Jenny Doh | Agency & Heat 2-Day Expressive Acrylic Painting Workshop | Monday and Tuesday, August 3 and August 4, 2026 | 9:00 am until 4:00 pm
$460.00
“Art is two parts agency and one part inner heat.” (Jerry Saltz)
DAY 1
I will demonstrate and teach a maximalist approach to help you apply paint onto a canvas to build up layers, with the goal of strengthening your confidence and competence and thereby fortifying your agency and independence as a painter.
The first part of the class will move quickly on purpose, to get you to stop over-thinking and try the methods out quickly.
This approach will cause strokes to appear “grabbable” and disconnected “staccato” strokes.
We will do this on a minimum of two canvases. As the day progresses, we will transition from staccato to legato strokes as we learn ways to quiet the canvas and blend without overworking it.
Throughout the day, we will practice color mixing and most of the work will be done with the canvas placed flat on the table.
We will finish the day by using an app that helps us view an image we want to reference in DAY 2 with three values.
DAY 2
We will embark on selecting one of our canvases from DAY 1 to deliberately paint a subject using a photo reference.
This reference can be a portrait, a figure, an animal, flowers, or landscape.
Anything you want to paint, we will paint right on top of your selected canvas in ways that will help you access your inner heat and to empower you as a painter.
Most of the work will be done with the canvas placed on an easel as I teach the repetitive process of DELIBERATING, DECIDING, and DELIVERING every stroke.
On this day, you may also decide to take one of the other canvases from DAY 1 to coax out stories or concepts that the canvas may be calling you.
As time allows, you may be able to make progress on both.
Techniques & Process
- Overview of tools and materials with principles of best practices in terms of handling paints and caring for tools.
- Warm-up exercises to get our mindsets into new ways of thinking and seeing and feeling.
- Demonstration and teaching of how to build layers of paint on a blank canvas using 15+ methods.
- Discussion of concepts drawn from literature and poetry that have applications on how to overcome creative barriers during the creative process.
- Discussion of lifelong journey involving how to make the art we make our own by reaching deep into who we are and allowing who we are to be expressed on our canvases.
- Principles of solving problems and deciding when a work is finished or finished for the time being.
- How to look at and discover concepts that the canvas communicates and how to coax such concepts out into distinctive imagery
- How to apply representational concepts onto the canvas by working with references and quiet the background, and when appropriate, to add shadows for still life-inspired images.
WE WILL RELEASE SEATS FOR PURCHASE THE MORNING OF REGISTRATION.
*** MAY 18TH AT NOON (PHOENIX TIME) ***
In stock
Description
Title of class: Agency & Heat 2-Day Expressive Acrylic Painting Workshop
Instructor: Jenny Doh
Learn more about Jenny <here>
Date of Class: Monday and Tuesday, August 3 and August 4, 2026
Number of hours of class: 12 Hours
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm each day
Level: all
Class Fee: $460
Kit Fee: $40*
*Golden paints are expensive. If you’d prefer to use my paints, the kit fee to use my paints for the entire workshop will be $40. Please email Jenny if you would like to pay the kit fee to use her paints.
STUDENT SUPPLIES
- CANVASES:
- Canvas 1: 18×24 inches is a good size or something slightly smaller (but not larger)
- Canvas 2: 18×18 inches is a good size as long as it is square
- Other canvases: if you want to work on more than two canvases, feel free to bring them
- PAINTS: Fluid Acrylic paints by Golden:
- Titanium White
- Carbon Black
- Titan Buff
- Raw Umber
- Ultramarine Blue
- Pyrrole Red
- Diarylide Yellow
- Fluorescent Pink (heavy body)
- Heavy Body Acrylic paints by Holbein:
- Aqua Blue
- Quinacridone Crimson
- ACRYLIC INKS: Golden High Flow acrylics in black and white
- Fineline precision applicators (gauge 20 (blue top))
- SUBJECTS: Reference photos of subjects that you’d like to paint on the second day stored on your smart phone. If you have an old family photo, take a photo of that photo and store it onto your phone. Photos with high contrast (lights and darks) recommended. If you don’t have a photo, I will have many that you can use as references for painting.
- PAINTBRUSHES: Please bring only two “bright” brushes, also known as “short flats” one larger (about an inch wide) and another smaller (about half an inch wide). No need to bring any other brushes. The exact ones I use are these:
- Dick Blick Scholastic Wonder White Brushes (long blue handles)
- Size 12 (smaller)
- Size 20 (larger)
- Dick Blick Scholastic Wonder White Brushes (long blue handles)
- MISCELLANEOUS
- Paper towels
- container for water
- apron
- palette paper
- palette knife (any size)
- Stabilo-All pencil (black)
Paints and paintbrushes can be found at Dick Blick
OPTIONAL
battery-operated or rechargeable task light
Optivisor or other magnification
Instructor Email Address: jennyjdoh@gmail.com
Instagram: @jennydoh
