Sundays, 3 - 4 p.m. (Interactive asynchronous Canvas content supported by weekly Zoom meetings) 
Instructor: Al Gury 
Six-Week Condensed Course (30-Hour Equivalent)
No class on April 5 

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.

Explore ways to improve your use of color and enhance your personal style and expression with Al Gury, noted professor and author of Alla Prima,Color for Painters, and Foundations of Drawing. Great colorists such as Velasquez, Manet, Matisse, and Diebenkorn among others will provide the focus for weekly explorations of how to improve color in your work. Visual histories and examples, materials, problem solving, and color theories will be presented through live Zoom meetings and recorded video demonstrations, with a goal of helping each student find their own color voice. Instruction includes a weekly painting project to guide the participants through understanding and improving color choices in their work and subject matter. Assignments will be posted on Canvas, PAFA’s online learning platform, and critiqued by the instructor for helpful feedback. Open to all levels of experience and all media: oil, acrylic, watercolor, and pastel.

Image: Al Gury.

Register by: March 9 
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

Saturday and Sunday, 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Instructor: Linda Gist 
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.

Embody the spirit of spring with fresh and immediate painting! Learn to capture the essence of a living, botanical subject quickly and spontaneously in pencil and watercolor. This alla prima method can be used for preparatory studies for sustained paintings, compiling a field sketchbook, or as an end in itself. All levels welcome. Tuition includes a $10 materials fee to cover floral subjects.

Image: Linda Gist.

Register by: March 13 
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.

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.

For more introductory instruction, see the instructor's Portrait in Pencil Workshop (not required for enrollment in the Advanced workshop).

Image: RA Friedman

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

Tuesdays, 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.

Photolithography the process by which images are photographically transferred to a plate and then printed. This wonderfully approachable practice allows students to transition from image creation to printing relatively quickly while still learning the principles of lithographic printmaking. In this short course, students will be guided through the process of creating monochromatic and multi-color lithographs using both photographic materials and hand-drawn imagery. Instruction will cover film drawing techniques, plate exposure, developing, and press printing. This type of printmaking is excellent as an introduction to lithography as well as a great technique for experienced printmakers to add to their repertoire. Tuition includes a $20 lab fee.

Image courtesy of Justine Ditto

Register by: March 24 
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. - 5 p.m.
Instructor: James Toogood 
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.

Clouds and trees are common and important features in landscape paintings, their masses frequently encompassing significant portions of the composition. But how does the artist walk the fine line of imbuing these elements with texture, individuality, and detail without making them appear contrived or overfussed? This two-day workshop will present tactics for rendering these features successfully through color, form, and painting techniques. Examine types of cloud masses and how they may best be translated through additive and reductive methods.  Explore means of mimicking organic tree forms through brush movement and how to use color and detail to suggest distance.  Instruction includes painting demonstrations as well as a review of how master artists have represented these features in historic and contemporary works. Open to all levels. Demonstrations will be conducted in watercolor, but this class presents valuable information for painters of all media.

Image: James Toogood, Elbow Beach, watercolor, 10 × 14 in.

Register by: April 3 
Materials List - Coming Soon 
Please review CE's Winter/Spring 2026 Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies, prior to registering.

Sundays, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. 
Instructor: Larry Francis 
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours) 
Rain Date: May 31

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.

Capture the small-town beauty Manayunk's hilly streets, rowhomes, and storefronts.  Learn to create a convincing sense of space, light and time of day while depicting streetscapes, trees, water and sky.  Color mixing and painting techniques for oils will be demonstrated, but all drawing/painting media are welcome.  Located just 15 minutes outside of Philadelphia, Manayunk offers engaging urban and riverside neighborhood subjects with parking, shade, provisions and facilities available. Note: Students are responsible for their own transportation to painting locations. 

Image: Larry Francis, Hill Town Paintings - View from Fleming, 2024, gouache on blue grey paper, 18 x 24 in.

Register by: April 6 
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: Colleen O'Donnell 
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.

Learn the techniques and tools of figure sculpture through demonstration and hands-on sculpting from the model. Explore anatomy, proportion, gesture, and design through the versatility of clay. Personal expression will be emphasized though representational and abstract approaches. Open to all levels and perfect for beginners. Tuition includes a $35 models fee.

Image: Colleen O’Donnell

Register by: April 10 
Materials List - Coming Soon 
Please review CE's Winter/Spring 2026 Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies, prior to registering.

Thursdays, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 
Instructor: Michelle Oosterbaan 
Four-Week Short Course (16 Hours) 
Rain Date: May 21

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.

Water-based paints such as watercolor,  gouache, and fluid acrylics are the perfect mediums for landscape painting in the open air! Work in your choice of these portable, fast-drying, and easy-to-clean-up alternatives to oils as you portray the beauty of spring in Philadelphia’s parks in your own personal style. Learn how to choose a composition and mix color for depth and expressive effects as you complete a series of rapid sketches and at least one sustained painting. Explore techniques for achieving transparency effects with stained gesso, working fat over lean, and rendering with ink over washes.  Open to all levels. Painting locations featuring shade, restrooms, and other amenities may include Northwestern Stables in Wissahickon Park in Mt. Airy, Washington Square Park near Independence Hall, Glen Foerd overlooking the Delaware River, and Bartram's Garden in Southwest Philadelphia. Note: Students are responsible for their own transportation to painting locations. 

Image: Michelle Oosterbaan

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