Oblique Strategies: Working through Creative Blocks and Evolving Painting Practices with Paul Pietsch

Oblique Strategies: Working through Creative Blocks and Evolving Painting Practices with Paul Pietsch

Short Class | Available

2129 S Street, NW Washington, DC 20008 United States
Room 3A
Intermediate/Advanced
8/6/2025-9/10/2025
6:30 PM-9:30 PM EDT on Wed
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$295.00

Oblique Strategies: Working through Creative Blocks and Evolving Painting Practices with Paul Pietsch

Short Class | Available

This six-week course will explore different ways of seeing, thinking and working—strategies artists can use to push themselves into unfamiliar territories, to overcome creative blocks and to evolve their artistic practices. Each week, students will paint in response to a specific prompt and limitation—and through the challenges they entail—necessitating new approaches to their work. Inspired by Brian Eno’s and Peter Schmidt’s list of oblique strategies for creativity, the course aims to help students feel more comfortable with artistic experimentation, reconsider their creative assumptions and habits, and, ultimately, develop confidence in their studio and trust in themselves. Students may work from oil, acrylics, watercolor and/or gouache.

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    Paint (oil, acrylics, watercolor and/or gouache.)


    Students should have a “split primary” palette—with at least one "cool" version and one "warm" version of yellow, red and blue—as well as ivory black and titanium white. They are encouraged to also use additional colors (e.g., secondary, earth tone colors and other blacks and whites) of their choice. Here are examples of cool and warm versions of the primary colors:


    Yellows

    • Cadmium Yellow Medium (warm yellow)

    • Lemon Yellow (cool yellow)


    Reds

    • Cadmium Red Medium (or Light), Pyrrole Red or Naphthol Red Light (warm red)

    • Alizarin Crimson (cool red)


    Blues

    • French Ultramarine Blue (warm blue)

    • Phthalo Blue Green Shade (cool blue)…also spelled “Phthalo Blue”…Winsor & Newton sells this color as “Winsor Blue Green Shade”


    Painting Surfaces


    For Watercolor and Gouache


    For Oil and Acrylic

    • 5 stretched canvases, wood panels or pieces of watercolor paper

      • 1 canvas/panel/piece of paper = 8” x 10” or smaller

      • 4 canvases/panels/pieces of paper = 16” x 20” or larger

      • All painting surfaces must be prepared with a primer and gesso or with just gesso.


    Brushes 


    For Watercolor and Gouache

    • 1 flat watercolor brush (1” wide) 

    • 1 round watercolor brush (size #8, #10 or #12)


    For Oil and Acrylic

    • 1 #8 round brush

    • 1 bright brush (1”- 1.5” wide) 

    • 1 flat brush (1” inch wide).



    Palette


    For Watercolor and Gouache



    For Oil  and Acrylic

    • 1 flat palette 11”x14” or larger in size. Students may use a wood, paper, or glass palette. (Do not buy a plastic palette or a palette segmented into multiple smaller palettes.)



    Solvent and Related Supplies


    For Oil 


    For Acrylic

    • 2 containers at least 1 pint or larger in volume for water. (Empty yogurt containers work well.)

    • Palette knife

    • Paper towels

    • Bar soap or dish detergent for washing brushes


    For Watercolor and Gouache

    • 2 containers at least 1 pint or larger in volume for water. (Empty yogurt containers work well.)

    • Paper towels



    Optional 

    • 1 pencil (HB or #2)

    • 1 sketchbook or extra paper for sketching

    • Apron/smock 

    • Nitrile/latex/vinyl gloves 

Paul Pietsch