Filter by Category
Oil/Acrylic Painting
in Courses by Medium/Discipline
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.
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio: Color for Painters, PT 208 (In-Person)
with Al Gury
Wednesdays, 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM*
Instructor: Al Gury
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Course (45 – 90 Hours)
Note: No class 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!
A comprehensive examination of the history, theories, and practices of color in painting. This hands-on course focuses on the practical understanding and application of how to use color. Included are an overview of color history in painting and how it has evolved to the present, a survey of the major theories and their practical applications in art making, a hands-on study of the most useful color charts, gradations and mixing, studio exercises implementing the use of color aesthetics and practices in artmaking and visits to the PAFA museum to study and analyze color in masterworks. Projects include color in figures, portraits, landscapes, self-portraits, glazing, color expression and color in abstraction. Open to all media and levels of experience. Course Modality: in-person.
*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: Al Gury
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: Portrait Painting, PT 221 (In-Person)
with Douglas Martenson
Thursdays, 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM*
Instructor: Douglas Martenson
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Course (45 – 90 Hours)
Note: No class 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!
Students will learn the structure of the portrait, the history of historic and contemporary portraiture, methods and materials of portraiture, and will be encouraged to develop a personal point of view in portrait painting. Issues of form, spatial concepts, color, andvisual and critical thinking will be addressed. Individual and group critiques will be conducted. Course Modality: in-person.
*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: Developing a Major Work Through Preparation and Improvisation, PT 222 (In-Person)
with Peter Van Dyck
Fridays, 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM*
Instructor: Peter Van Dyck
Fifteen-Week Extended Studio Course (45 – 90 Hours)
Note: No class 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!
This class is an opportunity for the student to develop three complex works of escalating ambition. As has often been said, “all art comes from other art” in the sense that artmaking is a culture in continuous negotiation with present needs and precedent. Students will develop a small group of imaginative peers from the labyrinth of painting history to consult and debate in the development of three works. The resulting pictures may include the production of studies, copies, collages, and any other kind of visual fodder to develop ambitious compositions that will explore the overlapping terrains of abstraction and figuration. What is meant here is that Piero, de Stael, Gorky, Ingres, Mary Cassatt, and Kerry James Marshall are fraternal and in solidarity about the demands of painting. Course Modality: in-person.
*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: Peter Van Dyck
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 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.
Comprehensive Figure Painting (In-Person)
with Peter Van Dyck
Thursdays, 1 - 4 p.m.
Instructor: Peter Van Dyck
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.
This course will focus on creating paintings of the human figure from poses ranging from one to five days. It will provide an opportunity to explore the development of a figure painting over multiple sessions, emphasizing the accurate drawing of large forms and gestures, the translation of those forms into structured color relationships, and the depiction of the color of light that defines the environment. Through the extended duration of the poses, students will have the time to refine their observations, deepen their understanding of structure, and build more nuanced and cohesive paintings. Technical topics such as oil paint handling, surface preparation, and color organization will also be addressed. Students will leave the class with an enhanced ability to construct complex figure paintings that are both formally sound and personally expressive.
This course is excellent paired with Figure Drawing: Intuition and Analysis for students seeking intensive full-day figure study.
Image: Peter Van Dyck
Register by: January 15
Materials List - Coming Soon
Please review CE's Winter/Spring 2026 Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies, prior to registering.
Figure Painting: Alla Prima and the Limited Palette (In-Person)
with David Wilson
Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Instructor: David Wilson
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 the human form from observation is one of the cornerstones of PAFA's long tradition of rigorous instruction. Working from the nude model in poses of varying lengths, investigate color mixing, proportion, and composition using oil paint as a medium. Focusing on alla prima painting techniques and a limited flesh-tone palette, learn to model the human form through gesture, shape, volume, and temperature – excellent for painted sketches and preparatory studies, foundations for extended work, or an introduction/refresher to figure painting. Intended for all skill levels, this course also offers the valuable opportunity for more advanced students to continue to hone their skills to deepen their understanding of the language of painting. Instruction will be geared toward oil, but students may draw-only, or use other appropriate media, if they wish. Note: Tuition includes a $35 models fee.
Image: David Wilson
Register by: January 16
Materials List - Coming Soon
Please review CE's Winter/Spring 2026 Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies, prior to registering.
Methods of the Masters: Great Women Painters (Online)
with Al Gury
Sundays, 3 - 4 p.m. (Interactive asynchronous Canvas content supported by weekly Zoom meetings)
Instructor: Al Gury
Six-Week Condensed Course (30-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.
Explore the methods of some of the greatest painters in recent art history with Al Gury, noted professor and author of Alla Prima, Color for Painters, and Foundations of Drawing. Notable women artists Alice Neel, Mary Cassatt, Gabriel Munter, and Cecilia Beux, among others, will provide the basis for weekly painting projects. Learn from, and gain an increased appreciation for, these masters through an examination of their materials, color palettes, working methods, and histories through visual examples, discussions, video demonstrations, and tailored painting projects that will be critiqued by the instructor for helpful feedback. Class meetings will be held on Zoom, and assignments and asynchronous class content will be posted on Canvas, PAFA’s online learning platform. Open to all levels of experience and all media: oil, acrylic, watercolor, and pastel.
Image: Mary Cassatt, Young Thomas and his Mother (detail), 1893, pastel on wove paper, 23 5/8 x 19 3/4 in. Collection of the PAFA Museum, Accession # 1904.10. Pennsylvania Academy purchase.
Register by: January 16
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