Wednesdays, 12:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Instructor: Kassem Amoudi
Ten-Week Course (30 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit  

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.  Open painting is heavily supported by critiques and advice from the instructor as he works one-on-one with each student 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.  

Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $595. Select credit option with price adjustment when registering. 

Register by: January 22
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies 

Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Instructor: Colleen O'Donnell
Weekend Workshop
Credit: Non-Credit Only

Learn how to translate ideas of nature and abstraction into three-dimensions through the medium of clay. Combine your observations of the forms and textures of the natural world with your imagination to create sculptures that capture the graceful lines, fluid forms, and intricate patterns of leaves, bark and branches, flowers, animal matter, and geological features. Students are encouraged to explore traditional and contemporary treatment of subject matter, with abstract expression encouraged to capture the essence and beauty of organic objects. Open to all levels; no experience necessary. 

Register by: February 7
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Saturdays, 1 – 3:30 p.m. (Zoom with posted Canvas content)
Instructor: Susan Sullivan
Ten-Week Course (30-Hour Equivalent)
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit (See Below)

Abstraction in art can look like a variety of different things, from the painterly glow of a Turner seascape to the flattened patterns of a Matisse interior to Pollock’s nonobjective drip technique. But how does one get from painting realistically what one can see in the real world to translating it into invented color and shape or to abandoning form altogether? Learn from master artists throughout modern art history by trying on their techniques to find your own personal style! Explore different paint application methods, color interactions, and compositional tactics as you take on a variety of subjects, including still life, interiors, landscape, and the figure or self-portrait…using the examples of Helen Frankenthaler, David Hockney, Mickalene Thomas, and other master artists to guide you. Each session will open with lecture/critique with artist examples and then lead into open painting time with one-on-one feedback from the instructor. Whether you are seeking to drive your current work to a new direction or simply experiment with different ways of generating imagery, this is a great steppingstone to making abstraction – in whatever form it may take – personal, expressive, and satisfying. Open to all media and levels but drawing experience recommended.

Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $595. Select credit option with price adjustment when registering.

Register by: February 7
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Information for PAFA CE Online Courses

Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Instructor: Kassem Amoudi
Weekend Workshop
Credit: Non-Credit Only

Many artists can feel frustrated in front of a blank canvas, unsure of how to start and what to paint. Paint with confidence by learning techniques to tap into your intuitive process and find inspiration more easily! Experienced instruction and advice will push students to take chances and explore unexpected directions and accidental marks to achieve artistic discoveries. Students will use line, color and space, and editing possibilities to create busy/calm areas and focal points in their paintings as they work from personal imagery, expression, and imagination. Instruction will take the form of PowerPoint presentation/examples, formal direction from modern and contemporary artists, and one-on-on critiques in Zoom sessions that are geared toward open painting time in a classroom-like setting.  Painting experience recommended.  

Register by: February 21
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Information for PAFA CE Online Courses 

Tuesdays, 12:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Instructor: Anthony Ciambella
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit Only 

If you believe that painting can be more than applying brush to canvas, this course is for you.  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 current body of work.  Push the boundaries of what it means to paint with acrylics in this exciting exploration into experimental techniques. 

Register by: March 3
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Thursdays, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. (Live Zoom Only)
Instructor: Kassem Amoudi
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit Only 

Elevate the role of color and learn how to incorporate it both strategically and intuitively into your paintings under the guidance of artist/critic/mentor Kassem Amoudi.  Examine concepts of temperature, value, saturation, and harmony/contrast through color relationships.  Explore color’s role in creating focal points, suggesting space, influencing mark, and promoting personal expression. Work from personal subject matter (objects, images, emotions, or ideas) to develop your personal style, informed by examples from contemporary and modern art. Zoom sessions feature open painting time, supported by critiques and advice from the instructor as he works one-on-one with each student to guide them toward their goals. This course is excellent for students seeking to promote their use of color in abstract/nonobjective imagery and anyone seeking knowledgeable feedback within a focused community painting environment.  Painting experience recommended.  

Register by: March 7
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Information for PAFA CE Online Courses