Mondays, 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. 
Instructor: Justine Ditto
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours) 

Register by December 15 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2026 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Fall 2025 courses, studio rental programs, Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Courses (special programs), gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.

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/draftspeople seeking 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

Register by: January 20 
Materials List - Coming Soon
Please review CE's Winter/Spring 2026 Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies, prior to registering.

Mondays, 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. 
Instructor: Roberto Osti 
Twelve-Week Course (36 Hours) 
Note: No class during Spring Break, March 2 - 8.

Register by December 15 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2026 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Fall 2025 courses, studio rental programs, Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Courses (special programs), gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.

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. Content includes at least one cast study from PAFA's historic collection to improve understanding of modeling form through value. 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 $75 model fee. 

Image: Roberto Osti, portrait detail.

Register by: January 20 
Materials List - Coming Soon 
Please review CE's Winter/Spring 2026 Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies, prior to registering.

Saturdays, 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. 
Instructor: Steve Nocella 
Ten-Week Course (30 Hours) 
Note: No class during Spring Break, March 2 - 8.

Register by December 15 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2026 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Fall 2025 courses, studio rental programs, Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Courses (special programs), gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.

This ten-week course teaches the basic skills needed for making metal sculpture. Learn fundamental methods of cutting, bending and welding metal such as sawing, heating, and MIG welding. Students will be encouraged to explore the medium with directness and spontaneity to gain a knowledge and understanding of its complexion. Open to all levels. Note: Tuition includes a $65 lab fee.

Image: Steve Nocella, Bust with Helmet and Facemask No. 6, 2023, Mixed Media.

Register by: January 16 
Materials List - Coming Soon 
Please review CE's Winter/Spring 2026 Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies, prior to registering.

Wednesdays, 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. 
Instructor: Kassem Amoudi 
Ten-Week Course (30 Hours) 

Register by December 15 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2026 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Fall 2025 courses, studio rental programs, Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Courses (special programs), gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.

Learn to explore new possibilities and paint more intuitively under the guidance of artist/critic/mentor KassemAmoudi. 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. Instruction is geared toward open painting time supported by critiques and advice from the instructor as he works one-on-one with students 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.

Image: Kassem Amoudi

Register by: January 28 
Materials List - Coming Soon 
Please review CE's Winter/Spring 2026 Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies, prior to registering.

Wednesdays, 1 - 3:30 p.m. (Zoom meetings supported by interactive asynchronous Canvas content)
Instructor: Kate Samworth 
Eight-Week Course (24-Hour Equivalent) 

Register by December 15 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2026 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Fall 2025 courses, studio rental programs, Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Courses (special programs), gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.

Examine the social, scientific, religious, political, and economic factors that influenced centuries of cataloging the natural world, from ancient Greece to the Enlightenment. In this course, which combines art history with hands-on studio practice, students will learn to identify and imitate the traditional printmaking techniques that are integral to natural history illustration through a series of demonstrations in mixed media. Weekly hands-on Zoom sessions will be supplemented by recorded presentations on art history. Highlighted topics in science will encompass botany, ornithology, zoology, anatomy, entomology, cabinets of curiosity, marine life, and geometry in nature. Note: For intermediate-level students; prior still life drawing experience required.

Image: Kate Samworth, Ch.7 - Why Fish Don't Exist

Register by: January 28 
Materials List - Coming Soon 
Please review CE's Winter/Spring 2026 Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies, prior to registering.Information for PAFA CE Online Courses

Wednesdays, 6 - 9 p.m. 
Instructor: Morgan Dummitt 
Ten-Week Course (30 Hours) 

Register by December 15 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2026 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Fall 2025 courses, studio rental programs, Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Courses (special programs), gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.

Modeling the figure in clay is the foundational skill of traditional sculpture. Working from a model, learn to sculpt in clay from initial gesture to surface finishing techniques. Topics of study will include proportion, composition, structure, and simplified sculptural form. Students will complete two sculptures in the course of the class. All work will be fired after class. Beginners welcome. Note: Tuition includes a $65 models fee.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Gain a basic understanding of the osteology, myology, and anatomy of the figure
• Analyze and organize the various elements of the body into simplified sculptural forms
• Carry out best practices for modeling and maintaining water-based clay sculpture
• Understand best practices for creating ceramic sculpture

Image: Morgan Dummitt, Brittany, terracotta.

Register by: January 28 
Materials List - Coming Soon 
Please review CE's Winter/Spring 2026 Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies, prior to registering.

Fridays, 9 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. 
Instructor: Frederic Kaplan 
Ten Week Course (18 Hours) 

Using oil or acrylic paints, exploit a wide range of techniques and artistic languages to transform everyday reality into expressive, symbolic, or personal statements. Base your paintings on unique studio still-life arrangements or use your own photographs as a starting point, and progress to working from a life model during the final weeks of the course. Topics discussed and demonstrated include using color as an emotive element, designing compositions to convey mood and movement, and employing energetic mark-making. For less experienced students, materials, color mixing, and basic techniques are also reviewed.

Course Objectives

Students will learn…

• Selection and use basic materials, including the characteristics of various commonly used colors, solvents, and mediums 
• Execution of a variety of direct and indirect painting methods. 
• Approaches to interpreting and modifying observed reality to achieve emotive, symbolic, and compositional goals 
• Descriptive, emotive, and symbolic use of color, shape, and mark 
• Basic color theory and color mixing  

Image: Frederic Kaplan

Register by: January 30 
Materials List - Coming Soon 
Please review CE's Winter/Spring 2026 Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies, prior to registering.

Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Instructor: RA Friedman 
Weekend Workshop 

Register by December 15 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2026 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Fall 2025 courses, studio rental programs, Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Courses (special programs), gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.

Using inexpensive materials, this hands-on workshop will introduce the concepts and methods needed to create a strong sense of dimension and likeness in your portrait drawings. Explore the proportions and planes of the head, neck and shoulders. Learn how to create a structural foundation and how to easily manage anatomy by breaking down forms into simple geometric shapes. Instruction will address different strategies for creating a finished tonal portrait as well as tips and tricks that will help you draw like a pro! Note: Tuition includes a $10 models fee.

For more advanced instruction or an optional follow-up to this course, see Advanced Portrait Drawing Workshop.

Image: RA Friedman

Register by: January 30 
Materials List - Coming Soon 
Please review CE's Winter/Spring 2026 Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies, prior to registering.