“Oil Painting Boot Camp”
with Patricia Watwood
August 17-21, 2026
9:30 am to 4:00 pm each day
“Under the Apple Tree” by Patricia Watwood
There are essential skills in oil painting that every artist should understand. Over the course of five days, this workshop will guide students through five exercises that teach you fundamentals needed every time you start to sling around paint. From mixing piles of paint, viscosity and mediums, different brush types and when to use them, and different surfaces this course will guide you to not be afraid of your materials, and instead learn to understand the amazing range of applications and effects that can be created with oils.
We will work 3 days from still life subjects, and 2 days from a live model.
Five Essential Lessons:
1. Contrast and Notan - Learn how high key lights and strong shadow shapes are essential for a good composition that carries an impact.
2. Soft and Hard Edges- Learn to use various brushes, materials and mediums to get a range of lost and atmospheric passages, contrasted with bold brushstrokes that accentuate form. Subject: Still Life
3. Thick and Thin—Learn how to use opacity, transparency, and the skill of using enough paint with brushes and palette knives. I’ll show you glazing and velatura techniques as well.
4. Limited Palette Poster- Adapt the skills gained above to a one day sketch of the model, focusing on good mixtures, color and value relationships with an earth color palette. I’ll show you how to lay in a sketch quickly and “Paint out of a mush”-- that’s a technical term!
5. Chromatic Triad Poster- Using high chroma triad of primaries and a one day model pose, learn to maximize the dynamic of color, value and saturation—and learn how to keep your brushes and mixtures clean and palette in good order. We will practice “tiling” the paint to make clean shapes.
Registration is $750.
PAY by CREDIT CARD.
PAY by CHECK: Mail check to our studio at:
4814 Washington Blvd, Suite 230, St. Louis, MO. 63108
PAY by ZELLE: with our email: gacastudio.info@gmail.comWorkshops take place in the GACA’s studio, located in the Pierce Arrow Building, 4814 Washington Blvd, Suite 230, St. Louis, MO. 63108
Patricia Watwood at GACA
REGISTRATION for this workshop
For more information on Patricia Watwood, please visit her website at:
http://www.patriciawatwood.com/.
PATRICIA WATWOOD BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1971, St. Louis, Missouri, Lives in Brooklyn, NY
Patricia Watwood is a leading figure in the contemporary figurative realist movement, known for her classical paintings, drawings and portraits in oil. Her narrative subjects are primarily women with themes of allegory, myth and archetype. Her portrait of Ida B. Wells was commissioned by the Kennedy School at Harvard. Watwood has exhibited at the Beijing World Art Museum, The European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM), The Butler Museum, and is in the collections of The St. Louis University Museum of Art, and The New Britain Museum of American Art. She is the First Vice President of the Salmagundi Club of New York. Her book, The Path of Drawing, was published by Monacelli Studio Press in 2022.
Instagram @patriciawatwood Facebook @patriciawatwoodstudio
Materials List
Surfaces:
3-5 Stonehenge Oil Paper sheets: 9 x 12 inches
11 x 14 inch ( or so) drawing board to tape your oil paper down to
2 8x10 inch or 9x12 inch Linen Panels—like Raymar or Centurion. (White ground)
Paints: Professional Grade Oil Paints
White (Gamblin Flake White Replacement recommended)
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Red Light (Gamblin)
Alizarin Crimson
Burnt Sienna (M. Harding or Gamblin)
Ultramarine Blue
Ivory Black
Brushes
2 larger bristle (natural bristle hair) filberts size 6-10 (i.e. Rosemary Ultimate Filbert, size 8)
1-2 Medium to large (badger) fan brush, or other soft mop/fan brush
3-4 Flats in white nylon, (i.e. Rosemary Ivory Long Flat size 6 or 8) ¼ inch across up to ¾” across the ferule
2-3 gold nylon or sable brushes in filberts and flats: ¼ inch across up to 1/2” across the ferule
1-2 small rounds with a good point, like white nylon or burgundy nylon
2-3 1” chip brushes with a natural bristle ( the cheap ones from a paint or hardware store)
Other Equipment
Palette: New Wave Grey Pad 11 x 16 pad with tear off sheets, Or a similar rectangular glass or pan palette about 11 x 16 inches.
Palette knife, 2.25” diamond point shape like Holbein 1066S #41. If you own multiple palette knives, bring a few.
Medium aluminum palette cup-
Brush tank, (important!) like a Silicoil or 12+ oz. mason jar with lid--- MUST have for brush rinsing. You must have at least 8-12 ounces of solvent to use for brush washing, not a tiny cup. The lid should close tightly and not leak.
Paper towels and at least one painting rag (cut up old t-shirt)
1 qt. Gamsol (only) odorless mineral spirits—enough to refresh each day as needed.
4.2 oz bottle Gamblin Galkyd medium
Paper towels
2-3 paint rags of t-shirt material
Black artists masking tape