top of page
Masterful Animals - Drawing Course
Explore how to draw animals with both accuracy and expression inspired by the techniques of the old masters. Led by experienced wildlife artist and pet portraitist Ashley Gaboury, you'll build strong foundational skills while exploring how greats like Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, and Edgar Degas captured the life and spirit of animals. Through classical methods and creative practice, you'll gain the tools to draw with confidence, realism, and character.
Paint The Portrait in Oil - From a Photo
What makes a beautiful painting? This is one of the thought-provoking ‘ideas’ we’ll be exploring, in depth, in this challenging and eye-opening 2-Day workshop as we explore “Painting the Portrait”.
To achieve our goal, our primary focus will be to pay close attention to such major concepts as light and beautiful paint quality, while exploring a simplified approach to painting the portrait.
Land, Sea & Sky Workshop
The focus of this workshop is on landscape composition and colour. You will create paintings of prairies, foothills, and seascapes distinguished by a harmonious play of light and colour in a bold and realistic style. Distinguished by force and beauty, reflecting the artist’s powerful vision and a philosophical, spiritual approach to his art.
Soapstone April 2026
.jpg)
A fun and light approach to working with soapstone stone. You will carve your own piece of stone while Vance guides you through the process of shaping, carving and polishing, helping solve the challenges you encounter at each phase. Each student will come away from this workshop with a finished piece and with a better sense of how to see and execute in 3D. No skills are required other than to be willing to have fun!
My Sister's Garden - Floral Painting from Life Fundraiser
Set yourself free from the confines of photos by painting your own real bouquet of flowers. Photos can’t capture the full range of values, colours, or the energy of painting from life. Benefit from my focus on the fundamentals of colour theory, understanding light and shadow, and drawing skills. Open to Beginners (with a basic working knowledge of their medium) through to advanced. All flowers are supplied, and at the end of class you can take home your own bouquet!
Friday Night Demonstration - Florals From Life Fundraiser
.jpg)
Come to Swinton's for a live oil painting demonstration, where you’ll witness Cheryl Peddie work her magic in real-time, brushstroke by brushstroke, bringing reality and impressionism to life from a Bouquet of flowers.
From Line to Layer - Taking your sketches from the Page to the Canvas!
.jpg)
Bridge the gap between the sketchbook and the canvas. Learn how drawing serves as the foundation for strong, expressive paintings. A simple drawing evolves into a fully realized painting. In this workshop, you will learn how drawing lays the groundwork for both colour and expression.
Resin/Glass Creations - Beginner
.jpg)
Curious about resin art but not sure where to start? In this fun and informative beginner workshop, you’ll learn the essentials of working with artist-grade resin. We’ll cover how to prepare your frame, plan your composition, and safely pour and layer your resin. You’ll then place your chosen design elements—glass, stones, shells, or beads—into your piece for a stunning, light-catching result.
Resin/Glass Creations - Intermediate
.jpg)
Ready to take your resin art a step further? In this creative, hands-on session, you’ll explore exciting new techniques using alcohol ink, resin dye, mica powders, and even acrylic paint to add depth, colour, and movement to your artwork. We’ll build on the basics, but don’t worry—this class is perfect for adventurous beginners too! You’ll work on a larger frame and learn how to blend, layer, and design like a pro while keeping the process fun and relaxed.
Dynamic Charcoal Portraits
Dive into the beauty of portrait drawing with one of the simplest and most elegant materials—vine charcoal. You’ll learn her favourite subtractive drawing technique, a wonderfully forgiving and almost meditative process where you both add and erase charcoal to reveal your image in a graceful push-and-pull.
Bow River Headwaters in Acrylic
This weekend workshop is designed to introduce students to all the basics of acrylic landscape painting while creating their very own masterpiece of the headwaters of the Bow River in a colourful autumn setting near the Bow Summit in Banff National Park. Even if you’re starting out for the first time, this course is meant to be fun, relaxed and creative. The instructor will provide ongoing demos to lead you through the painting to completion.
Reality Meets Abstraction
.jpg)
Learn Susan's approach to transforming reality into bold, captivating abstraction. Whether you're working in oil or acrylic, you'll learn how to see past surface details and uncover the shapes, rhythms, and visual energy waiting beneath the image.
Loosen up those Landscapes!
.jpg)
The most common question students ask me is “How can I loosen up my painting style?” This is what this class is all about! I will show you how to break down your reference into just a few large shapes and values. Composing and planning begin in the sketchbook, and from there we go to the canvas. Once these shapes and values are sorted out,
Jasper Plein Air Adventure!
.jpg)
Looking for an outdoor plein air adventure this summer? Join Doug Swinton in the beautiful town of Jasper. With breathtaking mountains and pristine lakes, you'll be sure to find some of the best plein air spots in Alberta. With one night demo and 3 days of painting, you'll come out of this workshop with a whole new inspiration for plein air and painting itself.
Painting Expressive Skies in Oils - Christine Code
In this workshop, artist Christine Code will share techniques for painting the sky with a combination of brushes and palette knives. Painting loose and free, we will focus on interesting painterly effects while considering design/composition and value control to create a compelling, emotional sky. We will start with painting a sunset, and if time permits, we'll end with a quick cloudy blue sky.
Q&A With Christine Code
Spend an inspiring evening with award-winning Canadian landscape painter Christine Code as she shares stories, insights, and practical wisdom from her life as a working artist. Enjoy a talk + Q&A about her painting process, techniques, and artistic mindset—including how she creates atmosphere in a landscape, what she’s learned from years of painting outdoors, and what it takes to build a sustainable career as an artist.
Scotland Plein Air Tour - Doug Swinton & Sue Contini
.jpg)
Imagine a week immersed in the wild beauty of Scotland — dramatic skies, ancient castles, sweeping highlands and quiet lochs — all explored with a sketchbook or paints in hand. Things will be a little different than usual because we are headed across the ocean! To keep things stress-free (and also so nobody gets lost!), we have hired a private coach and professional local guide to take us from Edinburgh in a loop through the country to visit many of Scotland’s most picturesque painting places.
bottom of page