Filter by Subcategory
Courses by Subject
Painting + Printmaking (In-Person)
with Justine Ditto
Mondays, 12:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Instructor: Justine Ditto
Six-WeekShort Course (18 Hours)
Painting and printmaking go hand-in-hand, not only as adjacent mediums but in combination. This freeing and instructive course presents printmaking techniques as jumping off points to making mixed media work in spirit of experimentation and personal expression. Learn how to make monotypes, drypoints, and screenprints as a foundation for incorporating your choice of graphite, colored pencil, acrylic, watercolor, oil paint, and/or collage. Content includes technical advice from an artist-instructor ideally skilled in a variety of media as well as critiques to expand your creative boundaries. This class is perfect for painters/draftspeopleseeking to expand their processes, printmakers seeking to employ painterly and mixed media techniques, and anyone with love of color and experimentation. Open to all levels – no prior printmaking or painting experience required. Tuition includes a $20 materials fee.
Image: Justine Ditto
Registration still open!
Materials List
Fall 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Animals in Watercolor (Online)
with Michelle Oosterbaan
Mondays, 6 – 8 p.m. (Zoom) with Asynchronous Canvas Content
Instructor: Michelle Oosterbaan
Six-Week Course (18-Hour Equivalent)
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: October 27
Materials List
Fall 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Information for PAFA CE Online Courses
Water, Water, Everywhere: How to Paint Water in All Media (In-Person)
with James Toogood
Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Instructor: James Toogood
Weekend Workshop
Water: It’s all around us -- streams, rivers, lakes, oceans, atmospheric effects, and more. It's a key ingredient in watercolor painting, regardless of the subject matter. But how does the artist create the illusion of water in a painting, regardless of the medium? This two-day workshop will present key tactics an artist can employ when painting bodies of water. Examine the nature of reflections, water movement, how water appears under various weather and lighting conditions, and more. Instruction includes demonstrations of how to incorporate various water effects in your own work and a review of the ways master artists historically have portrayed water in their paintings over the years. Open to all levels. Demonstrations will be conducted in watercolor, but instruction presents valuable information for painters of all media.
Image: James Toogood.
Register by: November 7
Materials List
Fall 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Color Matters Workshop (Online)
with Kassem Amoudi
Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. (Zoom Only)
Instructor: Kassem Amoudi
Weekend Workshop
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 KassemAmoudi in this condensed two-day workshop. 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 to guide students toward their goals. This course is excellent for students seeking to jumpstart their use of color in abstract/nonobjective imagery. Painting experience recommended.
Image: Kassem Amoudi
Register by: November 14
Materials List
Fall 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Information for PAFA CE Online Courses
Advanced Portrait Drawing Workshop (In-Person)
with RA Friedman
Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Instructor: RA Friedman
Weekend Workshop
This intensive workshop is designed for those looking to push their portrait drawing abilities toward the professional level. Demonstrations and in-class exercises will open up how you see, think, and approach the creation of a likeness, avoiding common pitfalls. Explore subtleties of form and the relationships of lines, planes and tones, capturing the character and energy of the subject. Additionally, instruction will cover facial expressions and deep anatomy of the face, neck, and upper body. Drawing will be primarily in graphite pencil and stick. Introductory portrait drawing or equivalent recommended. Note: Tuition includes a $10 models fee.
Image: RA Friedman
Register by: December 1
Materials List
Fall 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio: Graphic Narrative and Comics, DM 203 (In-Person)
with Deon Robinson
Mondays, 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Instructor: Deon Robinson
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Course (45 Hours)
Note: No class on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 19, or during Spring Break, March 2 – 8.
PAFA’s Extended Studio Courses offer fifteen-weeks of comprehensive instruction taught by PAFA's core faculty for an immersive fine arts experience. PAFA's selection of Continuing Education traditional-length and short courses will be coming soon!
With a focus on telling stories utilizing artwork, this course explores the juxtaposition of word and image, sequentially, and other narrative tools to convey visual meaning. Participants will complete several visual narratives within a variety of formats, which may include a series of related images, a comic book, picture book, graphic novel, or other illustrated narrative. Course Modality: in-person.
Image: Deon Robinson
Register by: January 2
Materials will be addressed via PAFA’s Canvas online platform (if applicable) or on the first day of class.
Please review the CE Winter/Spring Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Notes: Extended Studio Courses are not eligible for PAFA membership or promotional discounts. A minimum 10% fee applies to withdrawals, including same-day – students are advised to confirm their schedules before registering.
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio: Painting the Figure, FY 118 (In-Person)
with Douglas Martenson
Mondays, 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM*
Instructor: Douglas Martenson
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Course (45 – 90 Hours)
Note: No class on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 19, or during Spring Break, March 2 – 8.
PAFA’s Extended Studio Courses offer fifteen-weeks of comprehensive instruction taught by PAFA's core faculty for an immersive fine arts experience. PAFA's selection of Continuing Education traditional-length and short courses will be coming soon!
Oil medium will be used throughout this course to produce a series of achromatic, monochromatic, limited color and full color studies of the figure in simple spatial situations. Paint application will be direct, although indirect approaches and optical color will be addressed. Particular attention will be paid to the analysis of hue, value and chroma to describe form and levels of space. Poses and environments will initially be kept simple to allow for the development of small, rapid studies. Time spent on each pose will then expand throughout the semester to explore a more complex treatment of form, color, surface, and design.
*Optional: This course is also available for full-day attendance (morning, 8:30 - 11:30 a.m. and afternoon, 1 - 4 p.m.) for $2,800. Select length with tuition adjustment during checkout.
Image: Douglas Martenson
Register by: January 2
Materials will be addressed via PAFA’s Canvas online platform (if applicable) or on the first day of class.
Please review the CE Winter/Spring Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Notes: Extended Studio Courses are not eligible for PAFA membership or promotional discounts. A minimum 10% fee applies to withdrawals, including same-day – students are advised to confirm their schedules before registering.
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio: Indirect Painting, PT 204 (In-Person)
with Jill A. Rupinski
Mondays, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Instructor: Jill A. Rupinski
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Course (45 Hours)
Note: No class on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 19, or during Spring Break, March 2 – 8.
PAFA’s Extended Studio Courses offer fifteen-weeks of comprehensive instruction taught by PAFA's core faculty for an immersive fine arts experience. PAFA's selection of Continuing Education traditional-length and short courses will be coming soon!
The Indirect painting process is a slow and disciplined way of working that exploits the versatile characteristics of oil paint. This course is designed to give the artist a structure to manipulate the full range of oil paint with underpainting and glazing. Students will be given guidelines in oil painting and oil medium characteristics to aid in decisions for a successful outcome in their painting. Hands-on approaches to various substrates, and grounds will set the foundation for paintings choices. Drawing, transferring, underpainting and pigment choices will be outlined in a step-by-step process. The PAFA collection will provide a range of opportunities to study from,however the final project will be open in subject matter. Course Modality: in-person.
Image: Jill A. Rupinski
Register by: January 2
Materials will be addressed via PAFA’s Canvas online platform (if applicable) or on the first day of class.
Please review the CE Winter/Spring Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Notes: Extended Studio Courses are not eligible for PAFA membership or promotional discounts. A minimum 10% fee applies to withdrawals, including same-day – students are advised to confirm their schedules before registering.