Free painting courses
Free painting: creative time out without rules
Colours, brushes, absolute freedom. With free painting, there are no limits, no rules - just you, your ideas and lots of colour. Whether you're a beginner, a passionate creative mind or an old hand - at Paint It Easy you can live out your art just the way you like it. Grab a paintbrush and get started right away.
Swiss Summer
Guided Acrylic Painting Workshop
- Workshop
- Beginner
- ZÜRICH · PIE Creative Café
- 2.5 Hours
Up to 20% discount for Members
Bright mountains, a shimmering lake, and light that feels almost alive.
Step into a radiant alpine world where the air is crystal clear and colours glow with a quiet, powerful intensity. Inspired by the luminous spirit and rhythmic compositions of Ferdinand Hodler, we’ll step into his footsteps and explore how to build a landscape through expressive brushwork and layered painting.
In this session, you’ll learn how to create depth and perspective in a landscape — how distant peaks, water, and sky can unfold through colour, contrast, and structure. We’ll explore how to bring dynamic, energetic detail into the brushwork while still holding the whole composition together as a unified, harmonious scene.
We’ll guide you through shimmering water, luminous layering techniques, and the gentle geometry of alpine peaks. You bring your curiosity and calm focus — and a willingness to enter a landscape that feels slightly brighter, more alive, and more structured than reality itself.
Abstract Series: Chromatic Medley
Guided Acrylic Painting Workshop
- Workshop
- Beginner
- ZÜRICH · PIE Creative Café
- 2.5 Hours
Up to 20% discount for Members
Abstract art. No rules. Endless possibilities.
Forget perfection. Forget painting inside the lines. This workshop is all about discovering how expressive, playful and surprisingly personal abstract painting can be.
Although every participant explores the same techniques and artistic principles, no two paintings will ever look alike. With guidance from your instructor, you’ll discover how abstract artworks are built through composition, colour, layering, texture and movement. Along the way, you’ll explore inspiring examples from contemporary abstract art before gradually developing your own visual language.
Some people create calm, minimalist compositions. Others fill the canvas with bold colours, energetic gestures and expressive textures. That’s the beauty of abstraction—there isn’t one right answer. Every creative decision opens the door to countless new directions.
Whether you prefer to follow the demonstrations closely or experiment beyond them, this workshop offers the perfect balance between learning new techniques and trusting your own artistic instincts.
Action Painting
Guided Expressive Abstract Art Workshop
- Workshop
- Beginner
- PIE Action Painting Studio Basel
- 2.5 hours
Up to 20% discount for Members
Splash. Drip. Splatter. Total Freedom.
Looking for a creative experience that’s energetic, expressive and completely different from traditional painting?
Our Action Painting Workshop combines the excitement of throwing, dripping and splashing paint with the artistic principles behind creating a powerful abstract artwork.
After a short introduction, your instructor will guide the group through a series of Action Painting techniques while explaining how abstract paintings are built through composition, layering, colour relationships and texture. Rather than recreating a predefined motif, you’ll gradually develop your own artwork over approximately two hours, allowing every splash, brushstroke and creative decision to influence what comes next.
Action Painting is an intuitive journey. Every mark on the canvas becomes the starting point for the next, creating a continuous process of acting, observing and reacting. Along the way, you’ll experiment with a wide variety of paints, tools and creative techniques while your instructor shares demonstrations, artistic guidance and individual feedback whenever you need it.
No two paintings will ever look alike. While everyone explores the same techniques together, each participant follows their own creative path, discovering their own balance between spontaneity and intention.
Whether you’re looking to switch off after a busy week, reconnect with your creativity or simply experience painting in a completely different way, Action Painting offers the freedom to experiment while giving you the artistic guidance to turn expressive marks into a finished abstract composition.
You’ll leave not only with a unique artwork, but with a deeper understanding of how abstract paintings evolve—and the confidence to trust your own creative instincts.
https://shop.paintiteasy.ch/en/tickets/terms
Heavy Dose of Spring
Guided Acrylic Painting Workshop
- Workshop
- Beginner
- PIE Creative Café Zürich
- 2.5 Hours
Up to 20% discount for Members
Soft petals, bold texture, and paint you can almost feel.
Step into the tactile world of textured acrylic painting, where a floral bouquet becomes something you build, shape, and sculpt. Using acrylic paint and modelling paste, we’ll focus on creating rich, dimensional forms that lift off the canvas.
You’ll learn how to mix the paste to the right consistency — smooth, workable, and easy to control — and how to apply it in layers to create depth and structure. We’ll explore how to form petals, add movement, and bring dynamic texture into your brushwork while keeping the composition balanced.
No flat surfaces — just texture, rhythm, and a painting that feels as alive as it looks.
A Textured Morning By The Sea
Guided Acrylic Painting Workshop
- Workshop
- Beginner
- BASEL · PIE Painting Studio
- 2.5 Hours
Up to 20% discount for Members
The sea was already awake, moving slowly.
This is a place you return to in memory — solid, calm, built layer by layer. A reminder that not everything needs to be light or perfect to be beautiful. Some things are meant to be felt, not thinned down.
In this textured painting session, we’ll work with modelling paste to create depth, structure, and a truly tactile landscape. You’ll learn how to effortlessly blend colour into the paste itself and apply it in different ways across the canvas, building surfaces that feel almost sculptural.
We’ll explore how to mix beautiful muted yet vibrant tones inspired by a Northern European landscape — atmospheric, cool, and quietly luminous rather than Mediterranean brightness. You’ll discover how subtle colour shifts and layered texture can create mood, distance, and emotional depth, turning the surface into something you can almost step into.
Endless Chase
Guided Acrylic Painting Workshop
- Workshop
- Beginner
- ZÜRICH · PIE Action Painting Park
- 2.5 Hours
Up to 20% discount for Members
Run, reach, repeat.
In this acrylic session, you’ll paint the little girl from the famous Banksy artwork — this time chasing a heart-shaped balloon — set against a classical Swiss mountain landscape with a contemporary twist. You’ll learn how to create those crisp snow caps on the mountains using a palette knife, while adding your own colour and energy to the hills and sky.
No experience needed — just roll up, follow the guided steps, and enjoy painting something playful, bold, and full of movement.
Swimming Jewels · Watercolor Painting
Guided Watercolour Painting Workshop
- Workshop
- Beginner
- ZÜRICH · PIE Painting Studio
- 2.5 Hours
Up to 20% discount for Members
Two fish, one pond, and a world of flowing colour.
In this playful watercolour session, we dive into a serene pond scene featuring two beautifully loose, colourful white fish gliding between water lilies, floating pads, and delicate blossoms. It’s all about movement, softness, and letting the water do part of the work for you.
This piece is perfect for exploring the wet-on-wet technique — watching pigments bloom, blend, and surprise you as they spread across the paper. You’ll learn how to control (and sometimes release control of) your washes, creating different levels of pigment intensity to suggest depth, light, and transparency in the water.
Alongside the fluidity, we’ll also gently introduce selective detail — knowing when to let edges dissolve and when a few thoughtful marks can bring a fish, a petal, or a lily pad into focus.
It’s a balance of spontaneity and intention: soft washes, flowing colour, and just enough detail to guide the eye through a calm, living pond scene.
Action Painting
Guided Expressive Abstract Art Workshop
- Workshop
- Beginner
- ZÜRICH · PIE Action Painting Park
- 2.5 hours
Up to 20% discount for Members
Splash. Drip. Splatter. Total Freedom.
Looking for a creative experience that’s energetic, expressive and completely different from traditional painting?
Our Action Painting Workshop combines the excitement of throwing, dripping and splashing paint with the artistic principles behind creating a powerful abstract artwork.
After a short introduction, your instructor will guide the group through a series of Action Painting techniques while explaining how abstract paintings are built through composition, layering, colour relationships and texture. Rather than recreating a predefined motif, you’ll gradually develop your own artwork over approximately two hours, allowing every splash, brushstroke and creative decision to influence what comes next.
Action Painting is an intuitive journey. Every mark on the canvas becomes the starting point for the next, creating a continuous process of acting, observing and reacting. Along the way, you’ll experiment with a wide variety of paints, tools and creative techniques while your instructor shares demonstrations, artistic guidance and individual feedback whenever you need it.
No two paintings will ever look alike. While everyone explores the same techniques together, each participant follows their own creative path, discovering their own balance between spontaneity and intention.
Whether you’re looking to switch off after a busy week, reconnect with your creativity or simply experience painting in a completely different way, Action Painting offers the freedom to experiment while giving you the artistic guidance to turn expressive marks into a finished abstract composition.
You’ll leave not only with a unique artwork, but with a deeper understanding of how abstract paintings evolve—and the confidence to trust your own creative instincts.
https://shop.paintiteasy.ch/en/tickets/terms
Atlantic Beachscape
Guided Acrylic Painting Workshop
- Workshop
- Beginner
- ZÜRICH · PIE Action Painting Park
- 2.5 Hours
Up to 20% discount for Members
Sculpt. Swipe. Splash. Let the coastline take shape.
In this hands-on textured art workshop, we’re heading seaside — no swimsuit needed. You’ll use plaster, modelling paste, and a mix of tools and materials to sculpt your own beachscape, building up textures that feel like real sand, foamy waves, and weathered shoreline details.
You’ll learn how to create and shape those beautiful, foamy waves, and how to work with different materials to achieve a variety of tactile effects within one piece. From soft, grainy sands to dynamic water movement, this session is all about turning your canvas into something you can almost feel.
The Atlantic has many faces — calm, wild, deep, or shimmering — and that’s exactly the spirit of this workshop. You’ll choose your own colour palette, define your own wave dynamics, and shape the mood of your coastline in a way that feels personal to you. It’s one of our favourite examples of how a simple theme can lead to completely different, unique creations.
If we had to recommend one workshop to start your journey with modelling paste, this would be it.
Paint & BRUNCH: Golden Marine Hues
Guided Acrylic Painting Workshop & Brunch
- Workshop
- Beginner
- ZÜRICH · PIE Creative Café
- 3 hours
Up to 20% discount for Members
One Glow. All the Mystery. Maximum Vibes.
Ready to get lost in colour and atmosphere?
In this abstract painting session, we’re diving into deep marine blues and shimmering golden tones — building rich layers of texture, light, and mood without needing to paint anything specific.
You’ll learn how to blend soft transitions, create depth with contrast, and let the colours do the talking. No rules, no right or wrong — just a moment to get fully absorbed in the flow.
Paint & BRUNCH: Scent of Golden Mist
Guided Acrylic Painting Workshop & Brunch
- Workshop
- Beginner
- BASEL · PIE Painting Studio
- 3 hours
Up to 20% discount for Members
Chill flowers. Warm shimmer. Fancy-ish fun.
In this laid-back, half-abstract floral session, we’re keeping things simple — but with a golden glow. Soft white flowers bloom against a dreamy mix of greys and warm metallic tones, creating a painting that feels calm, modern, and just a little bit glamorous.
This is all about effortless elegance. You’ll build your flowers using a mix of palette knife work and textured paste, giving them shape, depth, and a slightly sculptural feel that stands out beautifully from the background.
We’ll explore a range of playful techniques — from sponging and gentle gradients to subtle dripping effects — creating soft transitions and layered textures without overworking the piece. You’ll also learn how to work with metallic coloursso they keep their shine and don’t disappear into the acrylics.
Along the way, we’ll focus on how to combine different techniques harmoniously, and how to use contrast — between soft and bold, matte and shimmer, light and shadow — to create either a more dramatic statement or a calm, balanced composition.
Perfect for beginners, minimalists, and anyone who loves a touch of glow without the stress.
No pressure. No rules. Just relaxed vibes and a painting that quietly shines. ✨
Blueberry Night & Days · Oil Painting
Guided Oil Painting Workshop
- Workshop
- Beginner
- ZÜRICH · PIE Painting Studio
- 2.5 Hours
Up to 20% discount for Members
Deep blues, soft purples, and a subject that keeps things beautifully simple.
In this beginner-friendly oil painting session, we zoom in on a close-up composition of blueberries — rich, luminous, and full of subtle variation within a single colour world. It’s a monochrome study, making it the perfect starting point for anyone new to oil painting, where the focus can stay on form, light, and brushwork rather than complex colour mixing.
Because the palette is intentionally limited, there’s no risk of “messing up” the colour — instead, you can fully concentrate on building structure and depth. You’ll learn how to shape round, three-dimensional forms using light and shadow, and how to create convincing volume through shifts in tone rather than changes in hue.
We’ll explore how to layer oils to develop softness and richness, how to suggest texture on the skin of the berries, and how small variations in value can make each blueberry feel solid, glossy, and alive.
It’s a calm, focused exercise in observation and control — a simple subject that becomes surprisingly expressive once light, shadow, and paint start working together.
Why take a free painting course at Paint It Easy?
Be honest: are you in the mood for grey theory? We're all about experimenting, having fun and, above all, creating your own style. No boring painting instructions, no dusty art rules - just you and your creativity. Everything is allowed: acrylic, watercolour or simply painting with your fingers. Sounds good? Then you've come to the right place.
Then free painting is just the thing for you. You don't need any previous experience here - you can just get started.
No - we have all the materials for you here. Just drop by.
Of course, feel free to bring your friends along. Then you can inspire each other while painting.
Learning to paint - but differently
The Free Painting course is not about the perfect picture, but about the process. It is the original form of painting. Let yourself be inspired, try out new techniques or just paint away. You play with colours and shapes and give free rein to your thoughts and creativity. Whether you are a beginner, advanced or professional - everyone experiences free painting in their own way. We offer courses for adults, children and seniors.
We love what we do
Looking for a classic painting school? Not a chance. Our team is colourful, creative and absolutely crazy. We are passionate artists. We will accompany you on your creative journey, have lots of fun and explain new things about painting - in a relaxed, inspiring way and always with a twinkle in our eye. When are you coming over?
Peter 
Pati 
Eszti 
Coco - +31Zum Team
Free painting in Basel and Zurich
You can find our painting courses for adults or children, for beginners, advanced and professionals at two locations in Switzerland. In both Basel and Zurich, you can develop freely in our free painting course, discover new things and get creative in a relaxed atmosphere - regardless of whether you prefer to paint alone or in a group. You've come to the right place.
FAQs - everything you need to know about free painting
Quite simply: have fun, relax and be creative. You can be free here and find your own expression. Let off steam with colours - everything is allowed here.
No. Free painting is about having fun, experimenting and being able to express yourself - regardless of whether you've painted before or not.
We offer a variety of courses. The duration ranges from two to three-hour courses, four-hour workshops, workshops lasting several days or free painting - it's up to you. Just take a look at our programme - you can find out more here.
No, there are no rules - just creativity. You can paint what you want and how you want.
Yes, of course. If you don't want to finish your work all at once, you can just carry on working next time.
«One of the best places in the city to switch off with creative projects, good coffee and a warm atmosphere. The studio offers unique courses and workshops - with a great team that combines knowledge with fun.»
Salony Roongta
«The evenings in the PIE Studio are always wonderful. A place where you can give free rein to your creativity and connect with like-minded people. Don't miss the chance - become part of the community!»
Laura Company
«A great place to get a little happiness boost and be creative! Wonderful people and a great atmosphere - definitely worth a visit. I've already done several drawing and painting courses in the studio and I'm really pleased that there's now a café too!»
Valentijn Broeken
«Paint It Easy is my creative feel-good place in Zurich. Whether painting courses, open studios or brunch & paint - everything is just right here. Great team, relaxed atmosphere and always new ideas to try out!»
Ally Z
«We absolutely loved the Creative Café - delicious food, a relaxed atmosphere and the creative freedom to just get started spontaneously. We painted ceramics, got inspired and immediately wanted to try lino printing on our next visit!»
Janiza Ouarab
