Sedona Arts Center — Check out these upcoming Art Classes and Workshops

Art Classes & Workshops at Sedona Arts Center
Sedona is surrounded by a magical landscape of red rock formations and high desert hills with beautiful Oak Creek meandering through it all. Come experience the Shangri-La of the Southwest, a beautiful learning environment with Art Colony roots going back nearly 100 years.

Click here to see all of our classes and workshops

Water Media Exploration
with Mary Helsaple
February 22
Come learn How, Why, and What Water-based media is best used.  This class is about exploring materials to best effect. In each class session, we will explore a different water-based material or technique and how best to use it effectively. Many of these same ideas can be applied to other surfaces like canvas, fabric, wood, metal and glass. Starting with Watercolor and progressing to acrylic, we will learn what combines well. We will be using only water-based supplies such as watercolor pigments, gouache, pencils, inks, flow pens on paper, then yupo, claybord, and loose canvas sheets, and finally acrylic medium.  In this class, you will gain a deep understanding of all fluid mediums by exploring the process required to create your MasterWork.

This Class also takes place on:
March 1, March 8, March 22, March 29

WATER MEDIA EXPLORATION : LEARN MORE / SIGN UP
Painting the Colors of Mexico: Online!
with Gretchen Lopez
February 24
Join me as we venture through and experience Mexico online.  We will explore the cityscapes and cafes, while learning to paint the color and abstract the shapes which make up this vibrant culture!  I will be demonstrating brush and palette knife techniques.

  • Medium: Traditional Oil, Water-Soluble Oil, Acrylic.
  • Experience: All levels are welcome – prior drawing experience is required.
  • Materials List: Click the tab above for a list of materials students need to bring with them.
  • This is an Online Class meeting via Zoom.
PAINTING THE COLORS OF MEXICO: ONLINE! : LEARN MORE
Drip, Drag, Scrape:
Introduction to Encaustic Painting

with Helene Farrar
March 11 – 14
Drip, pour, drag, layer, heat, and incise!  This extended workshop will allow participants to dip deep into the medium to develop their own voice. Encaustic is an evocative medium that lends itself into varying approaches and topics. Investigate the art of encaustic painting in this very hands-on workshop using pigmented wax, and a heated palette!  Explore a rich variety of marks and surfaces while doing image transfer, etching, and collaging in this seductive medium.  Take your flat collections of drawings, collected papers, pictures, and incorporate found objects.  Class time will be divided between demonstrations, individual work time, and discussion about historical and contemporary practices.  We will also touch on proper studio ventilation, wax safety, and how to “finish” artworks in terms of framing and care.  Students will leave with multiple finished pieces and the understanding of proper studio set-up.
DRIP, DRAG, SCRAPE: INTRODUCTION TO ENCAUSTIC PAINTING
Bold Brush Painting
with Gretchen Lopez
March 16 – 17
In this course, students learn to loosen up and paint with passion and freedom using a bolder approach to painting. Working with a limited palette and larger brushes will give the student the opportunity to see shapes, light and contrast while painting in the spirit of the Impressionists. We will be working with subject matter from the still life to the landscape.

  • Medium: Traditional Oil, Water-Soluble Oil, Acrylic.
  • Experience: All levels are welcome – prior drawing experience is required.
  • Materials List: Click the tab above for a list of materials students need to bring with them.
  • This is an In-Person Class meeting at the Sedona Arts Center in the North Studio.
BOLD BRUSH PAINTING : LEARN MORE / SIGN UP
Cracking Comics: Fundamentals of Cartooning
with Jillian Sander
March 18 – 19
This workshop will be a two day course exploring all the necessary basics of cartooning. We will focus on creating solid characters, conveying emotion and movement both exaggerated and subtle, utilizing a sense of time and pacing in a story, and the art of lettering and speech bubbles. Students will then shift to combining all those skills to create a comic book of their own! We will explore layout, cover design, and book making, and each student will go home with their own zine. Join me for a workshop jam-packed with chuckles and good advice, whether you’re an aspiring cartoonist or just looking for a good time!
CRACKING COMICS: FUNDAMENTALS OF CARTOONING : SIGN UP
Towards Amazing Color: A Plein Air Workshop
with Carol Douglas
March 20 – 24
This workshop is aimed at helping painters refine their personal technique in watercolor, pastel, oils and acrylics. It will help you find your own voice and style without becoming anyone’s clone. This is an intensive class, with morning and afternoon on-site painting sessions and lunch-time discussions and demos. Classes are kept small so every student gets the attention they deserve.

We stress painting protocols to get you to good results with the least amount of wasted time. That means focusing on drawing, brushwork, and accurate observation. You will learn to paint boldly, using fresh, clean color. You’ll learn to build commanding compositions, and to use hue, value and line to draw the eye through your paintings.

TOWARDS AMAZING COLOR: A PLEIN AIR WORKSHOP : SIGN UP
Drawing II: The Next Level
with Ed Buonvecchio
March 20 – April 24
Drawing II: The Next Level begins where Drawing I: A Practical and Entertaining Art leaves off. If you are an absolute beginner, take Drawing I first, however I encourage artists with more skill to jump in and take this course. Drawing can be a useful and fun tool in your daily life, taking you away from your stressful day and giving you a way to express ideas or memorialize experiences. Learning to draw and sketch can give you the skill to design something you want to make, start a painting, serve as a launchpad to exploring other forms of art or teaching others your learned drawing skills. In this six-week ongoing studio class we will learn skills and tools needed to draw what you see or imagine. We will be performing exercises in drawing to develop the necessary skills to make drawings that show confident strokes and to strive for confidence in your ability. We will draw still-lifes and landscapes and delve deeper into linear perspective, value, line, shape and composition. We will practice the use of pencil, charcoal, ink pen and brush.
DRAWING II: THE NEXT LEVEL : LEARN MORE / SIGN UP
Meditation to Creation
with Ann Brownfield Meara
March 23 – 24
At the Meditation to Creation Workshop, find inner guidance to create something beautiful in addition to reflecting, writing and art making. You will also learn and practice the ancient art of meditation. Out of meditation, profound creative insights arise.

Creativity is a process of allowing. It begins with an inner spark, which you feed, develop and actualize. Creativity must be nurtured into being. It can be both magical and astounding. But it arises when we relax enough to invite it in. Coaxing forth its flow, a wellspring of creative solutions bubble to the surface. Inner wisdom helps us initiate skillful, creative action. Freeing the mind through meditation creates the ground for equanimity–that fertile state where brilliance breaks free.

MEDITATION TO CREATION : LEARN MORE / SIGN UP
Oil Over Acrylic Painting
with Phil Garrett
March 25 – 27
In this 3-day workshop we will explore strategies for combining the expedience of an Acrylic Imprimature (Colored Ground) and further refined Acrylic Underpainting with layers of Luscious Oil Overpainting and Glaze.

One of the first issues in this approach to Oil over Acrylic is which comes first! It’s the Acrylic!  Adhesion is the key and Oil will adhere to the dry layer of Acrylic and Acrylic won’t adhere to the dry layer of Oil paint.

OIL OVER ACRYLIC PAINTING : LEARN MORE / SIGN UP
Intuitive Expressive Painting
with Jesse Reno
March 30 – April 2
In this mixed-media painting class you will learn to create paintings that emerge from an abstract base of markings, colors, line, and shape to form expressive and organic creations. You will learn painting and mark-making techniques that will encourage imagery and connection to your work. Through a series of painting exercises, you will explore and express your ideas by imagining what could be created from abstraction rather than confining your ideas to predetermined outcomes.

Within the process, we will create narrative dialogue by noting what we see and feel in our work. Through the practice of subtractive painting we will remove the parts that are no longer relevant or keep us trapped from progress. This teaches us choice and freedom to change direction in our work. We continually build layers within our paintings combining fragments of past ideas with the new until we arrive at a feeling of completion. Through this engagement we learn to experiment, take risks, re-associate our work from perspectives unconfined by our expectations. This allows us to see things clearly and move to a more expressed and personal engagement when painting.

INTUITIVE EXPRESSIVE PAINTING : LEARN MORE / SIGN UP
Painting: Beauty of Spring in the Landscape
with Gretchen Lopez
March 31
Working from photo reference, we’ll be working with and mixing the colors of spring, to build the landscape!  I will show you how to find the major shapes in the landscape.

Instructor demonstrations and lots of individual attention provided.

  • Experience: Beginning to Intermediate. Some prior drawing experience is required.  Questions? Email Gretchen at gretchenlopezart@gmail.com.
  • Medium: Students may work with any of the following – traditional oils; water-soluble oils; acrylics.
  • Materials List: Click the tab above for a list of materials students need to bring with them.
  • Registration: Each student needs to enroll individually.
  • In-Person class at the Sedona Arts Center, North Studio.
PAINTING: BEAUTY OF SPRING IN THE LANDSCAPE : LEARN MORE
Painting: Anatomy of Flowers in Still-Life
with Gretchen Lopez
April 14
Learn the structure, values and shapes to build gorgeous flowers in your paintings.  We’ll take this in a step-by step approach, as we mix color and learn to compose.

Instructor demonstrations and lots of individual attention provided.

  • Experience: Beginning to Intermediate. Some prior drawing experience is required.  Questions? Email Gretchen at gretchenlopezart@gmail.com.
  • Medium: Students may work with any of the following – traditional oils; water-soluble oils; acrylics.
  • Materials List: Click the tab above for a list of materials students need to bring with them.
  • Registration: Each student needs to enroll individually.
  • In-Person class at the Sedona Arts Center, North Studio.
PAINTING: ANATOMY OF FLOWERS IN STILL-LIFE : LEARN MORE
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