Expressive Landscapes with Unconventional Tools

This workshop is designed to spark a fresh perspective and a real appetite for working with oil paints and unconventional tools. You’ll experiment with instruments you probably never imagined could be used for painting, exploring how each one can shape texture, movement, and expression. We’ll focus on creating a landscape, using a variety of tools and techniques to bring it to life.

Please bring your own materials and a good mood to match the creative energy of the day.

• We believe art should be accessible to all. Scholarships are available for those who qualify.
• Membership is one of the easiest and most effective ways to support the mission of HYS

Explore the vibrant possibilities of colored pencil on Yupo paper in this engaging workshop. Yupo is a smooth, synthetic surface with unique properties that allow for rich color, subtle blending, and striking detail unlike traditional paper.

Participants will create fruit studies while learning techniques for layering, burnishing, and working with this non-absorbent surface. The class will focus on achieving luminous color, depth, and texture through careful observation and mark-making.

Students should bring Yupo paper and a small set of quality colored pencils. Here is the recommended supplies list: Blick Shopping List

• We believe art should be accessible to all. Scholarships are available for those who qualify.
• Membership is one of the easiest and most effective ways to support our mission! Learn more about it's benefits and discounts!

Discover the fundamental techniques needed to create expressive and dynamic portrait paintings in this engaging workshop. Through a step-by-step approach, you will learn how to break down complex forms into manageable shapes, making the portrait painting process approachable and enjoyable. Working from a live model, we will cover key concepts such as basic facial anatomy, imprimatura (underpainting), color mixing, and the importance of value and light to achieve depth and realism. Model fee included in tuition.

Click HERE for a materials list for this course!

• We believe art should be accessible to all. Scholarships are available for those who qualify.
• Membership is one of the easiest and most effective ways to support our mission! Learn more about it's benefits and discounts!

Begin indoors with a brief look at the powerful history of the Yellow Springs hospital ruins (built between 1777–1780) as the only purpose-built hospital commissioned by the Continental Congress and once headquarters of the Revolutionary War’s medical department. After learning about the site’s layered past, we’ll move outdoors to sketch the existing foundation and surrounding medicinal garden.

Students will then incorporate a “ghost image” or translucent overlay of the original structure, exploring perspective and architectural drawing techniques while visually reconstructing history. Participants may work in dry or water-based media and are encouraged to bring a sketchbook and outdoor seating. This workshop blends observation, imagination, and storytelling through art.

Recommended Materials: Participants are encouraged to bring preferred sketching supplies. The following materials are suggested options; feel free to select what best suits your working style. Blick Shopping List

• We believe art should be accessible to all. Scholarships are available for those who qualify.
• Membership is one of the easiest and most effective ways to support our mission! Learn more about it's benefits and discounts!

In this workshop, participants will explore Zentangle Inspired Art (ZIA) while creating a beautiful floral design on a 8.3" × 4.7" canvas pencil pouch. The session will include some foundational Zentangle® strokes, simple floral like motifs, and ways to combine structured patterns with organic shapes. Using special Sakura Identi-Pen® for crisp, permanent line work, students build a layered composition that balances pattern, texture, and flow. Additionally, color will be introduced as one of the hallmarks of ZIA. Each participant leaves with a functional, unique hand-decorated pouch and a set of repeatable techniques they can use in future projects.

*Basic Zentangle skills are not necessary.

Materials Cost: $15.00

• We believe art should be accessible to all. Scholarships are available for those who qualify.
• Membership is one of the easiest and most effective ways to support our mission! Learn more about it's benefits and discounts!

This two-day studio workshop will focus on painting “alla prima” (all at once) as well as developing greater skills of observation, simplification and painting “wet on wet” to create strong “painterly” paintings. The workshop will also discuss techniques to quickly transfer the elements of your reference to the canvas with the goal of creating an artistic painting that accurately relates the important forms of a composition rather than simply copying everything in a photograph.

The first morning of the workshop begins with a discussion of painting basics (from materials to paint handling) and will also address the fundamentals of color, value, edges, perspective and other “practical” elements that make a successful painting. Each day participants will work on a series of timed painting exercises incorporating the techniques discussed while developing their skills of observation, simplification, bold brushwork and painting in a “decisive” and “intentional” manner.  

Each morning of the workshop will include a short painting demo by Dan with an explanation of his process.  Dan will provide plenty of one-on-one individual instruction throughout each day of the workshop.

This workshop is designed for intermediate to advanced painters in both oil and acrylic mediums, however proficiency in basic drawing is required.  Participants will be able to choose from a wide variety of reference photos supplied by the instructor for their painting exercises. 

Click HERE for a materials list for this workshop!

• We believe art should be accessible to all. Scholarships are available for those who qualify.
• Membership is one of the easiest and most effective ways to support our mission! Learn more about it's benefits and discounts!