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All CE Summer 2024 In-Person and Online Courses
Paint the Evening City (Outdoor)
with Frederic Kaplan
Tuesdays, 6 – 8:30 p.m.
Instructor: Frederic Kaplan
Four-Week Short Course (10 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit Only
Learn to paint the unique effects of evening light and activity of Center City and University City, Philadelphia. Discover techniques for managing the shifting light and shadows of the setting sun as it plays across the city’s historic architecture. This plein air option is perfect for summer painting, allowing artists to take advantage of cooling evening temperatures and the subtle or dramatic palette of sunset and dusk. Previous painting experience required. Restrooms near all locations. Note: Students are responsible for their own transportation to painting locations.
Image: Sybille Zeldin, Street Scene, Courtesy of student.
Register by: July 1
Materials List
Summer 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Foundry: An Introduction (In-Person)
with Morgan Dummitt
Thursdays, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Instructor: Morgan Dummitt
Six-Week Condensed Course (36 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit (See Below)
This course will cover all aspects of the foundry process. Demonstrations and hands-on instruction will be given in wax modeling and casting, ceramic shell techniques, bronze pouring, metal chasing, TIG welding and patination. All levels welcome. Note: Tuition includes a $65 lab fee.
Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $760 (including lab fee). Select credit option with price adjustment when registering.
Image: Morgan Dummitt, Hygieia (detail), 2023, Bronze, 27 x 11 x 8 in.
Register by: July 5
Materials List
Summer 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
The Portrait in Oil (In-Person)
with Al Gury
Thursdays, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Instructor: Al Gury
Six-Week Condensed Course (36 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit (See Below)
Paint portraits from a variety of models using the direct painting method. Examine the proportions and volumes of the head, as well as the placement, structure, and characteristics of the facial features, through preliminary drawings and demonstrations. Develop color using a limited palette to understand how to use chroma, temperature, value, tint, and tone. Instruction will address materials, composition, paint handling, and color mixing, blending, and theory. Homework assignments working from photos, Masterworks, or oneself/others will encourage students to learn to make personal aesthetic and technical choices and to practice concepts addressed in class. Open to all levels, this course is excellent for beginners as well as experienced students who want to review fundamental techniques or who simply enjoy painting portraits from life. Note: Course tuition includes a $50 model fee.
Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $745 (including models fee). Select credit option with price adjustment when registering.
Image: Al Gury
Register by: July 3
Materials List
Summer 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Pour, Peel, and Paint: Abstract Techniques in Acrylics (In-Person)
with Anthony Ciambella
Thursdays, 1 - 4 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.
Image: Anthony Ciambella.
Register by: July 5
Materials List
Summer 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Watercolor: The Color-Focused Still Life (In-Person)
with Keith Leitner
Thursdays, 6 – 9 p.m.
Instructor: Keith Leitner
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit Only
Explore both the versatility of watercolor and the exciting possibilities of color through still life painting. Learn to capture form with the freshness and fluidity of all prima techniques. Promote color in your work through instruction on color properties, mixing, and basic theory, as well as how to use hues in combination to create impactful compositions. Discussions and in-depth demonstrations will enforce all content so that students gain the facility and freedom to use color and painting techniques as means of personal expression.
Image: Keith Leitner.
Register by: July 5
Materials List
Summer 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
All About Acrylics (In-Person)
with Frederic Kaplan
Fridays, 9 a.m - 12 p.m.
Instructor: Frederic Kaplan
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit Only
This complete acrylic painting course covers basics to advanced methods. Learn to use quick-drying acrylics expertly in thin, transparent layers as well as thicker, more opaque applications that produce textural and impasto effects. Materials like fluid mediums, gels, and pastes will be demonstrated, along with both brush and palette knife techniques. Several different color palettes will be introduced as students work from still life subjects. This course is ideal for students looking for a non-toxic, flexible painting medium, as well as anyone seeking to explore acrylics’ excellent potential for representational and abstract work. Drawing experience is recommended.
Image: Fred Kaplan.
Register by: July 5
Materials List
Summer 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
In-Depth Watercolor, Session 2 (In-Person)
with James Toogood
Fridays, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Instructor: James Toogood
Six-Week Condensed Course (42 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.5 Undergraduate Credits (See Below)
Enrich your knowledge of painting with an in-depth look at watercolor. Thoroughly investigate a wide range of watercolor materials and techniques from your choice of landscape, still life, portrait, and figure subjects. Open to watercolorists of all levels and to acrylic/oil painters looking to broaden their skills.
Learning Objectives
- Students will learn about color theory as applied to watercolor.
- Students will receive a comprehensive explanation of watercolor materials and tools, with particular focus will be paid to the properties of paint and pigments as they interact with the paintbrushes and paper.
- Through both discussions and demonstrations, first time participants and beginners will learn a variety of techniques that are fundamental to watercolor, presented in a systematic step by step method. Participants can expect to have regular individual instruction, given at their current skill level.
- Focus also will be paid on acquiring the skills needed to achieve a richness of color and a feeling of light.
- Participants will work from direct observations from the still life and model, as well as from one’s own source materials.
- Those not taking the class for credit will have the option to work on landscape, still life, portrait and figure or abstraction, as they wish.
- Participants will be exposed to a variety of watercolor styles and encouraged to discover one’s own personal aesthetic.
- The course is ultimately designed to equip participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to make accomplished, personally rewarding watercolor paintings.
Optional: This Condensed Course is available for 1.5 undergraduate credits for $995. Select credit option with price adjustment when registering.
Image: James Toogood, Venice.
Register by: July 5
Materials List
Summer 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Land Art and Mindfulness Workshop (Online and Outdoor)
with Colleen O'Donnell
Saturday Zoom Intro, 1 – 3 p.m. and Sunday Outdoors/On-Location, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. (See below for rain date.)
Instructor: Colleen O’Donnell
Weekend Workshop
Credit: Non-Credit Only
Nature can stimulate creativity and mindfulness, and likewise mindful creativity can amplify one’s appreciation of nature. Improve your ability to be conscious in and with nature by creating a temporary artwork in a natural setting using the materials found there. Making an artwork onsite not only amplifies attention to the beautiful details of one’s surroundings, but also the ephemeral, or impermanent, nature of land work releases the artist from preconceived ideas or pressures of making a lasting "product" so that they can be concerned only with living and creating in the moment. The class will meet first via Zoom to discuss ideas of land art, view examples, and plan for their activity. Students will then gather and create their works in Montgomery County's peaceful Fort Washington State Park, and afterward photograph it or make a short video to preserve the memory. This workshop is a great way to use art-makingas a way to relax and connect with nature.No prior experience necessary. Students are responsible for their own transportation.
Note: Please reserve rain dates of July 20 – 21. Regular refund policies apply to original dates only; no refunds available for students unable to attend rain dates. See CE policy guide below for withdrawal policies.
Image: Colleen O'Donnell, Oceanscape, driftwood, shells and plastic straw, 6 x 18 x 6 in.
Register by: July 26
Materials List
Summer 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies