The Painting Experience is an unprecedented journey into the wild territory of painting directly from intuition. It's a leap beyond the predicted and expected - a venture into color, form and image where no rules apply.

Free play is a mirror of the soul. It reflects our true nature accurately and gently without need for words. What's discovered is what we most secretly desire, our deepest response free from comparison, criticism and interpretation.

Join Stewart Cubley, cofounder of The Painting Experience in San Francisco and author of Life, Paint & Passion, in an exciting adventure of free expression painting. Explore the power of spontaneous creation to touch your core and awaken your passion.

In these workshops tools are provided in which to undertake a profound journey of free-play and self-revelation through art without the pressures of interpretation, comparison or evaluation. No prior art experience or training is necessary to participate, only the willingness to explore through color, shape or form.
All materials are supplied. Continuing Education Credits are available for MFT & LCSW licenses and Nurses.

Since its founding in 1976, the Painting Experience has touched the lives of thousands of people by enabling them to explore their creative process in an atmosphere of respectful non-judgment.The Painting Studio is a sacred space encouraging a safe yet challenging journey into your personal frontier. We emphasize the creative process itself rather than technique, talent or skill; the focus is on the quality of your experience, not the final product. The studio atmosphere is friendly and non-threatening; it fosters a culture free of competition and comparison. Paintings are not critiqued or analyzed by the group. As a gesture of respect and completion, the facilitator acknowledges each painting with you before you take it down.
We supply all the materials and we maintain the studio completely, all you need do is dip your brush and paint. You'll work on large white surfaces using a lush spectrum of color and fine quality brushes. No prior art experience or training is necessary, only your willingness to explore without words the exciting world of color, shape and form.

The Painting Experience appeals to people who are interested in the dimensions of the artistic/creative, the healing/therapeutic and the meditative/spiritual.

Artistic/Creative:
The essential artistic freedom is the right to create unburdened by pressures to perform, produce or succeed. Learn to trust your creative impulse in a safe atmosphere that genuinely honors individual differences.

Healing/Therapeutic:
It's deeply healing to express blocks creatively and to use them as a catalyst for change. Not knowing allows innocence. Accepting imperfection yields compassion. Risking vulnerability connects us with others.

Meditative/Spiritual:
Painting offers a unique opportunity to profoundly inhabit the present moment. It's an engaged spirituality, a practice of equanimity, presence, and learning to stay in the face of whatever arises. It's a unique journey into the Great Mystery. Through this process, people have reported finding the means to a more courageous and meaningful participation in the world.

Weekend Workshops and Residential Retreats are offered in the San Francicso Bay Area, throughout the country and in Hawaii, Canada, Costa Rica.

Please contact us for a program schedule.
Scholarships available.

Stewart Cubley's way of working is through a respectful questioning process that invites you to extend yourself into new areas of thought and feeling. He has the ability to meet you where you are and to ask the right question at the right time. Stewart is a down-to-earth teacher whose own vulnerability allows you to see yourself differently in ways that can be life-changing.

As a young adult, Annie painted images from her dreams and scenes inspired by poetry, yet something was missing. �It was as if I was walking on a frozen river, sensing a wild aliveness beneath the cold surface of my experience. I longed to be swept up and absorbed by this creative force yet could not break through the ice and surrender to it.�In 1997 Annie took the Painting Experience with Stewart Cubley, and has studied intensively with him since then. For several years now Annie has been working with Stewart leading workshops. It is her experience that painting for process carries you into astonishingly wild territory where the heart can be freed and where life can be informed by the soul.

Sarah Oblinger has been teaching in a variety of settings since 1978. In 1994, she started the Paint or Die Studio In Lawrence, Kansas, dedicated to using painting as engaged meditation. Sarah's philosophy centers on learning how to be present for each moment while keeping the brush moving. She believes painting is a profound way to experience one's feelings without being overwhelmed by them. In her classes and workshops, Sarah integrates her interest in creativity, psychology and awareness work into her down-to-earth teaching style.Sarah Oblinger lives in northern New Mexico and continues to teach classes and workshops at the Paint or Die Studio in Kansas City. She has been working with Stewart Cubley leading workshops since 2001.