I’ll begin scheduling 2026 workshops in mid-December.

FINE ARTS WORK CENTER Painting Life/Painting Your Life a 9-Month Extended Workshop. October 14 to June 16, 2026

This is a practice-based workshop, intended to help painters of all levels to develop, advance or renew a painting practice while building a significant body of work.

It will ask the question, “what is a painting life?” while encouraging the development of bodies of work that reflect our everyday experience, relationships, and gestures. Participants will be encouraged to think of this process through a number of lenses, including exploring painting as a process of memoir, creating a documentary archive of the months we work together, and/or considering the relationship between our bodies/gestures and our paintings. MORE INFORMATION & REGISTRATION

ADVANCING PRACTICE: AN ART MAKING TUTORIAL (12-weeks: 6 bi-weekly group sessions, 2 individual sessions)

This workshop primarily focuses on building a visual art practice. We meet via Zoom biweekly over the course of twelve weeks. In addition to six group sessions, each participant is invited to meet twice with the instructor individually. The workshop is focused on building or advancing your art practice in the context of both pursuing individual goals and receiving group feedback. In addition the instructor will introduce the work of contemporary artists and identify resources that are requested. We will rotate between presentations of contemporary visual artists by the instructor (sessions 1,3 and 5) and reviewing work by participants (sessions 2, 4, and 6). The workshop is open to visual artists of all levels and each section is limited to no more that 8 participants. Fee: $400

Tuesdays Noon – 2:30 PM ET starting October 7th. This workshop is FULL as of 8/12. Dates: 10/7, 10/21, 11/4, 11/18, 12/2, 12/16

REGISTRATION FOR ONLINE WORKSHOPS: Workshop fees are listed with the descriptions. You can register by either sending me a Venmo payment to @Peter-Hocking-artist (last four digits are 7248) or a check to Peter Hocking, PO Box 672, Truro MA 02666. Please note the workshop title/day of the week with your payment. Please email me — phocking@gmail.com — when you send your payment so I can put you on the registration list. Once you’ve registered, I’ll send a confirmation email. A few days prior to the workshop, I’ll send a Zoom link and workshop resources. Email me with questions — phocking@gmail.com.

TRURO CENTER FOR THE ARTS — BACK TO BASICS on Wednesdays & Thursdays, October 29 - November 20, 9am - 11am, Open Studio until 4pm 4 weeks, 8 sessions

This workshop is designed for people who want to paint, but feel like they’ve never been invited to the party. It’s also for people who’re experienced painters, but feel like they could use a refresher in the basics.

Learning to paint should be joyous, exciting and just a bit challenging! I spent twenty years working with graduate students in Master of Fine Arts programs at Goddard College and Rhode Island School of Design, and I approach my workshops with the same seriousness I had as a professor. While my workshops are intended to provide graduate-level content, they are designed for artists at all levels of experience. I try very hard to provide individualized learning to everyone who works with me. 

I believe growing as a painter involves three things: 1) making paintings (learning by doing); 2) looking at painting (learning from others); and 3) talking about painting (sharing ideas, resources, and technique). As a result my workshops become vital learning communities, in which all participants share and grow as artists.

I'm very flexible as an instructor and see workshops as a way to support our growth as painters and to immerse ourselves in the process of painting. I'm not product-focused, and always prefer that workshops fuel us for artmaking in the weeks and months after the workshop is over. I provide a lot of learning resources above and beyond what’s presented in the workshop.

I offer some prompts, but encourage participants to make their own 'assignments.' While we can discuss many things about painting as a group, I offer one-to-one meetings as a way to focus on each participant’s specific questions or concerns.