Eight Week Plein Air Painting Workshop

Course Description

There is no substitute for painting directly from life.

This eight-week plein air workshop invites students to slow down, observe carefully, and develop a disciplined painting practice while working outdoors during one of Northeast Ohio's most beautiful seasons. Through weekly demonstrations, discussions, critiques, and sustained practice, participants will learn to translate direct observation into expressive oil paintings.

Unlike many plein air workshops, this course begins by establishing a solid relationship with materials. Students will construct their own portable pochade box, prepare painting panels, and build a panel carrier, creating equipment that can serve them long after the course concludes. By preparing our tools, we will better understand what they are capable of when in the field. And the value of the materials we create of alone will cover the cost of tuition!

Technical discussions during these first two sessions will cover materials, palette selection, color relationships, paint handling, composition, and efficient field methods before moving into weekly painting sessions at carefully selected locations throughout Northeast Ohio.

As autumn progresses, students will explore changing light, atmosphere, color, and seasonal transitions while developing confidence in working directly from observation. Group critiques and discussions will encourage thoughtful reflection and artistic growth throughout the course.

The workshop culminates in the selection, framing, and exhibition of two paintings in the historic Hildebrandt Building, celebrating both the work completed during the course and the community formed through painting together.

Schedule

Week 1: Building the Plein Air Kit
Materials discussion
Building pochade boxes
Panel carriers
Preparing painting panels
Oil painting setup

Week 2: Continue Preparation of Plein Air Kit
Discuss Process Before Painting
Color theory
Limited palettes
Brush selection
Mediums
Composition
Demonstration

Week 3: First Paintings
Simple landscape studies
Establishing value
Seeing large shapes
Critique

Week4: Autumn Color
Warm and cool relationships
Edges
Simplification
Painting on location

Week Off

Week 5: Atmosphere
Distance
Sky
Reflected light
Weather

Week 6: Trees and Structure
Tree anatomy
Rhythm
Variety
Brushwork

Week 7: Composition
Editing nature
Focal points
Movement
Larger paintings

Week 8: Final Critique
Preparing work for exhibition
Discussion of continuing a lifelong plein air practice.

Exhibition

Each participant will select and frame two paintings completed during the workshop.
The course concludes with a public exhibition and opening reception in the historic Hildebrandt Building, providing students the opportunity to share their work with family, friends, collectors, and the broader community.