Abby Ober
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553