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Adult Programs | Adult Classes | Painting

Summer Session B Starts August 2!



And coming soon ...

Fall Programs Start September 13


Fall Registration Opens August 2!

Online Registration: Enroll online any time of day for Gage classes, workshops, lectures and studios with your Visa, Mastercard or American Express card.

IMPORTANT: If you wish to take advantage of any discounts or are a scholarship or an atelier student, you must call the Gage registrar at 206.323.4243 to enroll in programs. See our Frequently Asked Questions for more information.


At Gage, our dedicated team of talented instructors provides the attention and support needed for art students to master the technical and aesthetic issues of painting in oil-, acrylic- and water-based media. Artists of all levels attend classes and workshops to gain the tools needed to grow and achieve their individual painting goals while creating figurative, still-life, landscape or abstract paintings. Some painting classes focus solely on concepts and theory of color and composition; others focus on specific subject matter, such as botanical illustration or portrait painting; while others focus on specialized painting media including encaustic, egg tempera or gouache.

     BEGINNING  |  INTERMEDIATE  |  ADVANCED
 

BEGINNING PAINTING CLASSES



P01077 | EXPRESSIVE WOODBLOCK PRINTING
8/2-8/30, Monday, 9:30am-12:30pm
SUMMER SESSION B
 
 
Learn the historic art of woodblock printing as practiced by the Japanese Ukiyo-e school of printmaking beginning in the 16th century, an art form that inspired the energetic and emotive prints of the German Expressionists. Explore the meditative rhythms of technique through drawing, carving and printing. Once grounded in the process, you experiment with free form carving and mixed-media contemporary applications of this versatile and rewarding printmaking form.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01078 | FIGURE PAINTING IN OIL
8/2-8/30, Monday, 1:30pm-4:30pm
SUMMER SESSION B
 
 
Learn to create an accurate, dynamic figure painting in oil as you capture the features of your model. Paint from the live model, working from short to long poses as you study color-mixing strategies and applications techniques for creating lively skin tones and animated expressions with limited and full palettes. You work on composition through color and figure/background relationships, and sighting accurate figure proportions. With each figure painting you develop your understanding of oil painting techniques and treat the figure as a subject. Class sessions include individual instruction and the discussion of historical and contemporary figure paintings.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01079 | FIGURE PAINTING IN OIL
8/2-8/30, Monday, 6:30pm-9:30pm
SUMMER SESSION B
 
 
Learn to create a dynamic figure painting in oil from the live model. Starting with a limited palette, you learn how to block-in value and temperature shapes that comprise the figure and surrounding environment. Explore practical color-mixing strategies and work up to a final painting using an extended palette, with an emphasis on composition and sighting accurate figure proportions. Class sessions include individual instruction, group critiques and discussion of historical and contemporary figure paintings.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01080 | BEGINNING PORTRAIT PAINTING
8/3-8/31, Tuesday, 9:30am-12:30pm
SUMMER SESSION B
 
 
Learn to create an accurate, dynamic portrait in oil and capture the features of your model. Working from short to long poses, you study color-mixing strategies and application techniques for creating lively skin tones and animated expressions. With each painting you develop your understanding of painting the portrait from observation, oil painting techniques and how to treat the portrait as a pictorial subject.

BEGINNING
 
 

P01081 | PORTRAIT PAINTING IN OIL: PRIMARY PALETTE
8/4-9/1, Wednesday, 1:30pm-4:30pm
SUMMER SESSION B
 
 
Emphasizing color mixing, you work from a simple palette of warm and cool primaries, which provide endless possibilities in generating the nuances of flesh tones. Work from the model in a drawing to painting approach that moves from block-in to rendering form, including strategies for applying thin layers of paint and wet-on-wet paint handling, as you complete one painting over the session.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01082 | NEW! MASTER PALETTE II: GOYA TO DEGAS
8/5-9/2, Thursday, 1:30pm-4:30pm
SUMMER SESSION B
 
 
In this second Master Palette class, you continue to explore the rich and varied advantages to working on toned grounds with historically based premixed palette settings. Explore the Chamois colored ground of Goya and the set palettes of the proto-romantic era as well as the techniques of Degas and the French Realists.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01084 | COLLAGE IMPROV
8/6-9/3, Friday, 9:30am-12:30pm
SUMMER SESSION B
 
 
The liberating medium of collage allows you to create in a spontaneous manner. Use your instinct and voice as you exercise and develop elements and principles of design. Approach the art of collage in a distinctly different manner each week in this class centered on art-making as play.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01085 | BASICS OF BOTANICAL WATERCOLOR
8/6-9/3, Friday, 1:30pm-4:30pm
SUMMER SESSION B
 
 
Study the important basics of classical botanical watercolor painting, which include observation, measurement, drawing and preparing the painting surface and understanding how lighting reveals form. Learn flat and graded watercolor washes, followed by instruction in the dry-brush method, which allows for a very detailed, tight and realistic portrayal of the subject, and gaining understanding of color mixing processes to create three-dimensional, aesthetically pleasing, and scientifically correct images of botanical subjects. While these are methods used by many botanical artists, they are equally effective in painting a variety of other subjects to produce a detailed and realistic portrayal of the subject. Beginners are welcome, and continuing students can take on new and challenging subjects under supervision.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01086 | COMBINED MEDIA ABSTRACTION
8/7-9/4, Saturday, 2:00pm-5:00pm
SUMMER SESSION B
 
 
Turn your observations, feelings and sensations into colors, shapes and forms that reflect your spontaneity. Explore new techniques and methods that allow for freedom yet guide you through avenues that have been explored in the past, while you experiment with various materials from conventional art material to construction material. Learn a new language in color, form and material that could put you on a new creative trajectory.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01087 | PERSONAL STYLE IN ENCAUSTIC
8/8-9/5, Sunday, 2:00pm-5:00pm
SUMMER SESSION B
 
 
Develop your personal style and allow your creativity to flow freely as you learn different encaustic techniques in this lively and creative studio. Explore methods used by many prominent encaustic artists including using collage and stenciling to create texture, as well as discussion of ancient portraits in wax.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01088 | BEGINNING STILL-LIFE PAINTING
9/13-11/15, Monday, 9:30am-12:30pm
 
 
In a step-by-step process learn the methods of oil painting while exploring the still-life genre. In order to remove fear and promote confidence, you learn to consider value, warm and cool relationships and color as well as methods for self-correction and problem solving. Throughout the class, you participate in discussion on tools, materials, methods and techniques.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01089 | NEW! PORTRAIT PAINTING IN OILS:
GESTURE & ANATOMY
9/13-11/17, Mon/Wed, 9:30am-12:30pm
 
 
Begin your portraits with a drawing-to-painting approach while working from the model, focusing on the anatomical problems of foreshortening: specifically rendering subtle passages from the curving edge of the jaw onto the slanting cylinder of the neck that captures the characteristic attitude or gestural aspect of the model’s pose when combined with the angle and carriage of the shoulders. Various color strategies are explored for depicting shadows and reflected light.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01090 | FOUNDATION STILL-LIFE PAINTING I
9/13-11/17, Mon/Wed, 1:30pm-4:30pm
 
 
Work through a series of exercises and complete one monochromatic and two color paintings using still life as your motif. Lessons include handling materials, light and shadow, color mixing, color design, brushwork, the painting process and setting up a compelling still life. This course is the first in a three-part series, which continues with Foundation Still-Life Painting II (winter) and Foundation Still-Life Painting III (spring).

This class fulfills a Foundation Painting Program requirement. Learn more about the Foundation Drawing, Painting and Modernism Programs.

BEGINNING
 
 

P01091 | NEW! ACRYLIC PAINTING: RADIANT STILL LIFES
9/13-11/15, Monday, 6:30pm-9:30pm
 
 
Discover the basics of painting with acrylics as you work from still-life setups featuring flowers, ceramic objects and small statues. Using the palettes and color layering techniques of Gauguin, Hausner and Matisse, you explore color relationships, tonal value and the fundamentals of composition. Lively exercises examine essential techniques as you learn to prepare paper and canvas grounds, use brushes and palette knives properly, mix color effectively and build vibrant images using layers of transparent and opaque paint.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01092 | CONTEMPORARY PORTRAIT PAINTING
9/14-11/16, Tuesday, 9:30am-12:30pm
 
 
Learn to create an accurate, dynamic portrait in oil as you capture the features of your model. Working from short to long poses, you study color-mixing strategies and applications techniques for creating lively skin tones and animated expressions.

This class fulfills a Foundation Painting Program requirement. Learn more about the Foundation Drawing, Painting and Modernism Programs.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01093 | NEW! LANDSCAPE OIL PAINTING: AUTUMN GLORY
9/14-11/16, Tuesday, 9:30am-12:30pm
 
 
Learn how to build color palettes that describe the intensely colorful drama of autumn using various painting techniques for rendering foliage. An emphasis on composition keeps your painting focused on your individual expression, from realistic to abstract using direct painting methods.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01094 | FOUNDATION FIGURE PAINTING: COLOR INTO VALUE
9/14-11/18, Tues/Thurs, 1:30pm-4:30pm
 
 
With exercises addressing both your understanding of the figure and oil-painting techniques, you build a versatile arsenal for solving common figure-painting challenges. You explore various conceptual and geometric strategies as well as techniques for analyzing structure, proportion, gesture and form. Understanding of value and color relationships is also emphasized. This course is the first in a three-part series, and is followed by Figure Painting II (winter) and Figure Painting III (spring).

This class fulfills a Foundation Painting Program requirement. Learn more about the Foundation Drawing, Painting and Modernism Programs.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01095 | NEW! EXQUISITE STILL LIFE IN PASTEL
9/14-11/16, Tuesday, 6:30pm-9:30pm
 
 
Complete progressively complex still-life paintings while improving your subtle use of color drawing skills and the realistic representation of shadow and light. The glowing colors of glazed ceramics, fruit and flowers provide inspiration as you explore composition and color layering techniques working from one set-up using pale colors and one using bright colors with high contrast of light and shadow. In this way, you learn to capture the subtle interplay of color and tonal values in bold, unified images. $10 materials fee payable to the instructor.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01096 | BEGINNING WATERCOLOR
9/15-11/16, Wednesday, 9:30am-12:30pm
 
 
Develop an understanding of transparent watercolor that allows you to make conscious choices regarding color, value, wetness and composition before the brush touches the paper. Then your strokes can be made with the authority that watercolor rewards. Homework required.

BEGINNING
 
 

P01097 | FIGURE PAINTING IN OIL
9/15-11/17, Wednesday, 9:30am-12:30pm
 
 
Learn to create a dynamic figure painting in oil from the live model. Starting with a limited palette, you learn how to block-in value and temperature shapes that comprise the figure and surrounding environment. Explore practical color-mixing strategies and work up to a final painting with an extended palette, with an emphasis on composition and sighting accurate figure proportions.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01098 | NEW! LANDSCAPE OIL PAINTING: AUTUMN GLORY
9/15-11/17, Wednesday, 6:30pm-9:30pm
 
 
Learn how to build color palettes that describe the intensely colorful drama of autumn using various painting techniques for rendering foliage. An emphasis on composition keeps your painting focused on your individual expression, from realistic to abstract using direct painting methods.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P01099 | ENCAUSTIC PAINTING
9/15-11/17, Wednesday, 6:30pm-9:30pm
 
 
Zavareei provides a hands-on investigation of the different characteristics and effects achieved by employing wax as a component of your painting materials. Learn the basics of this ancient, luminescent medium, including material, surface and painting techniques as you explore a range of encaustic applications: From simple addition of hot wax to painting media to hot-wax painting and the heating of wax-painted surfaces. Group and individual instruction includes techniques for heating, mixing and application as well as layering and transferring methods.$25 partial materials fee payable to instructor.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P10100 | LUMINOUS COLOR ON TONED GROUNDS: LANDSCAPE
9/16-11/18, Thursday, 9:30am-12:30pm
 
 
Building a painting in layers over toned grounds can be an adventure in unexpected and surprising optical colors effects. Learn to utilize the power of complementary colors to bring dynamic energy to painting sky, foliage and rocky shores; how mediums and brush handling can make pigment mixtures appear different; how to mix more subtle neutrals; and how to unify your composition through limited palettes. 

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P10101 | COLOR FOR PAINTERS
9/16-11/18, Thursday, 9:30am-12:30pm
 
 
Improve your ability to perceive color and to express that vision in your paintings as you learn to accurately observe color relationships and to mix equivalent analogies with oil paint. As you work from still-life set-ups, interior space and the life model, you build on your understanding of color as value, temperature and intensity. Learn to grapple with such difficulties as how to paint white! You spend a great deal of time mixing on the palette, making personal color charts and working on color studies from observation.

This class fulfills a Foundation Painting Program requirement. Learn more about the Foundation Drawing, Painting and Modernism Programs.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P10102 | BEGINNING OIL PAINTING
9/16-11/18, Thursday, 6:30pm-9:30pm
 
 
Discover the vast possibilities of this enduring medium, oil paint, by learning the principles of mixing color, setting up a palette and paint application through brush strokes. Learn to crop and frame your subject for a strong composition, use basic concepts of value, space, volume and cool and warm colors to structure your imagery and paint with limited and full palettes. Class time includes short lectures, discussions, painting, individual instruction and critiques. Homework required.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P10103 | BEGINNING ABSTRACT PAINTING
9/17-11/19, Friday, 9:30am-12:30pm
 
 
Learn to abstract what you see with intention and clarity. You construct a unique still-life object that serves as your subject throughout the class. Working from this constant object, Britt guides you through a series of oil-painting exercises that build fundamental skills and teach you how to make focused choices about the art-making process, helping you learn what you want to alter, destroy or keep. Homework required.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P10104 | NEW! BOTANICAL WATERCOLOR: AUTUMN CORNUCOPIA
9/17-11/19, Friday, 1:30pm-4:30pm
 
 
Fall offers up a variety of colors, textures and shapes for the botanical artist, and an enjoyable opportunity to play with a range of methods such as wet-on-wet washes and color-intensifying dry-brush. Beginners to botanical illustration learn observation and measurement skills as well as the use of watercolor washes and dry-brush technique to create three-dimensional, aesthetically pleasing and scientifically correct images. Intermediate students gain experience in mixing colors both on the palette and with layering, and even loosen up a bit with wet-on-wet washes.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P10105 | PORTRAIT PAINTING IN OIL
9/18-11/20, Saturday, 10:00am-1:00pm
 
 
In this course on the art and practice of portraiture you learn from observation, acquire strategies of organizing visual information and study historic precedent while you work to render convincing and compelling likenesses of the model in oil.

This class fulfills a Foundation Painting Program requirement. Learn more about the Foundation Drawing, Painting and Modernism Programs.

ALL LEVELS
 
 

P10106 | FIGURE PAINTING IN OIL
9/18-11/20, Saturday, 2:00pm-5:00pm
 
 
Learn to create a dynamic figure painting in oil from the live model. Starting with a limited palette, you learn how to block-in value and temperature shapes that comprise the figure and surrounding environment. Explore practical color-mixing strategies and work up to a final painting with an extended palette, with an emphasis on composition and sighting accurate figure proportions.

ALL LEVELS
 
 


INTERMEDIATE PAINTING CLASSES



P01083 | ESSENTIALS OF PLEIN-AIR PAINTING
8/5-9/2, Thursday, 3:30pm-6:30pm
SUMMER SESSION B
 
 
Working en plein air poses unique challenges that require a unique approach. Painting on location at Seattle parks, with weekly demonstrations, exercises, and one- and two-session paintings, you learn the key concepts of site selection and composition, landscape value, color strategies for depicting light, simplification and massing, and how to work efficiently outdoors. Ideal for those with drawing and painting experience who now want to explore plein air.

INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED LEVELS

SOLD OUT --- please call to be added to the wait list.
 
 

P10107 | INTERMEDIATE ABSTRACT PAINTING
9/13-11/15, Monday, 6:30pm-9:30pm
 
 
Explore the language of abstraction as expressed in contemporary painting. With the work of 20th- and 21st-century artists as your guide, you examine some of the strategies and working methods used to create non-representational art. You address the language of marks, the creation and definition of form and the use of color in class assignments, executed in drawing materials and oil or acrylic paint.

INTERMEDIATE
 
 

P10108 | PAINTING TECHNIQUES OF THE OLD MASTERS
9/13-11/15, Monday, 6:30pm-9:30pm
 
 
Learn to interpret and understand the Old Masters through study of their layered oil painting approaches. Following their examples, you use the bountiful still life to explore underpainting, developing form, layering and glazing. You also investigate scale, texture, light and composition as you create your own interpretations in the manner of the masters.

INTERMEDIATE
 
 

P10109 | INTERMEDIATE WATERCOLOR
9/15-11/17, Wednesday, 1:30pm-4:30pm
 
 
Work with increasingly complex subjects as you expand your understanding of and dexterity with watercolor. Working from still lifes, landscapes and photographs, you learn to individualize your painting process, better understand the variables of watercolor painting and how to use them to your creative advantage, and to take informed risks. Students should have completed Beginning Watercolor or have basic watercolor experience.

INTERMEDIATE
 
 

P10110 | NEW! UNDERSTANDING PICASSO FOR PAINTERS
9/16-11/18, Thursday, 9:30am-12:30pm
 
 
To truly understand Picasso’s towering genius is to experience a new way of looking, of seeing and of comprehending that has changed art irrevocably and is still a major cultural influence. Through lectures and painting exercises, you pursue a thorough and logical investigation in order to get beyond the shallow surface, to discover new and relevant truths about his art, his time and ours. Basic painting skills required. $15 partial materials fee payable to instructor.

INTERMEDIATE
 
 

P10111 | ASPECTS OF MODERNISM FROM TITIAN TO GOYA
9/16-11/18, Thursday, 1:30pm-4:30pm
 
 
Modern painters looked to the old masters Vermeer, Titian, Velazquez, El Greco and Goya for inspiration and confirmation in their pursuit of an art of the individual. Each was able to find his genius as a result of an individual decision to reconsider the possibilities within the traditions available to them, resulting in new art that transcends time and place. Through lectures and painting exercises, you explore their insight, invention and painting techniques, all to better aid your search for a meaningful art now. A basic painting knowledge is necessary in either oils or acrylics, preferably oils. $15 partial materials fee payable to instructor.

INTERMEDIATE

This class is part of the Modernism Program. Learn more about the Foundation Drawing, Painting and Modernism Programs.
 
 

P10112 | NEW! DIRECT PAINTING: CAPTURING THE SPIRITUAL
9/16-11/18, Thursday, 6:30pm-9:30pm
 
 
Titian, Tintoretto, Rembrandt, El Greco and Goya each demonstrated strong use of color, expressive and descriptive brushwork and chiaroscuro in their figure painting. The Impressionists were highly influenced by these characteristics, as well as their raw energy. Explore how the old masters used high contrast lights and darks, texture and the use of drawing in painting to create the sensation of the spiritual — an inner life-spirit — of both the model and the painter themselves. Paint in oil or acrylic with rapid brushwork, vivid color, bold use of texture and contrasts to make figure paintings that transform paint into flesh and light. Some painting experience recommended.

INTERMEDIATE

This class is part of the Modernism Program. Learn more about the Foundation Drawing, Painting and Modernism Programs.
 
 


ADVANCED PAINTING CLASSES



P10113 | ADVANCED WATERCOLOR
9/14-11/16, Tuesday, 9:30am - 12:30pm
 
 
As an experienced watercolor painter seeking to refine your practice and strengthen your personal style, you are invited to work under the close mentorship of Hoffmann to develop independent painting projects according to your artistic vision. Hoffmann assists you in your mastery of advanced techniques and innovative approaches to increasingly complex compositions. Group discussions and critiques further stimulate visual openness and growing awareness of varying approaches to common problems. Completion of Intermediate Watercolor or instructor permission required. New students welcome.

ADVANCED
 
 

P10114 | MODERN PAINTING CRITIQUE GROUP
9/19-11/14, Sunday, 10:00am-1:00pm
 
 
Ricketts leads a lively critique group for painters working in any media. Meet biweekly to discuss issues in contemporary painting and one another’s work. Concept, surface, imagery and composition are some of the many topics for discussion. The emphasis focuses on developing your individual voice. Class size is limited to eight students. 

ADVANCED

Class meets 9/19, 10/3, 10/17, 10/31, 11/14
 
 

P10115 | CREATIVE CONTINUITY
9/19-11/21, Sunday, 2:00pm-5:00pm
 
 
This independent-study style class is designed to develop a new painting project or reenergize a series you wish to complete. Working from a set of parameters defined in the first class, you create several paintings that hang together as a related examination of a theme. You may work in oil, acrylic or mixed media on the surface of your choice. Instructor guidance and exploration of examples from 20th- and 21st-century art enhance your in-class studio work.

ADVANCED
 
 

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