Mondays, 12:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Instructor: Roger Chavez
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit Only

Cultivate fluid mark-making and bold approaches to subject matter through rapid and loose painting studies. Tight and precise painting, especially in the early stages of an artwork, can sometimes lead to work that appears stiff and over-labored, or to locked-in compositions that are difficult to change or correct. Working from the still life, cityscapes, and the life model, utilize short, small painting exercises to learn new ways of starting paintings, keeping compositions open to adjustment, and both initiating and retaining a sense of freshness in your forms and brushstrokes. Instruction will address color mixing, painting materials and methodologies, and the importance of setting a viable learning environment for your painting practice. Discover the beauty and freedom of loosening up your painting! Note: Tuition includes a $15 models fee.

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

Mondays, 12:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Instructor: Richard Estell
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit Only

Explore the painting techniques of the masters who pioneered the 19th and 20th century American watercolor movement, including Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Edward Hopper, and Charles Demuth. Characterized by bright color and bold handling that includes accents of opaque watercolor and loose washes, work in this tradition captures subject matter with dazzling light-filled effects. Practice these classic methods and learn to incorporate them into your own artwork to achieve a greater freedom of expression as well as adaptability and control in the way that you paint. Demonstrations and art historical discussions will be combined with short and more extensive still life and self-portrait exercises. This course is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels.

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

Wednesdays, 6 - 9 p.m.
Instructor: Frederic Kaplan
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit Only

If you’ve never painted before, or your skills are a little rusty, this class is for you. Exploit the resources of PAFA’s dedicated still-life studio and its many thoughtfully composed arrangements. You will acquire grounding in the basics so you can paint what you see with confidence. Materials and painting methods will be discussed and demonstrated, including color mixing and theory. Examples of Master paintings, coupled with individual and group critiques, will help direct and inform your efforts.

Register by: March 5
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 

Thursdays, 12:30 - 3:30 p.m.
Instructor: Phyllis Laver
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit Only

For students seeking to expand their beginning drawing skills or those new to working from the figure, this class will focus on applying drawing’s basic elements to the human form. Starting from Antique and Classical sculpture from PAFA’s cast collection and progressing to work from the life model in short and long poses, work in charcoal and graphite to explore figure-based concepts of gesture, proportions, anatomy, and expression. Instruction will cover sight-drawing and measuring techniques, use of materials, gauging value, and ways of defining form and space. This course is excellent as a foundation for future study in any discipline or for more advanced figure-based work. Note: This part 2 course includes the use of nude models. Tuition includes a $35 models fee.

Note: Optional Part 1 Drawing Fundamentals: Line and Form is not required as a prerequisite to Cast and Figure.

Register by: March 6
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Fridays, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Instructor: Justine Ditto
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit Only 

Lithography is a versatile printmaking process that allows for a complete range of drawing effects: contour line, hatching/cross-hatching, painterly wash applications, expressive mark-making, and reductive techniques. Learn all aspects of the lithographic process through step-by-step demonstrations and hands-on practice: preparing a traditional stone or lightweight aluminum plate; creating your own drawing from observation, imagination or photographic transfer using a range of drawing materials; selecting paper; printing in black-and-white and color; and editioning your prints. Note: Tuition includes a $20 lab fee. 

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

Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.*
Instructor: David Wilson
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit Only
*No class on April 5.

Paint from a life model in a multi-week-pose format 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.

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

Thursdays, 6 - 8 p.m. (Zoom with posted Canvas content) 
Instructor: Michelle Oosterbaan 
Six-Week Short Course (18-Hour Equivalent)
Credit: Non-Credit Only

Dogs, cats, and other animals at home or in nature have been depicted in master drawings and paintings throughout the centuries — as portrait subjects themselves or as a part of landscapes, domestic scenes, still lifes, and other genres. Find inspiration in the creatures of the great outdoors or those curled up on your own couch to make animals a meaningful part of your painting practice.  Utilize sketches and photo references to explore ways of realistically and expressively depicting domestic or wild animals, to capture facial features, posture/gesture, and textural effects of fur, feathers and whiskers while learning sound visual principles and techniques in water-media. Content will include examples from historical and contemporary art, engaging homework assignments, and discussions about the role of animals in art and tactics for making them a special focus in your own work. Instruction will focus on drawing and watercolor or gouache painting, but students are welcome to work in other media.

Image: Honoré Desmond Sharrer, Study for "Two Dogs in a Still Life" (detail), mid 20th century, casein or gouache on paper, 11 x 14 in. Collection of PAFA, gift of Adam Zagorin and the late Perez Zagorin. Copyright © artist or artist’s estate.

Register by: March 14
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Information for PAFA CE Online Courses