Pre-tax total cost of workshop: $420 (includes $25 registration fee), 30% deposit: $126.00
Dates: Saturday May 16 – Sunday, May 17, 2026 (9am – 4pm)
Location: Art School, 15 NW Birch St, Coupeville
Materials: Albala- Supply List.pdf
Level: Intermediate to Advanced, open to painters in all mediums

Exploring the Four Aspects of Variation: Mitchell Albala returns to Pacific NorthWest Art School with his flagship workshop on composition.

For many painters, composition remains the most elusive area of their practice. This is because its energies are often abstract or hidden beneath the narrative story of the painting. The goal of this workshop is to uncover those hidden forces — so you can take greater control of your compositions.

Working from photographs, with practical exercises, critiques, and analyses of master compositions, we’ll explore the four aspects of variation — the essential qualities that keep a composition alive and engaging. We take a real-world approach to composition: no obscure theories or academic formulas, just tangible principles that can be directly observed in your subjects.

Our goal isn’t necessarily to produce a beautiful painting by the end of the workshop, but to awaken you to the aspects of variation that that underlie all paintings, so that you will have greater fluency with composition as you go forward.

Level: This is not a workshop for first-time painters (those who have never painted or mixed color at all), but ideally suited for intermediate to advanced painters who want to deepen their understanding of composition.

Medium: Open to painters in all mediums. The aspects of composition we cover are universal and not medium-specific. (For acrylic painters, the expectation is that you know how to manage acrylic’s rapid drying time and know how to use a “Sta-Wet” palette.)

Instructor Bio: Mitchell Albala is a highly respected painter, workshop instructor, and author. His semi-abstract and atmospheric landscapes have been exhibited nationally and are represented in corporate and private collections. He is the author of two books, “The Landscape Painter’s Workbook: Essential Studies in Shape, Composition, and Color” (Rockport Publishers, 2021), and “Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice (Watson-Guptill, 2009), which has been the best selling landscape painting book in the nation for 10 years. In addition to leading plein air workshops in Italy, Mitchell also teaches workshops throughout the Pacific Northwest. He has lectured on Impressionism and landscape painting at the Seattle Art Museum and has written for “International Artist” and “Artists & Illustrators” magazines. He also hosts a popular painting blog, which holds a top 20 spot on Feedspot.com’s “Top 90 Painting Blogs for Artists.” See more of his work at mitchalbala.com.