Paint as you like and live happy!
​Dancing with the unknown, exploring inner and outer worlds, laughing and playing, learning to deal with self-doubt and creative frustration, expressing yourself, and discovering YOUR unique voice...it's challenging and oh-so-fun!

2026

March 24-26 , New Braunfels Art League, TX,  Intuitive Abstract Painting, this three-day class will focus on creating visual intrigue without concern for recognizable subject matter. Join us in a lovely light-filled studio downtown near restaurants and shops. This annual venue is lots of fun! 
Go Here! for additional information and registration! 


March 27-29, New Braunfels Art League, TX, The Abstracted Landscape. In this second session in Texas will focus on visually indicating water and air, distance and atmosphere, land and vegetation. We will simplify, fracture, exaggerate, or distort images to abstract the composition and add visual intrigue.
Wait List for additional information and registration! 

April 20-24, Intuitive Expressions of the Southwest,
a MISA workshop in Santa Fe, NM. 
Paint freely “your way” as you channel the ambiance and impressions of New Mexico’s enchantment. I’ll guide you with prompts to free up your senses so that you might reveal an uncensored experience. From these exercises, we will create a series of six paintings. 
We’ll take note of sights, sounds, feelings, and revelations as we explore Santa Fe. Your nighttime dreams might reveal themselves in paint, or perhaps it will be your daytime images, of churches, chili peppers, hollyhocks, Kachinas, rivers, sage, turquoise, adobe, low  riders, or rusted pickups. 
Registration and more information is HERE. 
Sold out!

May 4-8, Imagination Unleashed, Let's add metal leafing this year! It's always a blast when I return to Pensacola, FL!
Wait List

June 29-July 2: Paint Yourself Free, acrylic workshop, Watercolor Art Society of Houston.
A link for registration will be posted three months before the class. 



September 24-26, Paint Yourself Free, White Bear Center for the Arts, White Bear Lake, MN. Expand your imagination and artistic curiosity while you "play" your way to unique compositions. 
For information, go HERE. 

October 12-17, Italy!!  Paint Yourself Free in Italy! Meet me in Rome and we'll travel to the charming hilltop village of Citta della Pieve for a week of art and adventure.
Go HERE for more information! Sold Out. 

October 19-26, Painting the Essence of Occitanie- Art Retreat in Southern FRANCE! This location looks fantastic...join me this fall for an unforgettable adventure! GO HERE for information.
 
November 13, 14, 15, "Make Your Own Rules", Acrylic Intuitive Painting workshop at Ingrid's Studio, Chicago, IL. I'm excited to return to Ingrid's Studio for another workshop.
Go HERE to join in the fun!
December 1-5, Paint Yourself Free in NOLA, PaintSpace NOLA, where we'll paint in a large studio space, in a lovely neighborhood, where they serve us a fantastic lunch on the patio. I enjoy it so much that I'm returning for a third year. I encourage you to join us for five days of continuous inspiration with a supportive group of painters! A link will be coming soon. 

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For questions, or to find out about hosting an art workshop, 
Contact Joan

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I have been to a lot of art workshops over the past five years.  This one was the best. Joan is very bright, likeable, knowledgeable, surprisingly funny, encouraging and a fine artist.  She is flexible enough to present an approach and then be supportive if you end up going in quite a different direction.  Her demonstrations - with ongoing commentary as she works - are as good as they get.

My best,  Jeff



Thank you for the huge role you played in my wonderful and creative Kanuga experience.  When I describe it to friends, they tell me that I light up! You helped me breakdown barriers that had held me staring at blank paper for months.  All I have to do now is grab my bubble gum cig, my bottled beverage, a piece of charcoal, some drippy paint - and before you know it, I have an under-painting (pants) and inspiration for moving forward!

Your approach also helped bring our class together as community of sharing and inspiring artists.  So thanks to all of my fellow classmate artists too. I loved meeting everyone and hope you are all holding on to the energy we created together at Kanuga.

Rowanne


Joan,
Just wanted to tell you that I found last week's workshop most helpful-- in terms of both technique and motivation. Many thanks for your professional and inspirational approach to painting and your obvious interest in helping others to gain greater skill and creativity.
Janis Foley

 
This was my first painting experience with you, and your enthusiasm, sense of fun, and play gave my mind, body, and spirit a much-needed jump start to begin painting again.  We all laughed and painted for 3 days; it was one of the best workshops I have attended. I highly recommend your teaching to anyone who wants to paint, learn, have fun, and loosen up.           ~Christine Wilkinson

Joan, I want you to know that your class greatly improved my painting confidence and I am learning to trust the process and keep pushing forward.
Thanks again.
 Artfully, Bev Sharrard

Suzanne Jenne
Joan teaches a wonderful class! She is a generous, thoughtful teacher and a fabulous artist who brings a great sense of humor and fun to the class. Would do it again in a minute!

“…Your workshop was a complete turn-on for me and I have continued to work in this way since then…I came back from that workshop at McDowell feeling renewed. That makes you a hero!"
                ~Marcia Moritz

Joan is a knowledgeable, vibrant, and caring instructor. She uses inventive techniques to teach both design and technical painting skills.
                           Nancy Lee Stewart

I arrived home packed with new working methods and was impatient to continue exploring. I recommend this workshop to anyone open to mixed media. You will embark on a great adventure!”
            ~ Win Ratz

I want you to know how inspired I was by your class, and feel that my work has changed dramatically just in these last few weeks. I now have a way to start my pieces, using your Miss Bossy Pants techniques, and it has made a profound difference. I am gradually making it my own, finding what order and techniques I seem to resonate with, and I feel so much freer and confident that something will emerge that I can work with.

Weeks prior to your class, I had just decided to take a self-imposed sabbatical for at least a year, freeing myself from being so focused on selling my work and painting what the world seemed to want. I needed to return to creating from that inspired place, which allows for whatever wants and needs to come forth freely and openly without limitations. Your class was a perfect way to kick off this time of exploration and experimentation. The timing of this class was in perfect alignment for me, and you were the perfect teacher.

Thank you so much. I look forward to attending another workshop with you down the road.

Jackie (Roliardi)