When women write to me about learning to paint, they usually ask one of two questions. How do I get better at this? And how do I stop being so afraid of the canvas?
These are two different kinds of learning, and most online art courses only teach one of them. Technique courses train our eyes and hands. Intuitive courses teach us to trust what wants to come through. I believe we need both.
So here are ten online art courses worth our time; five that build real skill and five that open the creative channel. One of them is mine, and I'll tell you honestly which one and who it's for.
The 10 courses at a glance
| Course | Type | Medium | Format | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soul Journey (Avigail Sapir) | Intuitive, with technique | Acrylic | Live on Zoom, 7 weeks | Women who want skill and inner work together |
| Proko Drawing Basics (Stan Prokopenko) | Technique | Drawing | Self-paced video, free and premium lessons | Building the foundation under everything else |
| Evolve Artist (Kevin Murphy) | Technique | Oil | Self-paced with instructor feedback | A full, structured path into realism |
| Draw Mix Paint (Mark Carder) | Technique | Oil | Free video course | Trying realistic oil painting before spending |
| Will Kemp Art School | Technique | Acrylic | Self-paced video | Absolute beginners who keep putting it off |
| Domestika watercolor courses | Technique | Watercolor | Self-paced, bought one at a time | Finding a personal style after the basics |
| Bloom True (Flora Bowley) | Intuitive | Acrylic | E-course, five weeks | Bold, layered, colorful play |
| Find Your Joy (Louise Fletcher) | Intuitive | Any | Free taster, then a 10-week course | Painters who feel tight and want to loosen up |
| Creative Visionary Program (Nicholas Wilton, Art2Life) | Intuitive, with design principles | Any | About three months, cohort | A longer commitment to finding your own voice |
| Approaching Intuitive Painting (St Ives School of Painting) | Intuitive | Abstract | Online session with recording | A short, low-commitment first taste |
Five courses that build technique
Technique is what lets us say what we mean on the canvas. These five teach it well.
1. Proko Drawing Basics
Stan Prokopenko breaks drawing down into line, shape, perspective, value, and edge. A large part of the course is free to watch, and the premium version adds deeper demonstrations and assignments.
Best for: anyone who feels their painting is held back by their drawing.
Good to know: there is no built-in teacher feedback, so we have to bring our own discipline.
2. Evolve Artist
Evolve is a structured oil painting program created by Kevin Murphy. Students begin in grayscale, move into color, and then paint from life and from photos. The paints and supplies are sent to you, and instructors give feedback on your assignments.
Best for: someone who wants a clear path into realism and is ready to commit.
Good to know: it is a strict method. If we are craving freedom right now, this may feel like too much structure.
3. Draw Mix Paint
Mark Carder teaches traditional, realistic oil painting, and he has made much of his course freely available as videos. It is a method for learning to paint from the very beginning, including how to mix color accurately.
Best for: trying oil painting seriously without paying for a course first.
Good to know: the focus is straightforward realism, so there is little here about personal expression.
4. Will Kemp Art School
Will Kemp teaches classical painting principles in acrylics, in a warm and very clear way. His Absolute Beginners Acrylic Painting Course was made, in his words, with painting procrastinators in mind. I love that.
Best for: complete beginners who want simple materials and a calm teacher.
Good to know: the courses are pre-recorded, so we paint on our own.
5. Domestika watercolor courses
Domestika has a wide library of watercolor courses from working artists around the world. Each course is bought on its own and stays in your account, so we can choose one teacher whose style speaks to us.
Best for: exploring styles once the basics of water control are in place.
Good to know: many courses are taught in Spanish with subtitles, so check the language before buying.
Five courses that open intuition
Intuitive painting asks a different question. What happens when we stop planning the painting and start listening to it?
Featured course
6. Soul Journey (this one is mine)
I made Soul Journey because I kept meeting women who had taken a technique class and still felt frozen, or who had tried intuitive painting and ended up with a canvas they didn't know how to finish. I wanted one place where we could learn both.
Soul Journey is a 7-week live painting course for women. We meet on Zoom every week and make two paintings together.
- Painting 1, The Raw Beginning (weeks 1 to 3). We open the creative channel through movement and emotional release, then learn temperature, value, and how to build a foreground while letting the painting lead.
- Painting 2, Rooting with Intention (weeks 4 to 6). We begin again from a prayer, a vision, or a personal theme, and work on depth, midground, light, and the final details that make a painting come alive.
- Integration (week 7). We gather to witness each other's work and let the journey land.
Along the way there are guided meditations, journaling prompts, a vision board, a private WhatsApp group, and personal feedback from me on your paintings.
One of our alumni, Rikki, said it this way:
"The combination of intuitive painting, powerful meditations, and creative process cracked open a space inside me that had long been buried beneath control, fear, and old stories."
The details:
| Next cohort | November 2 to December 21, 2026 |
| When | Mondays, 1:00 to 3:30 PM EST (8:00 to 10:30 PM Israel time); no class December 7 for Chanukah |
| Where | Live on Zoom |
| Price | $595 USD, with a payment plan available |
| Experience needed | None |
Best for: women who feel creative but struggle to express it, and painters who want real instruction in light, depth, and composition alongside the inner work.
Good to know: this is a live group course, so it asks us to show up each week. If you want to learn at 2 AM in your pajamas, one of the self-paced courses here will suit you better!
You can read more about Soul Journey here. And if you'd like to paint with me first, I teach a free online masterclass called Open Your Creative Channel.
7. Bloom True with Flora Bowley
Flora Bowley is the author of Brave Intuitive Painting, and for many of us she was the doorway into this whole way of working. Her Bloom True e-course runs over five weeks and teaches painting in bold, spontaneous layers.
Best for: anyone who wants color, play, and permission to make a mess.
Good to know: the focus is on freedom and layering more than on drawing or realism.
8. Find Your Joy with Louise Fletcher
Louise Fletcher is an abstract painter in the Yorkshire Dales. Each year she offers a free Find Your Joy taster, which leads into a paid 10-week course. One of her well-loved exercises is to paint ugly ON PURPOSE, and to mess the painting up the moment it starts to look pretty.
Best for: painters whose work has become tight and careful.
Good to know: she paints in acrylics, but the exercises work in any medium.
9. The Creative Visionary Program (Art2Life)
Nicholas Wilton's program runs for about three months and pairs design principles with the deeper question of what makes our art feel like us. Students keep access to the lessons and call recordings for a year.
Best for: artists ready for a longer commitment to finding their own voice.
Good to know: it is a big program with a large community, which some of us love and some of us find overwhelming.
10. Approaching Intuitive Painting (St Ives School of Painting)
This online class from the well-known Cornwall art school is taught by Caroline Robinson and draws on the way Joan Mitchell painted. It covers how to find a way into a painting when we feel blocked, and a recording lets you pause and paint along.
Best for: a short first taste of intuitive abstract painting.
Good to know: it is a single class, so there is no ongoing group or feedback.
How do we choose?
Well, let's ask ourselves a few questions.
When I sit down to paint, what stops me? Is it that I don't know how to make the thing I see in my mind? Or is it that I'm afraid to begin at all?
Do I learn better alone, at my own pace, or do I need other people in the room to keep showing up?
And what am I really longing for right now... a new skill, or a way back to myself?
If the answer is skill, start with one of the technique courses. If the answer is fear, or longing, start with an intuitive one. And many of us will need both over time, because technique gives intuition something to speak with, and intuition gives technique something to say.
Whichever course you choose, my prayer for you is that you pick up the brush this season, and that whatever comes out onto the canvas, you let it be seen.
