Fridays, 9:00 AM - 1:30 PM  
Instructor: James Toogood  
Ten-Week Condensed Course (45 Hours)  
No class on November 27 (Thanksgiving Break)  

Enrich your knowledge of painting with an in-depth look at watercolor. Thoroughly investigate a wide range of watercolor materials and techniques while working from your choice of landscape, still life, abstraction, or personal source material. The course is designed to equip each participant with the knowledge and skills necessary to make accomplished, personally rewarding watercolor paintings. Open to watercolorists of all levels and to acrylic/oil painters looking to broaden their skills.

Register by: September 4  
Materials List  
Please review CE’s Fall 2026 Policy Guide, including Withdrawal/Refund Policies, prior to registering.

Mondays, 12:30 PM - 3:30 PM  
Instructor: Richard Estell  
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours)  
No class on October 12 (Indigenous People’s Day)  

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.

Registration Still Open! 
Materials List   
Please review CE’s Fall 2026 Policy Guide, including Withdrawal/Refund Policies, prior to registering.

Wednesdays, 9:00 AM - 1:30 PM  
Instructor: James Toogood  
Ten-Week Condensed Course (45 Hours)  

Enrich your knowledge of painting with an in-depth look at watercolor. Thoroughly investigate a wide range of watercolor materials and techniques while working from your choice of landscape, still life, abstraction, or personal source material. The course is designed to equip each participant with the knowledge and skills necessary to make accomplished, personally rewarding watercolor paintings. 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 with experience will receive individual instruction for their current skill level.
• Students will acquire the skills needed to achieve a richness of color and a feeling of light.
• Participants will be exposed to a variety of watercolor styles and encouraged to discover their own personal aesthetic.

Register by: September 9  
Materials List   
Please review CE’s Fall 2026 Policy Guide, including Withdrawal/Refund Policies, prior to registering.

Tuesdays, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM  
Instructor: Shushana Rucker  
Eight-Week Short Course (24 Hours)  

Learn the fundamentals of painting with gouache, the opaque watercolor paint. Painters of all levels will fall in love with it as a portable, fast-drying, and easy-to-clean-up alternative to oils – great for travel or limited working time and space. Explore color and painting techniques through still life subjects and personal photo references. Students will gain familiarity gouache’s unique characteristics to work on a variety of surfaces, master paint fluidity and control, accurately mix color and predict its effects, and promote its layering capabilities and surface qualities. Open to all levels; prior drawing experience is helpful for any painting course.

Registration Still Open!  
Materials List  
Please review CE’s Fall 2026 Policy Guide, including Withdrawal/Refund Policies, prior to registering.

Wednesdays, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM  
Instructor: Rae Helms  
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours)  
No class on November 25  

This six-week class introduces students to stone lithography, the traditional printmaking method of creating fine art prints from drawings made on limestone blocks. Students will learn the basics of this fascinating process, including graining the limestone to prepare it for drawing, creating an image in oil-based lithographic crayons and ink, etching the stone by means of a chemical process, inking the stone, and operating PAFA’s litho press to print an edition of prints. Students will benefit not only from expert class instruction, but also from access to PAFA’s beautiful, light-filled printmaking facilities (including its selection of limestone blocks) and plenty of monitored lab hours for outside work for the entire length of the course! Note: Tuition includes a $20 lab fee.

Check out this informative illustrated explanation courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art!

Register by: October 21  
Materials List   
Please review CE’s Fall 2026 Policy Guide, including Withdrawal/Refund Policies, prior to registering.

Mondays, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM  
Instructor: Shushana Rucker  
Six-Week Short Course (18 Hours)  

This six-week course focuses on the specific skills needed to successfully create small and miniature oil paintings. Students will learn how to adjust composition, simplify forms, and control detail so that images read clearly at a smaller size. Students will learn painting strategies which will make working at a smaller scale more approachable. Working from observation and/or reference, students will also explore how value, edges, and color relationships function differently in a compact format. Through demonstrations, exercises, and critique, participants will build confidence in making clear, deliberate decisions that suit the demands of painting small.

Register by: October 26  
Materials List  
Please review CE’s Fall 2026 Policy Guide, including Withdrawal/Refund Policies, prior to registering.

Saturday and Sunday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM  
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. 

Register by: November 6  
Materials List   
Please review CE’s Fall 2026 Policy Guide, including Withdrawal/Refund Policies, prior to registering.

Saturday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM  
Instructor: Shushana Rucker  
Weekend Workshop  

The painting knife is an important accompaniment to the brush for creating textural effects, expressive marks, and broad planes of color. Learn how to use this tool to achieve bold lines, crisp edges, and even fine details while working from still life or reference imagery. Explore color, texture, and painterly application as you expand your range of painting techniques for your own representational or abstract work.

Register by: November 30  
Materials List  
Please review CE’s Fall 2026 Policy Guide, including Withdrawal/Refund Policies, prior to registering.