THE NEW OIL PAINTING: Weekend Edition
Learn to Paint in Oils Without Solvents
Painting Architecture, Layering & a Zero-Waste Studio Practice
with Kimberly Brooks
Berlin · 23–25 October 2026
Welcome Dinner: Friday 23 October · 19:30
Workshop: Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 October · 10:00–16:00
Plus two live virtual follow-up sessions
INTRODUCTION
This workshop teaches you how to paint in oils without using toxic solvents such as turpentine or mineral spirits.
Over two intensive studio days, contemporary American painter and bestselling author of The New Oil Painting, Kimberly Brooks, will show artists how to set up and work in a completely solvent-free oil painting studio — while retaining everything that makes oil paint such a rich, flexible and beautiful medium.
The workshop is particularly well suited to Burnt Sienna students and alumni who have already begun working with oil paint and now want to develop a safer, more confident and more sophisticated painting practice.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Alongside Brooks’s solvent-free method, students will explore Painting Architecture: how to begin a painting, build it through successive layers, leave it, re-enter it and allow the work to develop over time.
The weekend includes:
Solvent-free oil painting
Colour mixing and palette organisation
Paint consistency and mediums
Transparency and opacity
Edges, transitions and brushwork
Layering and re-entering a painting
Building spatial depth
Developing paintings over time
Creating a virtually zero-waste studio practice
FRIDAY WELCOME DINNER
Friday 23 October · 19:30
The programme begins on Friday evening with an intimate welcome dinner with Kimberly Brooks and the workshop group.
The dinner is included in the course fee and offers a rare opportunity to meet Kimberly before the workshop begins, talk informally about painting and artistic practice, and connect with the other participating artists.
With only eight places on the workshop, the dinner is also an exceptional networking opportunity within a small group of serious painters.
SATURDAY: MATERIALS, COLOUR & BEGINNING
Saturday 24 October · 10:00–16:00
The first day begins by rethinking the oil painting studio from the ground up.
Kimberly will demonstrate how to organise a completely solvent-free studio, including the oils she uses, brush care, palette organisation, medium preparation and the manufacturers and suppliers she recommends.
Students will explore Brooks’s Pyramid Colour Mixing Method and investigate paint consistency, colour relationships, transparency, opacity, edges and the physical behaviour of oil paint.
The afternoon focuses on beginning paintings.
Kimberly will introduce strategies for moving beyond the anxiety of the blank canvas and finding ways to enter a painting quickly and intuitively.
Artists will begin several paintings that will form the working foundation of the weekend.
SUNDAY: BUILDING THE PAINTING
Sunday 25 October · 10:00–16:00
Sunday focuses on what happens after the beginning.
Students will explore how paintings develop through successive layers, wet-into-wet passages, glazing, corrections, transitions, brushwork and compositional decisions.
Kimberly will work individually with each artist as their paintings develop.
The day also introduces Thinking in Three Dimensions — understanding an image spatially through foreground, middle ground and background so that paintings retain depth, energy and a sense of space.
MATERIALS & MEDIUMS
The Mediums Are the Message
Kimberly will demonstrate a wider range of materials that can be used to expand the possibilities of oil paint, including linseed oil, marble dust, powdered glass and volcanic ash.
The aim is not simply to remove solvents, but to understand the medium more deeply and develop a richer vocabulary for building paintings over time.
Students will leave with both a practical solvent-free studio system and a more expansive understanding of the possibilities of oil paint.
THE WORKSHOP CONTINUES
Layered oil painting requires something a weekend alone cannot provide: time.
After the Berlin workshop, students will return to their own studios, allow their paintings to dry and continue developing the work using the methods introduced during the weekend.
The group will then reconvene with Kimberly for two live online studio sessions.
ONLINE FOLLOW-UP ONE
Tuesday 3 November · 18:00–19:00
Painting Architecture & Eco-Studio Implementation
The first online session will review the progress of paintings begun during the workshop.
Kimberly will look at how the work is developing, answer questions arising from the transition to a solvent-free studio practice, and advise artists on how to continue building their paintings.
ONLINE FOLLOW-UP TWO
Tuesday 1 December · 18:00–19:00
Painting Progress & Final Review
The final session will revisit the paintings begun during the workshop, alongside new work developed using the methods explored during the course.
There will be time for individual feedback, troubleshooting and further questions around layering, materials and maintaining a solvent-free studio practice.
WHO IS THIS WORKSHOP FOR?
This workshop is designed for painters who want a stronger command of oil paint and a healthier, more sustainable studio practice.
It is ideal for Burnt Sienna students and alumni, as well as painters with some previous oil painting experience through to advanced artists.
It is particularly suited to:
Oil painters who want to eliminate solvents from their studios
Artists who want greater confidence at every stage of a painting
Painters interested in layering and developing work over time
Artists interested in historical painting knowledge without rigid academic formulas
Painters seeking a more environmentally conscious studio practice
Artists who want to deepen their understanding of colour, edges, surface and spatial construction
MATERIALS
A complete materials list will be provided before the workshop.
Students will work with a deliberately streamlined selection of oil colours, brushes and solvent-free materials.
Burnt Sienna will provide shared studio materials including linseed oil, marble dust, glass palettes and easels.
Students should bring three primed canvases and a pad of watercolour paper, together with the paints and brushes specified on the materials list.
ABOUT KIMBERLY BROOKS
Kimberly Brooks is a contemporary American painter and bestselling author whose work explores landscape, architecture, portraiture, history and memory.
Her work has been exhibited internationally in galleries and museums, including exhibitions selected by curators from the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Brooks is the author of The New Oil Painting and has been a featured artist with the National Endowment for the Arts. She has also spoken on art and creativity for TEDx.
An award-winning educator, Brooks has taught and lectured at UCLA, RISD, Otis College of Art and Design, Anderson Ranch Arts Center and programmes throughout the United States and Europe.
Her teaching combines the practical intelligence of an exhibiting painter with years of research into the history, chemistry and material possibilities of oil paint.
SECTION 13 — WORKSHOP AT A GLANCE
Friday 23 October · 19:30
Welcome dinner with Kimberly Brooks and participating artists
Saturday 24 October · 10:00–16:00
Studio workshop
Sunday 25 October · 10:00–16:00
Studio workshop
Tuesday 3 November · 18:00–19:00
Live online follow-up
Tuesday 1 December · 18:00–19:00
Live online follow-up
Location
Burnt Sienna Arts School Berlin
Kamminer Straße 9
10589 Berlin
BOOK YOUR PLACE
THE NEW OIL PAINTING: Weekend Edition
23–25 October 2026
Two studio days + Friday welcome dinner + two live online follow-up sessions
€750 full fee ·
€550 solidarity place available for musicians, painters and artists - 3/4 available places.
Maximum 8 participants