Intuitive Painting: Weekly Class Series (In Person)

🎨 Join our weekly painting class to explore your inner self and creativity in a supportive and inspiring environment. No prior art experience necessary - these weekly classes are perfect for all! Space is limited. Reserve your spot now! ✨

Event Details:

⏰ Dates & Time:

New weekly class series begin on the dates and times shown above. We have classes on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Check our schedule for specific dates/holidays during each series.

🗓️ Duration of series: 4-weeks or 8-weeks.

📍Location: In-studio classes are held at our painting studio in Glen Park, SF at 300 Chenery Street. Most classes can also be taken online via Zoom.

🧑🏽‍🎨What is intuitive painting? In our painting, there is a lot of permission to explore and create. This is not a typical ‘art’ class in which you will learn techniques and methods of painting; instead you will be expertly guided to tap in and listen to your intuition and paint from your heart. We learn to pay attention to our own intuitive voice that is free from beliefs and concepts. In this way paintings happen spontaneously, unplanned and unexpected!

🖌️ All materials provided (high quality paint, brushes, paper, smocks) - just bring yourself! Our experienced facilitators will guide those new to intuitive painting and/or new to painting at home.

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"I've been painting at the studio (both virtual and in-person) for less than a year and have received so many gifts already as a result of the process. It's POWERFUL. It's beyond putting paint to paper. It has changed my outlook both in class and out in the wider world.

Claudia lovingly guides you towards your own intuition so that you can re-learn to trust your instinct and remember what feels good. Then you paint it. It's play, it's meeting the dark parts of you with love, it's coming home to yourself.

It's hard to put the experience into words. You should try it for yourself, everyone gets something different in each class. You will have fun painting -- it's about the experience of creating rather than an end product. And that's so freeing. It takes the pressure off. We don't do much in life just for ourselves, just for the joy of existing. It feels great not to "produce" and just to be. And to have a welcoming, safe space to do that through art. Sometimes we paint things that we couldn't speak with words." - Megan B.

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"I don't know where to start really -- this place is magical. I came across the painting studio after going down a rabbit hole on google titled "how to get out of my head and back into my art." Not only has this experience given me back the childlike joy from putting color on paper, but it has allowed me to face the challenges that come up when you're a perfectionist, or your mind is scattered, or you just don't know where to go next and you want to stop.

If you've never painted before, if you are an experienced artist, or if you are just curious, this place is for you. They have 4 and 8 week classes where you get to watch yourself unfold, or try their once a month drop-in class, where you get guidance from CCE team members." - Sabrina K.

About us

Established in 1999, the painting studio is a lively place filled with light, color, and the warmth of a community sharing a space in which to explore the creative process. The Center for Creative Exploration is a nonprofit organization that values freedom of expression with brush in hand and beyond. We are committed to creating a sense of community in our painting studio where people feel comfortable to be themselves in whatever way they choose. We are committed to providing an affirming, welcoming, and accessible studio for all people through co-creation and open communication.

We offer weekly adult classes, community classes, workshops, retreats and kids/family classes. Check out our upcoming events here!

🖌️ For additional information on intuitive painting and our studio, please visit our website or email [email protected]. Follow us on Instagram & Facebook to join our social media community!

Our teachers

Claudia Erzinger is a teacher and the Executive Director at the Center for Creative Exploration. She started painting there in 2000, with Barbara Kaufman, one of CCE’s founders (watch her video here), and began teaching the intuitive painting practice in 2006. Claudia has also studied with Michele Cassou (the originator of the Point Zero Method of painting). Claudia brings experience from many traditions and practices to her work with painters at CCE. In her 20s, she began formal training as a nurse and soon decided to specialize in hospice care, which she continues to this day. She has studied meditation, Buddhism, and Yoga. Claudia also engages in Soulwork—a form of inquiry rooted in deep listening and stillness, and the way of love—with Michael Regan.

Maria Freebairn-Smith is a teacher and Family Program Coordinator at the Center for Creative Exploration. She has been painting and teaching the intuitive painting process for over 30 years. She participated in the first teacher training for The Painting Experience, facilitated by Michele Cassou and Stewart Cubley. Along with Barbara Kaufman and others, Maria was one of CCE’s original founders. She also helped to establish the nonprofit Drawbridge: An Arts Program for Homeless Children, and The Open Circle Cooperative Preschool, both in San Francisco.

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Along with her process painting training, Maria holds a degree in Psychology from Barnard College, Columbia University, and has a graduate Certificate in Restorative Justice Practices. Other advanced trainings include Waldorf Early Childhood Education, Middendorf Breath experience, and Motion Improvisational Theater.

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When Maria began raising a family, she moved to Sonoma County. Focusing on education for children in her new community, she founded The Creative Parenting Center and helped establish Sunridge, a Waldorf-methods charter school. Returning to the CCE painting community, Maria brings a lifetime commitment to body, breath, and inquiry practices that ground her teaching in a broad transpersonal perspective.

Erika Jenssen is a Bay Area native who has engaged in process painting since 2001 when she attended a workshop at Esalen with Stewart Cubley. Over the years, during her career in Public Health, she returned again and again to process painting for self discovery, rejuvenation, and to return to her spiritual center. In 2023, she began training to facilitate and teach this intuitive process, and will complete a Practicum Program with the Painting Experience this year. She is delighted to be offering process painting at the Women's Cancer Resource Center in Berkeley, at retreats, and at The Center for Creative Exploration.

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