Fall 2026 Workshops and Classes

Mixed Media
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Studio School
Mondays, Sept. 14 - Nov. 30, 10:00am - 1:00pm
Registration for VMFA members Aug. 11, 8:00 M
Registration
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Oil Painting Independent Study
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Studio School
Thursdays, Sept. 17 - Dec. 10, 9:30 - 12:30
​Registration for VMFA members Aug. 11, 8:00 M
Registration

Painting With Cold Wax Medium Workshop
​Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Studio School
Oct. 24 & 25 10:00am - 4:00pm
Registration for VMFA members,​April 7, 8:00 M
Registration

Intro. to Collage Workshop
​Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Studio School
Oct. 3, 10:00am - 4:00pm
Registration for VMFA members,​April 7, 8:00 M
Registration

Private Lessons at My Studio
Richmond, Virginia
$75/hour for 1 person
$100/hour ($50 per person) for 2 people 
Please send me an email to schedule. Please use the supply list for the weekend workshop for oil and cold wax lessons. 

Cold Wax Painting on a Collage Substrate
Penn Studio School
Online
Feb. 16, 23, and March 2, 10:00am - 1:00pm EST
​Registration


Supply List for Weekend Cold Wax Workshop
Must Haves
Cold Wax Medium (will be available at the workshop for $5 or bring your own. I use Gamblin)
Arches Oil Paper pad, 9” x 12”, 12 sheets
1” painters tape (blue, white, or green)
Palette knives (will use mostly for mixing paint)
Oil Paints (it is helpful to have dark, light, warm, cool and at least one transparent. Good transparent colors to have are: transparent earth orange, indian yellow, or brown pink. If you plan to buy, student grade is fine and a
Gamblin 1980 basic set is good.)
Nitrile gloves (purchase at drug store)

Would Be Really Nice to Have
Messermeister Silicone Bowl Scraper. (Available on Amazon or Cold Wax Academy)
(This is an excellent tool for applying CWM. I will have some available to share if you aren’t ready to purchase)

Would Be a Luxury to Have
An Inovart Pro Roller 4” Brayer (Available on Amazon or Cold Wax Academy)
(This is also an excellent tool for applying CWM. I will have some available to share if you aren’t ready to purchase)

Bring if You Have But Don’t Purchase
One or two old paint brushes
Any old brayers
Drawing Tools Such as: charcoal, pencil, wax crayons, oil bars, china markers, R&F Pigment sticks, chalk pastels, pan pastels
Disposable palette or freezer paper for palette
Scissors
Ruler
If you have any questions regarding supplies please send me an email! [email protected]

Supply List for Weeklong Workshop
Same us above but you will need more surfaces and wax. Also, if budget allows, it would be nice to have a couple of RF pigment sticks and a few Caran Dache Neo Color II crayons in your favorite colors.
SURFACES I recommend trying Arches Oil Paper (12" x 9" pad), Multimedia Artboard (white) and Cradled Wood Panels. The paper is perfect for quick studies, warmups, alla prima sessions, and more! The multimedia artboard is great and it packs well. Semidry pieces can be stacked with wax paper and travel very well. Works on paper and artboard do not need gesso and can be easily mounted onto panel later. Cradled panels are the most popular substrate for cwm work. For the workshop, sizes between 12" x 9" and 20" x 16" would be good and you may want to gesso before workshop. If you have old paintings, oil or acrylic, that you want to paint over, that is a great surface. If painting over an acrylic painting, lightly sand or coat with clear gesso to remove any slick or shiny surface so the wax layers will adhere properly.
WAX you will need at least a 16 oz. can of Gamblin Cold Wax! I will have extra in case you need more.

Helpful Links for Reference AFTER the Cold Wax Workshop!!
Abaca Lens Tissue for collage and image transfer
Wet Strength Tissue for collage and image transfer
Oiler Boilers Gaunt Industries
Multi media art boards
Lyra Graphite Stick
Caran 'Dache Neo Color II Plaza has individual colors for sale
Stabilo Woody Pencils This set of 6 includes sharpener
Marabu Art Crayons
R& F Pigment Sticks
Art Graf Watersoluble tailor's blocks
Stencil Girl
Elizabeth Schowacher handmade brushes for cold wax

Online art newsletters/magazines/forums to check out
Hyperallergic.com
​Ocula.com
Twocoatsofpaint.com
Brooklynrail.org

Youtube Favorites
Dan Tirels - monoprints with recycled materials and more
Yeates Makes - mixed media, lots of gel prints
Brian Rutenberg - abstract painter with random advice, tips
Lewis Noble - abstract landscape painter
Jon Peters -Longview Woodworking - strip frames made with paint sticks

Collage Workshop
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Studio School
October 7, 2023
Registration for VMFA members Aug. 8, 2023, 8:00am
​Click here

Collage Workshop Supply List

Please Bring
1 large glue stick (Elmers or Uhu)
Scissors
​Xacto knife
Old paint brush 
Pencil
Old phone book, magazine, or notebook to use as a surface when applying glue to paper
Surfaces and papers, see below

Surfaces (could be: watercolor paper, heavy print-making paper like BF Rives or Stonehenge, chipboard or cardboard from cereal box, illustration board (Crescent makes small packs of precut illustration board that are nice!)

Papers  You will need a variety of papers. Just bring what you have. You don’t need all of these and don’t worry about it if you don’t have much time to prepare. I’ll have a few to share. 
From Around the House: junk mail, magazines, old books, sheet music, food labels & packaging, old letters, stamps, photos, greeting cards, paint chip samples, fabric scraps, shopping bags, small objects (like keys, buttons, metal scraps, etc,.)
Make Some Papers:
*Take book pages & splash ink on them…use straight ink and watered down ink
*Stain papers (any kind of paper: book pages, copy paper, rice paper, mulberry paper, tissue paper, newsprint, etc.) with red wine, coffee, tea, blueberries, turmeric, diluted acrylic paint, etc. Make solid colors, some with marks, drips, etc.
*Burn marks, hold paper over candle. Might want to seal with spray fixative.
*Scribble - just make crazy marks with graphite, charcoal, etc. Seal with fixative
*Citra Solve National Geographic (see YouTube videos for instructions)
*Monoprints - put some acrylic paint or ink on a non-absorbent surface and press paper on it
*Gel prints -make papers with gel printing plate, see YouTube for instructions

Bring if you have but don’t buy:
Small self-healing cutting mat
Acrylic matte medium
Small water color set and brush
Metal ruler
Color pencils
Few tubes of acrylic paint in favorite colors
Few bottles of ink (any kind but alcohol ink)

How Do You Mount a Painting on Paper onto a Panel?
1. Be sure to make your works on paper (wop) a little larger than a standard panel size. For example,
if you want to mount onto an 8.5” x 11” panel, make your work 8.75” x 11.25”. If you do have a
situation where your paper is a smidge smaller than the panel, you can usually sand the edge of the
panel until it meets the paper.
2. If your panel is not pre-gessoed, put a coat or two of gesso on it. This will prevent the tanins in the
wood from seeping into to your work in the future.
3. Put a coat of Acrylic Matte Medium (I use Liquetex or Golden) on the substrate (panel) AND the
wop. I use this because it works well and it is acid-free and archival. Put the wop on the panel. Be
mindful how you place it since some of the excess will be cut off. Gently press down from the center
to the edges to get any air out. Acryllic gel mediums work very well too and I will use it if I have a very
heavy paper or a paper with a rough surface.
4. Put parchment paper on top of the wop. Then top with heavy books. Leave overnight.
5. Get an xacto knife or a box cutter, WITH A NEW BLADE, and trim the wop so that if fits on the
panel perfectly. A blade that isn’t new may rip the paper. It is definitely worth buying a self-healing
cutting mat for this step. Dollar Tree has had a small one in stock recently!
6. If it looks ok, you are all set. I often paint the edges black. I use the side of the paint brush to paint
the edge of paper so you don’t see the white edge of the paper and it will look fantastic!!

Mixed Media Summer 2026

June 22
Warm-up/Technique is stamps from modeling clay
Supplies needed: Any paper, dark acrylic paint, palette, paint brush, dark ink pad if you have one (don't buy), small object with texture like keys, coins, shells, plants, etc. 
Cold Wax Lesson 
Supplies needed: Oil paint including one transparent paint (transparent red oxide, magenta, brown pink are my faves), palette, Gamblin Cold Wax, Messermeister dough scraper (r old credit card),surface (cradled panel, Arches oil paper, gessoed watercolor paper), 1" painter's tape

June 29
Working with a Repeat Motif - Oyster Shells 
Practice how to start an abstract work using a repetitive motif.
Supplies needed for Water-based artists: Mixed media or similar paper 16" x 20" ish (you can tape two pieces together to make this size), artist tape, charcoal, acrylic matte medium, paint brush, anything you would like to use to add color (colored pencils, soft pastels, watercolor, acrylic paint, water soluble crayons, etc.)
Supplies needed for Cold Wax Artist: You could opt to do water-based media just as an exercise. To do cold wax, ideally you would have a dry cold wax surface with the top layer a light color, charcoal and black china marker,  wax, oil paint, palette, messermeister dough scraper, mark-making tools like wax crayons, etc., 

July 6
Collaging your Own Photos into Your Work
Supplies needed: Photos. Include some that are high value contrast and not too complex. Start printing onto different papers including some transparent (tissue, deli, medical exam, etc.). We can work with color and/or black & white. Please not that if you print from an inkjet printer, ink will probably smear if wet media touches it (you could spray with fixative) so you might want to print on a laser printer. Substrate: watercolor paper, wood panel, smooth surface might work best for some techniques. Your substrate could already have a surface built onto it. For example, glue some old book pages down and alter with coffee stain, thinned gesso, etc. Or, take an old work and obliterate most of it with tinted, thinned gesso.  Matte medium, pan watercolor set, scissors. waterproof pen.
Cold Wax Artists: Usual paint set up: wax, paint, palette, etc. Plus photo images. Use thin, absorbent papers...nothing shiny.
Added twist: If anyone wants to add a few sewing stitches, we can do that. This can be used simply for embellishment or to add narrative/meaning with words, motifs, etc. Bring embroidery thread, string etc. A small awl or nail. I can bring needles.

July 13
Trace Monotype
Supplies needed: Watercolor paper, black oil paint, an image to trace (not too complex and image needs to be sized to fit your paper well!) pencil, ball point pen, pan watercolor set. 
Note: This process can be adapted to oil and cold wax but because of the drying time it would be better to learn this method and try with cold wax later. 

July 20
Finish Up Work!