Medium: Cold wax & oil
Level: Open to all levels
Class Dates: Wednesdays, December 2 & 9, 2026
Class Times:
• 10:30 am-1:00 pm Pacific Time
• 1:30 pm-4:00 pm Eastern Time
• 6:30 pm-9:00 pm UK Time
Winter strips the landscape down to its essentials. Shapes become stronger, color becomes more subtle, and even the smallest shift in light can completely change the mood of a scene.
In this two-day workshop, we’ll use the winter landscape as a jumping-off point for exploring light, atmosphere, color, texture, and expressive design in oil and cold wax. Rather than simply painting what we see, we’ll look for what makes a winter scene compelling—the glow of low light, long blue-violet shadows, softened edges, quiet neutrals, flashes of unexpected color, and the contrast between stillness and movement.
Working from your own winter reference images, we’ll begin by simplifying the landscape into strong shapes and value patterns. Small studies will help us make decisions about composition and color before moving into larger oil and cold wax paintings.
From there, we’ll build our surfaces through layers of opaque and transparent color, using brushes, brayers, silicone tools, scrapers, and other mark-making tools to create depth and visual history. We’ll explore when to add, when to scrape back, when to soften, and when to leave a bold passage alone.
Day One: Simplify, Design & Build
We’ll begin with quick studies focused on composition, value, and a limited winter palette. You’ll learn to identify the essential shapes in your reference, mix beautiful chromatic neutrals, and use warm and cool relationships to create the illusion of light.
We’ll then translate those ideas into oil and cold wax, establishing the structure and first layers of our paintings while experimenting with texture, broken color, and expressive marks.
Day Two: Layer, Edit & Find the Light
On day two, we’ll push the paintings further through glazing, scraping, veiling, blending, and selective mark-making. We’ll explore edges, focal areas, transparency, and contrast while learning how to edit a painting without overworking it. The goal isn’t to reproduce a photograph—it’s to capture the feeling of winter light and create a painting that is distinctly your own.
Whether your work leans representational or abstract, you’ll leave with a deeper understanding of how to use color, value, texture, and restraint to create atmosphere in oil and cold wax—and new ways of seeing the winter landscape long after the snow is gone.
All levels are welcome. No prior oil and cold wax experience is required.
In stock
$160.00
Chicago-area artist Karen Sako creates paintings that fuse the precision of design with the freedom of abstraction. Her background in graphic design and decades as an instructor fuel her mastery of color, composition, and mark-making. Sako’s work, celebrated for its boldness and emotional resonance, has earned numerous awards and recognition in both national and international exhibitions. Collected across the globe, her paintings invite viewers to experience the mystery of light, the rhythm of nature, and the energy of pure expression.
She is also a cherished member of esteemed artistic organizations such as The Suburban Sketchers of Long Grove, Barrinton Area Art Association, and the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society.
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