Adult Classes and Workshops
You may register for adult classes online by clicking here or by calling 215-247-0476. Please click here to learn about Woodmere's art class payment policy.
Online classes are held via Zoom. For requirements and procedures for our online classes, please click here.
For information about safety measures Woodmere has established for outside classes, please click here.
If you have a credit from a Winter 2020 class, please contact Amanda Monroe at amonroe@woodmereartmuseum.org to receive your discount code before registering online.
- Sunday
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Saturday
- Drawing and Painting
- Painting and Drawing
- Painting and drawing
- Paper and Book Arts
- Yoga
Y2 | Yoga Outdoors at Woodmere - Celebrating the Creativity of Healing through Movement and Meditation
Enjoy a special outdoor meditation and gentle yoga class at Woodmere Art Museum’s sculpture garden and landscape surrounded by trees and open skies. The class will be infused with themes of healing, loving-kindness, meditation, and gentle and flowing movement. Social distancing of six-feet applies.
Jennifer Schelter’s (Best of Philly) teachings and classes promote conscious growth, release of stress, breathing, alignment and core strength for longevity, relaxation, insight, and a light touch of humor. www.jenniferschelter.com
Please bring the following to be prepared for class:
- Towel
- Yoga mat
- Blanket
Y3 | Yoga Outdoors at Woodmere - Celebrating the Creativity of Healing through Movement and Meditation
Enjoy a special outdoor meditation and gentle yoga class at Woodmere Art Museum’s sculpture garden and landscape surrounded by trees and open skies. The class will be infused with themes of healing, loving-kindness, meditation, and gentle and flowing movement. Social distancing of six-feet applies.
Jennifer Schelter’s (Best of Philly) teachings and classes promote conscious growth, release of stress, breathing, alignment and core strength for longevity, relaxation, insight, and a light touch of humor. www.jenniferschelter.com
Please bring the following to be prepared for class:
- Towel
- Yoga mat
- Blanket
2B | Spontaneous Abstraction (Online)
Have you ever felt unsure how to start a painting, or discouraged by a blank white canvas? This class focuses on techniques that enable you to paint with confidence by tapping into your intuitive process and finding inspiration more easily. Discover how unplanned marks and passages of paint become artistic breakthroughs; communicate movement and emotion through mixing color, creating texture, and building journeys through line and space. Demonstrations will allow you to explore new possibilities, work instinctively and enhance your knowledge of the process of painting. One-on-one critique every session.
Day 1: Introduction
- Begin first painting: creating a strong monochromatic under-drawing with pencils, charcoal, brushes and rags
- Fixing the under-drawing
- Begin painting with a few colors to establish mood
- Enhance colors
- Prepare a second canvas
- Individual critique
Day 2: Slide presentation about color
- Begin second painting with a focus on color
- How to enhance colors following the instructor's directions with examples of color masters from art history
- How to prevent muddy color
- Editing as an important part of the painting process
- Creating busy and calm areas and focal points
- Finish first and second paintings
- Prepare a third canvas
- Individual critique
Day 3: Slide presentation about using cool and warm and dark and light
- Begin third painting with black and white and a warm or cool color
- Adding warm/cool color to enhance spatial relationships between foreground and background
- Using a dominant color to unify the painting
- Editing and finishing
- Individual critique
- Acrylic colors preferred but oil is okay if it is what you use.
- Colors: black, white, red, blue, yellow and any other colors you have.
- Acrylic Gel medium for fixing charcoal.
- Gloss or Matte medium for acrylic (Turpenoid for oil).
- Brushes – various sizes, round and flat, up to 1 ½-inch depending on canvas size.
- Charcoal, pencils and any other drawing materials you have, including acrylic markers.
- Rags for cleaning and applying colors.
- 3 to 5 canvases, stretched or unstretched, larger is better. You may start 20 to 30 inches or bigger. Paper is ok too.
- Palette & palette knives.
- Jars or plastic containers for mixing and saving paints.
- A lot of enthusiasm!
3 | Oil Painting (Outside)
In this outdoor class, students can use a variety of sources i.e., still life, photographs or landscape to organize and create a painting. Designed to help students execute a painting of their own subject matter, the class focuses on composition, perspective, color mixing, and painting techniques. Students may devote the entire session to one piece or work on multiple pieces. Individual instruction is given during each session.
Oil Colors
Yellow: cadmium yellow pale or indian yellow
Blue: cerulean blue, ultramarine
Red: cadmium red light, alizarin crimson
Green: sap green, viridian
Earth: raw umber, burnt sienna, yellow ochre or transparent yellow oxide
White: titanium
Brushes: flat brushes in a variety of sizes; include a few soft, synthetic or sable, a few rounds and at least one 2" or larger soft, flat brush for glazing. Make sure these are not watercolor brushes.
Palette knife - flexible, cranked shaft at least 3 inches long.
Palette - wood or paper (toned gray paper is preferable)
Linseed oil
Turpenoid or odorless paint thinner - NOT TURPENOID NATURAL!
Containers for linseed oil and turpenoid
Stretched canvas/gessoed panel
Paper towels/painting rags
If using photos for source material, students must provide their own photos.
4 | Introduction to Oil Painting and Beyond (Outside)
This outside class is for students who want to learn the basics of oil painting and for those who are already familiar with the medium and want to improve their skill level. The topics covered will be composing a picture, observing color relationships, mixing color, and application of paint. There will be lots of hands-on help in a relaxed and nurturing environment.
Oil Colors
Yellow: cadmium yellow pale or indian yellow
Blue: cerulean blue, ultramarine
Red: cadmium red light, alizarin crimson
Green: sap green, viridian
Earth: raw umber, burnt sienna, yellow ochre or transparent yellow oxide
White: titanium
Brushes: flat brushes in a variety of sizes; include a few soft, synthetic or sable, a few rounds and at least one 2" or larger soft, flat brush for glazing. Make sure these are not watercolor brushes.
Palette knife - flexible, cranked shaft at least 3in long.
Palette, wood or paper (toned gray paper is preferable)
Linseed oil
Turpenoid or odorless paint thinner - NOT TURPENOID NATURAL!
Containers for linseed oil and turpenoid
Stretched canvas/gessoed panel
Paper towels/painting rags
If using photos for source material, students must provide their own photos.
5A | Drawing and Painting I and II (Outside)
All levels are welcome whether you paint or draw. Beginners will be taught how to “see” and not just look. Questions like “Where do I start?” will be answered. You will learn what makes an interesting composition, how to shade and how to give your pictures character and depth. Simple set-ups will be brought in by the instructor. Beginning painters will learn color theory and mixing, how to handle paint, composition and basic techniques. More advanced students will continue to hone their skills through a combination of painting from real life as well as the classic method of artistic learning: copying other artists' work including painters and photographers. Demonstrations and individual instruction will be given to each student. You will progress at your own pace in a relaxed atmosphere.
If you are drawing, please bring the following supplies the first day of class:
12” x 16” drawing pad (approximate Size) NOT Newsprint
4 pencils: 2B, 4B, 6B, HB
Kneaded eraser
For Painting:
Disposable palette pad
Canvas pad (approximately 12 x 15”), OR two small canvases: Make sure the canvas pad says " REAL " canvas
Paper Towels (Bounty is good)
1 Can (for water or turpenoid)
1 Can turpenoid only. NOT Turpentine.
Brushes – sizes 4, 6, 8 to begin
Oil Paint Colors: White, Black, Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Yellow, French Ultramarine Blue, Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Rose.
5B | Drawing and Painting I and II (Outside)
All levels are welcome whether you paint or draw. Beginners will be taught how to “see” and not just look. Questions like “Where do I start?” will be answered. You will learn what makes an interesting composition, how to shade and how to give your pictures character and depth. Simple set-ups will be brought in by the instructor. Beginning painters will learn color theory and mixing, how to handle paint, composition and basic techniques. More advanced students will continue to hone their skills through a combination of painting from real life as well as the classic method of artistic learning: copying other artists' work including painters and photographers. Demonstrations and individual instruction will be given to each student. You will progress at your own pace in a relaxed atmosphere.
If you are drawing, please bring the following supplies the first day of class:
12” x 16” drawing pad (approximate Size) NOT Newsprint
4 pencils: 2B, 4B, 6B, HB
Kneaded eraser
For Painting:
Disposable palette pad
Canvas pad (approximately 12 x 15”), OR two small canvases: Make sure the canvas pad says " REAL " canvas
Paper Towels (Bounty is good)
1 Can (for water or turpenoid)
1 Can turpenoid only. NOT Turpentine.
Brushes – sizes 4, 6, 8 to begin
Oil Paint Colors: White, Black, Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Yellow, French Ultramarine Blue, Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Rose.
6 | Introduction to Landscape Painting: Painting in Woodmere's Gardens (Outside)
Discover new ways to depict the landscape. Be inspired by the gardens and beautiful grounds of Woodmere's six acres. Learn how to compose a scene and capture the colors, light, forms, and textures of summer mornings by focusing on Woodmere's pollinator garden and the birds, insects, and native plants it attracts, as well as a variety of majestic trees and plants that offer plenty of shade.
- 4 canvases, 18”x24” https://www.dickblick.com/items/07140-1824/
- 1 set of acrylic paints: Blick set of 12 https://www.dickblick.com/items/01637-0129/
- Plastic palette knife set https://www.michaels.com/plastic-palette-knife-set-by-artists-loft-6ct/10291166.html
- Palette tablet https://www.michaels.com/strathmore-300-series-palette-paper-pad/M10012259.html?dwvar_M10012259_size=9%22%20x%2012%22
Or for cheaper palette knives and paper: https://www.michaels.com/artists-loft-fundamentals-palette-knives-set/10122055.html
- Brushes: https://www.michaels.com/long-handle-gold-synthetic-paintbrush-set-by-artists-loft/10552919.html#
- Rags or paper towels
- Containers for water
7 | Botanical Illustration
Learn how to capture the variety of shapes, colors and forms of plants and flowers with the free flow of watercolor. Students will sharpen their observational skills, create interesting compositions, and develop ways of mixing and layering color to encourage self-expression. Demonstrations will be given with lots of individual attention.
Drawing paper to begin: 9” x 12” drawing pad (approximate Size) is good
Watercolor paper for a longer painting, either 8x10 or 11x14 in size
Pencils for drawing: 2B, 4B, 6B, HB
Erasers: kneaded are great
Watercolor pencils and a watercolor set
Fine watercolor brushes (it is great to have a few very fine and medium brushes)
8 | Painting Over the Line (Online)
Work from imagination, pictures, or other means to find your voice and visual language. Explore lively brushwork, color layering, and texture to discover the power of process in developing imagery. Discover how to work around imperfections and accidents and view them as opportunities. Individual support and examples from contemporary artists will serve to broaden and inform your understanding of innovative painting.
- Acrylic colors preferred but oil is okay if it is what you use.
- Colors: black, white, red, blue, yellow and any other colors you have.
- Acrylic Gel medium for fixing charcoal.
- Gloss or Matte medium for acrylic (Turpenoid for oil).
- Brushes – various sizes, round and flat, up to 1 ½-inch depending on canvas size.
- Charcoal, pencils and any other drawing materials you have, including acrylic markers.
- Rags for cleaning and applying colors.
- 3 to 5 canvases, stretched or unstretched, larger is better. You may start 20 to 30 inches or bigger. Paper is ok too.
- Palette & palette knives.
- Jars or plastic containers for mixing and saving paints.
- A lot of enthusiasm!
10 | Embroidering Nature (Outside)
Construct wall hangings and small paper quilts with natural materials. Combine leaves, twigs, bark, flat stones, feathers, shells—and oh so many other things—with thread, beads, paper, and simple stitching. Using more complicated stitches is optional and will be familiar to those who embroider. Choose to string them together like Tibetan prayer flags, hang from a dowel or branch in windows or on walls, or frame in a shadow box. Designing with natural objects provides a delightful wabi-sabi experience that is playful and frees your creative instincts.
While the instructor will provide an abundance of materials, you are welcome to bring special natural items or handmade art papers you would like to use.
Instructor will bring a selection of: needles, threads, papers, templates, collage materials, adhesives, and instructional handouts--for a $10 materials fee payable at the first class.
Supplies to be brought by students:
- sharpened pencil
- kneaded eraser
- C-thru graphing ruler (any size)
- metal-edged ruler
- scissors
- X-acto knife + extra blades
- cutting mat
- small acrylic brush for applying adhesive media
- a roll of Scotch tape (or any brand), preferably 1/2" wide
- a roll of double-sided adhesive tape
Optional: (1) if you would like to include your own special flat stones, shells, feathers, pressed leaves in your collages, please bring them; (2) if you'd like to use some of your own handmade or art papers, feel free to bring them; (3) a bone folder or Teflon folder
11 | Color Matters (Online)
Explore the power of color in your work. Investigate how to create mood and atmosphere, movement, drama, contrasts, beautiful harmonies and delicate subtleties. Students will experiment with color saturation and changes in intensity, color temperatures (warm and cool), complements and contrasts, muted tones, color values, and applications of thick and thin paint. Demonstrations and individual attention will aid students in their personal investigation of color in their work.
- Acrylic colors preferred but oil is okay if it is what you use.
- Colors: black, white, red, blue, yellow and any other colors you have.
- Acrylic Gel medium for fixing charcoal.
- Gloss or Matte medium for acrylic (Turpenoid for oil).
- Brushes – various sizes, round and flat, up to 1 ½-inch depending on canvas size.
- Charcoal, pencils and any other drawing materials you have, including acrylic markers.
- Rags for cleaning and applying colors.
- 3 to 5 canvases, stretched or unstretched, larger is better. You may start 20 to 30 inches or bigger. Paper is ok too.
- Palette & palette knives.
- Jars or plastic containers for mixing and saving paints.
- A lot of enthusiasm!