Starting September 28th
Learn a repeatable way
to work through a painting,
so painting makes sense.
Essential Elements is a 7-week guided course for hobby painters who want to know what to look for, what decisions to make, and what to do next while painting.
Join Essential Elements
How Do You Turn Your Vision Into Painting Decisions?
Raise your hand if you've watched loads of painting demonstrations, taken workshops from artists you love, invested in better brushes, and now have a head full of painting knowledge. ✋🏻
Now, what to do with it all.
You may not need more information. You may need a way to organize what you already know.
... a way to think through a painting.
That's what Essential Elements is designed to give you.
Seven Elements – Seven Weeks – A Way to Think Through a Painting
Every painting is made from seven basic parts.
Line. Shape. Value. Color. Space. Texture. Form.
Artists call them the Elements of Art.
And those seven things are behind nearly every choice you make when you paint.
So the question becomes:
How do you use those elements to know what to do next while you're painting?
That's what you'll learn in Essential Elements.
The 7 Elements as Chapters
Essential Elements Week by Week
Here's our schedule for the next 7 weeks starting September 28th
Week 1 — We'll Get a Quick Start with Line, Shape & a 🦩Demo!
You’ll begin by looking past the names of things and learning to see what’s actually there—the lines and shapes that make up everything you paint. You’ll also have the option to jump right into a Flamingo painting exercise. It’s a chance to loosen up, get started, and have a finished painting under your belt in the very first week.
Week 2 & 3 —Color: Two Color Wheels, Two Ways to Understand Color
You’ll spend two weeks exploring color through exercises, demonstrations, and a little color science. You’ll look at two different ways of understanding the color wheel and begin making sense of how colors relate to one another. Then you’ll paint along with two bird demonstrations using two different palettes. You’ll see how the colors you choose change your options—and how there can be many different ways to arrive at a beautiful painting. And yes, we’ll nerd out on the science of color a little, too!
Week 4 & 5 — Value: Learning to Really See Light & Dark
You’ll spend two weeks exploring color through exercises, demonstrations, and a little color science. You’ll look at two different ways of understanding the color wheel and begin making sense of how colors relate to one another. Then you’ll paint along with two bird demonstrations using two different palettes. You’ll see how the colors you choose change your options—and how there can be many different ways to arrive at a beautiful painting. And yes, we’ll nerd out on the science of color a little, too!
Week 6 — Space - Creating Depth & Interst
You’ll paint a fall leaf painting with me that has become one of my students’ favorites. It looks simple, but it often brings some wonderful aha moments as you begin to see how space can help create depth and visual interest in a painting.
Week 7 — Texture & Form: Bringing Your Painting to Life
You'll finish with the elements that help create depth, surface, and three-dimensional form—those things that can take a painting from feeling flat to feeling like it has space, atmosphere, and life.
By now, the Elements aren’t just seven separate ideas.
They work together as a way to think through a painting.
The Complete Essential Elements Course
Prerecorded lessons you can watch on your own schedule.
7 Weekly Live Group Calls With Me
I'll review the week's content. Bring your questions!
Your Essential Elements AI Course Assistant
An AI bot is trained on all course material and is there to help you 24/7.
Lifetime Course Access
Come back to the course anytime. As you grow as a painter, you'll notice and understand new things each time you revisit the lessons.
"In all the classes I've taken, your process makes sense to me."
Lori Lewis
But, Wait, What If I'm Just Not Talented Enough?
When painting feels hard, it's easy to think you need:
More practice.
Better drawing skills.
Better color mixing.
Better brushes.
Or maybe you're simply not talented enough.
But there's another possibility:
You may not know what to look for yet.
Painting isn't one giant skill.
It can be broken into parts.
And when you know what you're looking at, it's easier to decide what to do next.
Observe → Read→
Respond → Better Paintings
With practice, you begin making more of those decisions naturally. Less guessing. More knowing what to look for.
"Your course has given me some confidence and a bit of a road map of what to focus on as I practice with each painting."
Anne Ames
Included! You'll Receive
The Quick Start — Flamingo Painting Week 1
Sometimes the hardest part is simply getting some momentum. And I know you want to get in there and start painting! I would.
That's why we'll begin with a Flamingo painting that is one of my favorites to teach. It's got so many great lessons in it.
You'll use what you're beginning to learn to create an intentional, finished painting without trying to tackle everything at once.
FAST-ACTION BONUS — My Pre-Painting Process
Enroll within the first 48 hours (before September 18th at midnight, Eastern time) and you'll also receive this pre-course video workshop to watch immediately.
Your painting process begins before your brush ever touches the canvas.
I'll show you how I move from inspiration and an idea to actually being ready to stand at the easel and paint—including how I plan my painting time, prepare my reference and materials, begin seeing value, and start looking at my subject through my artist's eyes.
Choose the Level of Support That's Right for You
Painting Mentorship with Kathleen
$1,497
Painting Mentorship with Kathleen
Painting Mentorship with Kathleen
“She has a style that lets you still have your own style. You can take what you’ve learned from Kathleen and then make it fit what you do.”
Cindy
When you Choose Painting with Kathleen
Your Starting Point
— Private Artist Assessment
Before we begin, we'll meet for a 20 minute private Zoom call and look at several examples of your work. We'll identify what's already working, patterns I see, and what I'd especially like you to pay attention to during our seven weeks.
I'll review your Work Each Week
— 7 Video Reviews/One Per Week + Mid-Course Private call with me
Submit one painting or work in progress each week. I'll send you a private 10–15 minute video showing you what I see, what's already working, and what I'd concentrate on next.
You’ll also have a private mid-course check-in call with me so we can talk through your progress and make sure you know what deserves your attention next.
Your Path Forward
— Final Private Artist Assessment + Growth Plan
At the end of our seven weeks, we'll meet for a final 20-minute session to look at where you began, what's changed, and where I see you going next.
I'll make a plan just for you identifying, what you're already doing well, what I see emerging in your work, & the areas to concentrate on next.
How the Elements Changed My Painting
Hi, I'm Kathleen.
I'm a professional artist and teacher who has been painting for 40 years, but I was a hobby painter for about 25 years first, fitting it in around a full life the same way you probably do.
In my late 40s, I became an elementary art teacher.
Every day I taught my students the basics of art — line, shape, value, color, space, texture, and form.
And something unexpected happened: those simple ideas changed the way I saw my own paintings. I started seeing shapes instead of objects. Value before color.
I began understanding why something wasn't working, instead of just knowing that I didn't like it.
That discovery shaped my own painting process and eventually became Essential Elements.
Since then, I've spent years painting professionally and teaching hundreds of painters online and in workshops.
But I haven't forgotten what it's like to be the hobby painter wondering:
What am I supposed to do next?
That's the painter I created Essential Elements for.
"I've seen things I'd like to paint, but it's knowing how to start that's challenged me. You gave us basic steps to get started and techniques as we progress through the painting. I have more confidence to paint now because I know how to get started."
Jean Morris
Which Experience Is Right for You?
Essential Elements
$797
Teach me how to think through a painting.
Paid in full or 3 monthly payments of $289
Painting Mentorship with Kathleen
$1,497
Teach me the process and help me apply it to my own paintings.
Paid in full or 3 monthly payments of $529
Painting Mentorship with Kathleen Is Limited to 10 Artists
Because I'll personally review your work every week and meet privately with you three times during the program, I'm opening only 10 Painting with Kathleen spots for this group.
The 100% Risk-Free Guarantee
I'm confident in this process, but I don't want you to have to take my word for it.
Come inside Essential Elements. Watch the lessons. Do the exercises. Join us for the live calls. Give the process a genuine try.
If, within the first 30 days, painting doesn't make more sense and you don't have a clearer idea of what to do next I'll refund your Essential Elements tuition in full.
You have 30 days to experience the course for yourself and decide whether this way of learning makes painting make more sense to you.
For Painting Mentorship with Kathleen:
Come through the first week, go through the material, and join our first live call. If by October 5 you decide the Mentorship isn't the right fit for you, let me know and I'll refund your tuition in full. After October 5, tuition is nonrefundable because the Mentorship includes weekly video reviews for each student and private support.
What My Students Started to Notice
The thing I hear most often from Essential Elements students is
"I Get It!"
They finally understood what they were doing.
A place to start.
A process to follow.
A better way to see.
Knowing what to do next.
"That's something no one else has been able to do for me."
—Sue
“I was looking for some quality art classes that were really going to take me to the next level.
Once I took Essential Elements, it made all the difference in the world.
I take a lot of photos now, and Kathleen taught us how to edit photos so you know whether or not it’s going to make a great painting.
That’s something that no one has ever been able to do for me.”
"I was painting without a purpose."
— Lisa
“I had been painting pretty much my whole life, just as a hobby.
Before, I was kind of painting without a purpose—just kind of copying. I was copying, but not even thinking about the Elements.
At the end of the course, it all comes together and you start paying more attention to the Elements. I never did that before.
I wasn’t even thinking about my brushstrokes or color. It’s just changed everything.”
"It's given me so much more confidence." — Cindy
“I didn’t have a lot of confidence in certain parts of painting, especially color mixing.
Going through all those Elements really taught me about technique. I think about value more. I think about color more when I’m painting.
It’s given me so much more confidence.
I just entered a local show here in town, and all three of my pieces were accepted. So I’m pretty excited.”
What if I miss a live call?
How much time should I expect to spend each week?
What skill level do I need to be at? Is Essential Elements right for a complete beginner?”
What about refunds?
Ready to Make Painting Make Sense?
Becoming a better painter doesn't have to mean spending another hundred hours watching YouTube painting videos.
Learning what to look for changes the way you approach a painting.
It gives you something to look for.
Something to think about.
And somewhere to go when you find yourself wondering:
What do I do next?
Painting Mentorship with Kathleen
$1,497
Paid in full or 3 monthly payments of $529 — Limited to 10 artists
"I feel like I have the right tools to keep painting and learning."
