Art Workshops, Classes & Retreats

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"Critical Explorations with Tom Csaszar"
February 22 & March 29, 2025
 

In evaluating visual works fully, often one has to see them outside your studio, in another context, perhaps with other works, and also hearing responses from other people about them. Each class will begin with a discussion of one to four works brought to the class by each participant and continue with studio time in which each person can work in the mediums they bring with them to develop visual works in drawings, watercolors, paintings, collages, or other mediums. We will end with a short discussion of the works made in class. If time permits, and according to the interests of the class, we may look and discuss works in the Cerulean Gallery that are pertinent to our works.
 
Location: Philadelphia, PA, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Tom Csaszar
Cost: $95 each
Sponsor: Cerulean Arts Gallery and Studio
Website, email, 267-514-8647


"Color and the Landscape"
February 22, 2025
 

Learn how to use color for emotional impact and scenic clarity in your landscape paintings. We'll see how color works in realistic and expressive landscapes throughout art history and apply those lessons to our paintings. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced artist, this workshop will allow you to slow down and explore color from a new angle. We will discuss how color is used to create depth, atmosphere, and mood in a painting and how the color of the sky disperses 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 focused on color. Students may use oil, acrylic, or gouache.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Claire Haik
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553


"Acrylic Pour Painting"
Wednesdays, February 26 - April 2, 2025
 

Explore the versatility of acrylic paint! Learn to pour fluid layers of paint to make abstract paintings or peel, sculpt and collage them into something else. Discover alternative supports, brushes, and methods of paint application to incorporate into your current painting practice. All levels welcome!
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Anthony Ciambella
Cost: $250
Sponsor: Cerulean Arts Gallery and Studio
Website, email, 267-514-8647


"Mixed Media Collage Painting"
Thursdays, February 27 - April 3, 2025
 

Explore your creativity, open your senses and sharpen your mind to new realms of art-making with noted artist Mikel Elam. Mikel will help you articulate your vision and bring it to concrete reality in the form of a finished work. Explore techniques new and old with paint, paper, found objects and ephemera to best express both representational and abstract perspectives. Channel ideas of progressive artists from the past and present including Henri Matisse, Romare Bearden, Cecily Brown, Joan Mitchell while finding your own voice.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Mikel Elam
Cost: $250
Sponsor: Cerulean Arts Gallery and Studio
Website, email, 267-514-8647


"Mixed Media"
Thursdays, February 27 - April 3, 2025
 

This dynamic course invites artists of all skill levels to explore the limitless possibilities of mixed media. Students will learn to create richly layered artworks that express their unique artistic vision by combining various materials and techniques. Class sessions will cover a range of media, including acrylics, collage, ink, cut and torn paper, found objects, and more; while emphasizing principles of composition, texture, and color theory. Students will engage in hands-on experimentation, guided exercises, and individual projects, discovering how to merge different art forms into cohesive pieces. Whether you’re a beginner eager to try something new or an experienced artist seeking fresh inspiration, this course fosters creativity, self-expression, and an appreciation for the unexpected beauty of mixed media art.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Heidi Techner
Cost: $285
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553


"Exploring the Landscape"
Fridays, March 7-28, 2025
 

This intermediate-level landscape painting workshop offers an exciting opportunity to deepen your understanding and skills in capturing the natural world. Whether you work from plein air studies or reference photos, you’ll have the chance to learn how to develop more complete and nuanced paintings. Throughout the course, we will focus on key elements of landscape painting, including: Shapes and Composition, Color, Light and Atmosphere. Please come prepared for the first class with your painting supplies and a selection of surfaces in various sizes. All mediums are welcome. The instructor will be working in oils.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Claudia Rilling
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553


"Painting & Ephemera"
Fridays, March 7-28, 2025
 

Reboot your painting practice by incorporating unexpected materials that you wouldn't normally compose a painting with - grocery lists, diary pages, junk mail, things in the street such as a flattened pencil or chunk of sanding belt, or something that you don’t really know what it is but the shape or material interests you. Learn practical methods to incorporate these materials into a cohesive painted surface, as well as strategies for defeating artist's block so you can start and move a painting(s) forward. Question stereotypical notions of what paintings are and how to make them in order to realize your personal vision and practice.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Philippa Beardsley
Cost: $175
Sponsor: Cerulean Arts Gallery and Studio
Website, email, 267-514-8647


"Teen Studio: Advanced Drawing & Painting/Portfolio Prep (Age: 14+)"
Saturdays, March 8 - April 5, 2025
 

This class is for high school students looking to deepen their skills in 2D composition and life drawing and painting. Working from a still life arrangement, students will create detailed 18" x 24" realistic compositions from life using chalk pastels and acrylic paint. Students will benefit from highly individualized instruction in a small class setting. As many college art programs and art schools require observational work in portfolio submissions, this class will also provide the opportunity to create a strong and essential portfolio piece. This is a 5-week, 2.5-hour class.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Sarah Colby
Cost: $225
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553


"Pour, Peel, and Paint: Abstract Techniques in Acrylics"
Tuesdays, March 11 - April 15, 2025
 

Push the boundaries of what it means to paint with acrylics in this exciting exploration into experimental techniques. Explore the fluid, sculptural, assembled possibilities of acrylics! This hands-on, one-of-a-kind journey will take you places that you never thought you would go in acrylic painting: pour paint to make layers of color that can be peeled up, sculpted into three-dimensional forms, or collaged and layered into other paintings or mixed-media works. Create flexible tiles of acrylic color that can be snipped, shaped, and assembled into mosaics or applied to a variety of surfaces for artistic or decorative effects. Discover a myriad of alternative supports, brushes, and methods of paint application to incorporate abstract effects into your work.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Anthony Ciambella
Cost: $295
Sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Website, email, 215-972-7632


"Figure Painting: The Extended Pose"
Saturdays, March 15 - April 19, 2025
 

Paint from a life model in poses of varying lengths 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


"The Portrait - Simplifying the Complex"
March 15-16, 2025
 

This workshop will simplify the complexity of information that a face presents by breaking down the two critical components of “likeness” and “light on form”. While painting from a live model, we will achieve a likeness by identifying the simple proportions of the face and features. Additionally, to understand how “light on form” works we will identify the simple structure of the values in light and shadow, and see how this creates a sense of dimension in your work. Our paintings will start with a grisaille (tonal study in paint) and then move into color with a simplified palette. The workshop is geared toward oil painting, but mediums other than oil are welcome.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Ellen Cooper
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553


"Painting Trees: A Beginners Approach"
March 22, 2025
 

This one-day tree painting workshop dives into tree structure and how to capture a tree's personality in painting. We will focus on building the tree's gesture, capturing its shape and movement, creating depth with its trunk, and understanding how its foliage integrates into the larger form. Our goal is to learn how to generalize the tree's structure and capture its essence without getting bogged down in minute details. The class will include lots of one-on-one instruction and a lecture exploring how both historical and contemporary painters approach tree construction. Instead of aiming for finished paintings, we'll create two or three tree studies to solidify our understanding of trees and how we can communicate their individual character. Work in oil or acrylic.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Claire Haik
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553


"Intuitive Painting"
March 22-23, 2025
 

There is a misconception that drawing and painting are two completely different animals. Not true! Drawing and painting come from the same root. Both are forms of mark making. If we take that to heart, we can better understand the mechanics of how paintings are made. This then leads to an open path in the pursuit of art making. This two-day course will immerse the student in a series of exercises that with strengthen and reinforce very basic principles that are often overlooked. Your artwork will take on a dynamism and movement that only a painting can convey. I will show you ways to stretch your visual experience and then gain confidence with your image making thru intuitive choices.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Lon Brauer
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553


"Painting with a Palette Knife"
April 5-6, 2025
 

This two-day workshop will focus on the use of the palette knife, the freedom it affords and the emphasis of color in your paintings. While the palette knife can be used to enhance brush paintings, it is a perfect tool for impressionistic as well as abstracted images rich in color. I will introduce the differences between brush painting and knife painting by executing 2 small paintings of the same subject with the different tools as I briefly review issues of composition, value, and color mixing. As you work on your own paintings in oil or acrylic, I will assist you in color relationships, values, use of the knife, edges, etc.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Cynthia Rosen
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553


"City Landscape Drawing and Painting"
Sundays, April 6 - May 18, 2025
 

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


"Plein Air Painting at Ridgeland Mansion"
April 26-27, 2025
 

Paint on location on the grounds of beautiful Ridgeland Mansion, the historic 18th century Federal-style house located in west Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Landscape painting topics will include color mixing to achieve a sense of light and air, capturing time of day, compositional fundamentals, and sound painting practices for oil, acrylic, or pastel painting. Students are responsible for their own transportation.
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Joseph Sweeney
Cost: $115
Sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Website, email, 215-972-7632


"Abstraction from Nature Workshop"
May 12-15, 2025
 

This class covers the fundamental tenets of design in art. You get to decide the level of abstraction you wish to explore. It is more a learn-how-to-think class where you learn a process that you can use to explore new ideas. It’s a crash course on finding authenticity in your work. This class covers the seven principles of creative expression and the language of art. Larry’s intent is to help each artist find a way that works that is unique to them, whether they wish to interpret from life, push their process, or go fully abstract. This is not a class for beginners, participants need to have some experience with drawing, color and painting.
 
Location: Wayne, Pennsylvania
Instructor: Larry Moore
Sponsor: Wayne Art Center
Website, email, 610-688-3553


 

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