Expressive Response: Colour, Texture, Gesture (Online Workshop) Fall 2026 w/ Craig Jefferson

September 2 to September 16 (Wednesdays), 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM Eastern Time

**All sessions are live and will be recorded, students do not have to be present. All recordings will be available to students for 3 months after the final session, after 3 months the recording will be deleted.

Please check your email spam/junk folder for your Zoom invite. Our business hours are 10:00 AM through 5:00 PM. All course information and email correspondence will be sent during business hours. If students purchase a course, workshop, demo or recording outside business hours or during the weekend the course information or recording will be sent the following business day.

DEMO: https://youtu.be/jHk94BbcFvk

Workshop Description

In this three-week workshop, Craig will guide you through creating dynamic, expressive compositions from still life subjects. You will learn that observation doesn’t have to mean only copying what you see, but rather that it can be a springboard for visual ideas and personal expression.

Goals of the course include:

- Gaining confidence in building structural elements in your work, learning to compose still life set ups and the skill of observational drawing.

- Learning an approach to color theory and an application that encourages heartfelt response and intuition.

- Gaining an understanding and love of materials that allows freedom to play.

- Enjoying freedom of expression and allowing abstract relationships to flourish in your work.

Workshop Outline

Week 1 -

Learn to create a still life setup in your home/studio that will improve and inspire your work.

With graphite drawing and painting sketches we’ll consider an approach to observation that also responds to the abstract relationships evolving in the picture.

Week 2 -

We’ll begin to push our painting further allowing surface to build through expressive response. We’ll think about colour mixing (on the palette and in the painting), application and materials.

Week 3 -

Ambition and expansion. Building on previous weeks, we’ll consider how to embolden our approach to painting breaking out of boundaries and releasing expression.

Workshop Materials

Drawing

4B graphite pencil

Charcoal

Paper/sketchbook

Oil Paint

These are suggested colours but not prescriptive. I’ll mainly use Daler Rowney Georgian Oil but a different brand is fine. I do encourage liberal use of paint so it may be good to have a mid-range quality that you’re not scared to waste.

Titanium White

Ivory Black

Cadmium Red (warm red)

Alizarin Crimson (cool red)

Cadmium Yellow (warm yellow)

Lemon Yellow (cool yellow)

Ultramarine Blue (warm blue)

Prussian Blue (cool blue)

I may introduce further colours in the last session to expand my palette. This might be for example Magenta, Vermillion, Viridian Green, Sap Green. If you have these, great, if not,

don’t worry.

Painting Materials and Equipment

Turpentine or equivalent solvent. I use Zest-it which is non-toxic.

Boiled linseed oil

Cold wax (or solid beeswax if you want to make your own)

Jars

Stiff hair brushes

Palette (bigger the better)

Palette knives

Rags

White Spirit or something to clean brushes

Painting surface (primed panel, primed paper or primed canvas

Still Life Set Up

Shoe box

Lamp

Coloured papers

Simple objects- Eg wooden building blocks, flowers, fruit, animal ornaments, painted bottles