A Meditation on Light

Landscape Painting Intensive in Ghost Ranch | August 21-23

My Wife Jillian Mazur and I are excited to be offering this weekend landscape painting workshop - in hopes that it will become a yearly event. See below for details and click here to apply. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions!

Course Description
In this Intensive workshop, students will enjoy an inspired weekend of painting as they immerse themselves in the outdoor studio of Ghost Ranch.  The key of the light on its unparalleled landscape will be the subject of engagement as we explore the land formations by brush throughout each day.  Instructor demos and evening lectures will offer insight into compositional and technical strategies that will unlock a deeper landscape painting practice.  Students will bond new insights with previous experience and personal goals while receiving guidance and consistent feedback from the instructor.

Students will stay for two nights at Casa Del Sol hacienda located on the Ghost Ranch property, where breakfasts and Dinners will be provided for attendees.  In addition to painting, students and guests can hike the numerous trails to connect even more deeply with the ancient landscape.

Painting in plein air is an incredible way to improve awareness, to develop versatile skills, and to be truly present in a given place and time.  This weekend of painting will provide each artist with a unique opportunity to savor the extraordinary light of Ghost Ranch, and to push their personal limits to a new level.

Main Topics

• Light Effect - Understanding the key of the light

• Light Direction - Anticipating the changing daylight

• Temporal Strategies - Painting at different times of day (including nocturne strategies)

• Composition - Arranging Tonal and Structural Dynamics

• Methodology - Open & Closed practices

Evening Lecture/Dialog

• Western landscape Painting & Composition Part One

• Western landscape Painting & Composition Part Two

*Application deadline July 1, 2026*

Click here for more information & application info

Pedernal from Ghost Ranch

Upcoming in June 2026 | Santa Fe Studio Tour & Portrait Drawing Workshop

My wife Jillian Mazur & I are excited to be participating in the Santa Fe Studio Tour this year (studio 43 on the directory) - come visit us and see what we’ve been working on at:

1807 2nd St. #58
Saturday June 20, Sunday June 21 & Saturday June 27 & Sunday June 28 (11am-5pm)

Jillian and I will also have work at the Studio Tour Preview Exhibition from June 4 - July 4 held at the Community Gallery (opening on June 4 from 5pm-7pm).


Additionally, we will be offering a short Portrait Drawing Workshop at our studio during the week of the tour. I will be doing a Portrait Drawing Demo on Wednesday June 24 from 9:30am-12:30pm - This part of the workshop is free to the public (note that space is limited - Contact me to RSVP).

The workshop will be on Thursday June 25 from 9:30am-4:30pm (1 hour lunch break from 12:30-1:30). Participants will be drawing a model from life (2 poses). I will be providing one on one feedback for students throughout the session. Tuition for the workshop is discounted to $200 if you register by the exhibition opening (June 5) - Use code STUDIOTOUR43 at checkout for the discount. Only 15 seats available for the workshop! Register here

In the Studio & WIP | 2026

Various Landscape sketches/studies

Now that I'm past Art Santa Fe...

…I’m gearing up for the Autumn with some workshops in France with Studio Escalier, and figure drawing for the Fall Semester at SFCC. I’m also announcing A couple of upcoming workshops:

- Autumn Landscape Painting in (and around) Santa Fe (Nov 3 - 14 2025)
- Figure Painting (Dec 29 - Jan 9 2026)

Registration deadline for both workshops is Wednesday October 1, 2025
***Figure Painting registration deadline extended to December 15, 2025

Art Santa Fe 2025

I’ll be showing a number of paintings at Art Santa Fe (Booth 428) - July 11-13 - come say hi! In the meantime, I have a lot of work to do… (Visit my works for sale & print shop pages to see some of the work that will be hanging at the show)

Click link above for tickets & exhibition info

SANTA FE CONVENTION CENTER
201 W Marcy St.
Santa Fe, NM 87501

FIRST LOOK FRIDAY
Friday, July 11, 2025 | 12:00PM — 4:00PM

25TH ANNIVERSARY OPENING NIGHT SOIREE
Friday, July 11, 2025 | 4:00PM — 7:00PM

WEEKEND FAIR HOURS
Saturday, July 12, 2025 | 11:00AM — 6:00PM

SUNDAY COMMUNITY DAY | (Free Admission)
Sunday, July 13, 2025 | 11:00AM — 6:00PM

All tickets for Community Day on Sunday are FREE!
Santa Fe Gallery Association is the official sponsor of Art Santa Fe Community Day

Two from Taos - Rio Grande Gorge | 2025

Upcoming workshop dates (Autumn Landscape Painting & January Figure Painting) will be listed soon!

An afternoon in Taos - Spring 2025 Landscape Painting Workshop

Rolling into Spring

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to run the DRILLS/Alla Prima classes this Spring, but I am excited to be hosting another Landscape Painting Workshop here in Santa Fe in May.

The main workshop will be five days of Plein Air Painting (May 5-9) as we venture out into beautiful locations in and around Santa Fe. For those interested, there is an option to stretch out the workshop for an additional week (May 12-16).

Click here for more info & registration.

The Kitchen (Ghost Ranch) | Oil on Linen 2025

Upcoming Workshops in 2025

I can’t believe that 2024 is already coming to a close, but there are plenty of workshops I’m looking forward to in 2025. Some are set & some are still in the works. See below, or visit my teaching calendar for more info.


January 6 - 24 - Long Pose Figure Painting at the Ryder Studio ***Still some space left - Register soon!***
(click here form more info and registration)

(Thursdays) Jan 21 - May 17 - Figure Drawing I at Santa Fe Community College
(click here for course info and registration)

January 31 - February 3 - Figure Drawing at BACAA
(click here for more course info and registration)

March 6 - 29 - 2025 Spring Figure Painting with Studio Escalier in Argenton Chateau, France
(click here for more course info and registration)

Dates TBA - Spring Plein Air Painting in Santa Fe
(More info & registration soon)

Dates TBA - DRILLS (Painting and Drawing Bootcamp at the Ryder Studio)
(More info & registration soon)

Dates TBA - Alla Prima at the Ryder Studio
(More info & registration soon)

September 4 - October 18 - Autumn Figure Painting Intensive with Studio Escalier in Argenton Chateau, France
(click here for more course info and registration)

ART Santa Fe

If you’re in/near/visiting Santa Fe this coming weekend, I’ll be exhibiting a number of landscapes in booth #128 at the Santa Fe Convention Center from July 12-14. Click here for tickets, and more information about the show.

Hope to see you!

Art Santa Fe | Works For Sale | Autumn Landscape Painting Workshop

For most of my painting education/career I wasn’t very interested in painting the landscape (strange, given the awe I have always felt for nature’s sublimity). My first attempt in Santa Fe during the winter of 2008 found me cursing my frozen fingers and a particular tree that seemed to get a kick out of dropping snow on me and my palette. It wasn’t until a decade later when I met my (now) wife Jillian - and when I found out it was something she enjoyed doing - that I started to get into it. I had to pull out all the stops if I was going to gain her favor. My love for landscape painting grew as I fell deeper in love with Jillian (It’s several years on, and now our 20 month old daughter Sylvie paints outdoors with us occasionally…and she loves it - I’m sure she’ll have more Instagram followers than me in no time).

Plein air painting became a particularly great activity during the pandemic, and all that time outside (diving into a 100 landscapes project) was a great opportunity for me to get better and to balance out my overall studio practice. Needless to say, a collection of sketches, studies, demos and dust have been building up in my studio over the past few years. I decided to blow off that dust, mount, sign, varnish the paintings, and re-open a storefront gallery here on my site (Each piece for sale is floated in a wooden handmade frame, thanks to my dad… In truth, “thanks” isn’t nearly enough for all the beautiful work he’s done! I should probably take him out for lunch). I will be offering signed, dated & numbered limited edition giclee prints for several of the sketches as well.

Handmade Frames by my dad, Dwayne Hall

ART SANTA FE | July 12-14 2024

For anyone who is interested in seeing this ensemble of work in person (always ideal!), I’ll be exhibiting the landscapes in booth #128 at the Santa Fe Convention Center from July 12-14. Click here for tickets, and more information about the show.

Painting is the fun part. In general, I’d much prefer numb fingers and falling snow to having to promote myself and my work, but it’s certainly an aspect of my career that needs some balancing out as well. Wish me luck… and come say hi!

Argentonnay Sketch 2019

…And lastly, I’ve finally decided on dates for my Autumn Landscape Painting Workshop here in Santa Fe:

Part 1 | En Plein Air - November 7-11 & Part 2 | In the Studio - November 12-16

We will be spending the first five days painting the landscape from various locations in and around Santa Fe. The focus will be primarily on creating color and compositional studies that will inspire our second five days of in-studio paintings. Enroll for each session separately, or sign up for both parts (and save $200).

Follow the links above or visit the Workshops page for more info and registration, and be sure to visit the Calendar page to find out about other upcoming courses.

Finally had a little time...

…to wrap up this studio painting of Argentonnay in France (Home of Studio Escalier, where I’ll be teaching figure drawing and painting again this Autumn). The project was an opportunity for me to celebrate a place that I have deep reverence for, and to start producing more ambitious studio work. Speaking of which… peering out from behind the homasote is another project that I’m eager to get back to.

Beyond the studio walls, I’m eyeing the week of October 28-Nov 1 as potential dates for the next Plein Air Painting workshop (in and around Santa Fe). I’ll do my best to make that official and to get registration up on the website ASAP.

Beyond DRILLS | Drawing & Painting Workshops in 2024/25

After the DRILLS & Alla Prima workshops in May, I’m really looking forward to getting back over to France for a couple more workshops with Studio Escalier (follow the links for more info & registration):

2024 Summer in Argenton | Three Weeks of Figure Drawing
August 8 - 31

2024 Autumn Intensive | Six Weeks of Figure Painting
September 5 - October 19

Beyond that, I’m hoping to start enrolling for another three week January Figure Painting workshop at The Ryder Studio in Santa Fe NM a bit sooner this year (Dates, tentatively Jan 6 - 24 …Registration Coming soon!)

(…and visit the 2024/25 calendar for more opportunities)

DRILLS & Alla Prima - May 2024

The plan had initially been to repeat last year’s curriculum and follow up a week of DRILLS with another Drawing/Sculpting workshop. Unfortunately, my dear friend Donat King and I are not going to be able to do so again this year (fingers crossed for 2025!).

Instead, I’m going to extend DRILLS to 10 days (***Date change due to studio renovations: Weekdays, May 20-31***), and in lieu of the Drawing/Sculpting class, I’m going to offer an Alla Prima Portrait Painting Workshop, that will total 8 poses - and a variation of models - over 5 days (***June 3-7***).

In the DRILLS class, we’ll be building upon our painting and drawing toolsets, all of which will be brought together for the Alla Prima class - It’s going to be a lot of fun. Those of you who register for both classes/all three weeks via the DRILLS + Alla Prima Package will save $250 off of tuition.

Both workshops will be held at the Ryder Studio in Santa Fe, NM.

The registration deadline for DRILLS & Alla Prima is Friday April 19, 2024 (extended deadline)

Message me if you have any thoughts or questions!

(…and visit the 2024/25 calendar for more opportunities)

2024 Plein Air Classes

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be teaching several plein air painting classes in 2024:

First off is a weekend getaway in Del Mar, CA hosted by Sicily Artist Retreats (March 1 - 4)*. I absolutely loved my time with them in 2022, and am honored to have been asked to teach for them again in California. Visit the Sicily Artist Retreats website for more info & class registration (be sure to check out their other courses in Sicily as well!).

Note* This workshop has been postponed (new dates TBD)

Next, I’ll be offering five days of landscape painting in and around Santa Fe, NM (March 11-15, 9:30am - 4:30pm …bring your own lunch/snacks!) as we begin our transition from winter into Spring. Follow this link for more info & class registration.

On the horizon is an Autumn landscape painting workshop here in Santa Fe (dates TBA - looking like early November).

(…and visit the 2024/25 calendar for more opportunities)

Coming up in 2023-2024

2023 Has been a great year so far .. I just returned back to Santa Fe from a wonderful 9 weeks of Figure Drawing & Painting with Studio Escalier in Paris and Argenton Chateau. Four years have gone by since I was last there to teach - it was such a gift to finally pick up where I left off at the studio along with Jillian and our little Sylvie (who turned one while we were there!). I couldn’t have asked for a better time there… and I can’t wait to get back next Autumn, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I’m excited about some upcoming workshops and courses in 2024.

- Figure Painting (Jan 1-19 2024) at the Ryder Studio in Santa Fe (Click link for more info & registration)

- Figure Drawing (*New dates set for Jan 26-29 2024) at BACAA (Click link for details)

- Online Figure Drawing via my website (TBA)
- Spring Landscape Painting (TBA)
- DRILLS & Portrait Drawing/Sculpting with Donat King & me (TBA)
- Autumn Drawing/Painting with Studio Escalier (TBA)

May Workshops

A couple upcoming drawing, painting & … SCULPTING workshops here in Santa Fe this May:

DRILLS | May 15 - 19
In this one week class, we will be focusing solely on foundational skills that will support a better overall figure drawing and painting practice | $750

PORTRAIT DRAWING & SCULPTING | May 22 - June 2
I’m quite excited to be offering this two week class (with my dear friend, the talented sculptor Donat King), which will focus on bridging our 2D-3D gap as we sculpt and draw from the same portrait pose | $1250

($1500 when signing up for both classes)

Registration deadline is April 1 (no joke!) - Click for more info

Three Weeks of Figure Painting in Santa Fe | January 2023

Just wrapped up the August DRILLS & Long Pose Figure Painting sessions at the Ryder Studio in Santa Fe. Already, the January 2023 Figure Painting Workshop is in motion:

15 days | Monday-Friday, January 2-20 2023
$1250 *Priority Registration Price - Priority Registration Deadline November 1 2022
($1500 Registration after November 1 2022)

The Ryder Studio
1807 2nd St. #31
Santa Fe, NM 87505

Click here for course info & registration (please feel free to contact me if you have questions!)

Chromatic Underpainting Demonstration of Raven in progress | August 2022

BACAA

Really looking forward to teaching at BACAA (Bay Area Classical Art Atelier) - This weekend workshop in December (2,3 & 4 2022) will be the first of two sessions.

In this weekend workshop series, we will explore figure drawing by deepening our understanding of structure and anatomy. The class will build from the ground up, working from the live model with strategies that will help us understand the dynamics of the body. We will study key skeletal landmarks and see how they are organized in volumetric perspective via the active and passive rhythms of the body. The movement curve will guide the proportion of our block in, unify the major masses of the body, and help us to anticipate formal pathways. Ultimately, light will lead the way as we ground and reinforce our perceptual experience with a better conceptual realization of the figure in our drawings.

Content breakdown:

The Movement Curve - The dynamic energy of the body

The Envelope & Block in - The perceptual foundation of our drawing

Anatomical Landmarks, Volume and Perspective - Realizing the figure in three dimensions relative to our point of observation

Planarity and Tone - The woven relationship of structure and light

My goal for the course is for each student to strengthen their understanding of these ideas while exploring the figure drawing process.

Visit https://www.bacaa.org/workshops-descriptions/tobias-hall-figure-drawing-anatomy-and-structure for more info & registration.

August 2022 | In person Workshops | Skill Building & Long Pose Figure Painting

I’m excited to be teaching two in person classes back to back at The Ryder Studio in August:
Follow the links below/visit http://www.mtobiashall.com/workshops-1 for more course info & Registration

DRILLS | August 8-12, Painting & Drawing skill building session
1 week | $500

Figure Painting | August 15 - September 2, Long Pose Figure Painting
3 weeks | $1500

DRILLS + Figure Painting Package
4 weeks | $1750

Registration Deadline on Friday, July 29

Online Figure Drawing with Studio Escalier

(Because Jillian and I are expecting in October…!!!) we’re not able to be in Paris for Figure Drawing this August. In lieu of that class, I’ll be offering an online Figure drawing intensive workshop with Studio Escalier beginning in July.

2022 Summer Online - Figure Drawing - Application Deadline June 24 (follow link for details)

One 4-week term: SATURDAY, 9 JULY – FRIDAY, 5 AUGUST 2022
1 live drawing demonstration/week and weekly one-on-one critique

3-hour live drawing demonstration each SATURDAY (Mountain Daylight Time – MDT). Demonstrations will be recorded and available for multiple viewings during the course via Vimeo.com.

One individual Zoom critique WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, or FRIDAY. (Mountain Daylight Time – MDT).

Course Description
This course will offer students the opportunity to dive deep into a perceptually based figure drawing process. Specific strategies involving movement, shape, perspective, structural anatomy, & light will be introduced to the students as they work on a number of weekly studies that will support a more thoroughly developed figure drawing composition.

Drawing demonstrations will be done from a combination of pre-taped figure poses and old master drawings. Both the instructor and the students will be working from the same set of source references for a long pose drawing, as well as for supplemental drawing exercises.

Mr Hall will lead the class through the process of figure drawing via video demonstrations each SATURDAY (Mountain Daylight Time – MDT). Demonstrations will be recorded and available for multiple viewings during the course via Vimeo.com.

NMAL & TSA

Two upcoming online classes:

Teaching Studios of Art
The Poster: Study of the Global Light Effect

Saturday & Sunday, June 11 & 12
12pm - 2pm, 3pm - 6pm EST

This workshop will be recorded

In this two day online weekend painting workshop, we will explore the Poster Study (the global light effect). This foundational effect is what we see when we look at a painting from across the room: the big picture that all details are governed by. The course will begin with a demo on light theory for artists and progress into a series of perceptual studies after masterworks. These studies will help us question, understand and begin to represent the light effect on the subject abstractly via value, hue and chroma. As a byproduct of this study, we will gain a better strategic understanding of color mixing and composition. Each meeting will consist of demonstrations and constructive feedback for students.

New Mexico Art League
The Portrait Deconstructed

Thursdays June 6 - July 14
1pm - 4pm MDT

This class will not be recorded

In this online drawing workshop, students will create one long term drawing and several quick studies over the course of sixweeks.  The main project will be the deconstruction and deep analysis of a master portrait (TBD).  Students will begin the process with an exploration of the big picture in terms of structure and light, and will then subdivide their focus on the specific study of the features.  Supplemental studies from week to week, along with adequate time to recreate a master work will help to deepen understanding and enrich the overall drawing experience.  Both Perceptual and conceptual drawing strategies will be discussed and employed  during weekly instructor demos and student feedback to help reinforce the process.  Ultimately, the lessons from this class will translate directly to the practice of drawing from life.  Though some material techniques will be covered, the goal of this class is for us to focus on ideas that will help us grasp the visual experience as it applies to nature and the human form. 

Updates

Once again, it’s been a while since I’ve updated my website (half a year?!)…

I recently returned from a lovely work/honeymoon in Sicily with Jillian, some dear friends & Sicily Artist Retreats (honored to be teaching for their pilot painting workshop) - hoping to get back there in the future for more site seeing, plein air painting & (course after course of) incredible food.

I finally updated my teaching calendar as well - Online and in Person workshops coming up!