I have been teaching watercolor for at least 20 years!!! It is so fun and rewarding that I love to share the process!
A brief history: I showed at a wonderful gallery in Hawaii, The Village Gallery on Maui. They opened a satellite gallery at the Ritz Carlton and gallery artists were invited to give workshops in exchange for room and board. The only snag was I had to provide all the materials! So I bought 10 sets of brushes, 10 pallettes, and loaded up with enough paint for a week full of holiday painters!!!
I am basically self taught( although I had a wonderful watercolor teacher,Mary Warner, in college). I felt that the experience of the fun of watercolor was the most important lesson! We had 3 great years of teaching at the Ritz Carlton Kapalua and when they finally had too many reservations to trade room and board I transitioned to home workshops.
We had just opened our gallery in our hometown Missoula Montana and it seemed natural to start workshops in the gallery. That was in 2005, almost 20 years!!
I really enjoy teaching people how fun it is to paint in watercolor!
I have basically 4 techniques that I use over and over.
#1 is floating paint in a wash of water. I use that for backgrounds or the first layer of washes that will be developed later.
#2 are two outlining techniques. I use water first to have a very soft outline or paint first to have a hard outline.
#3 is creating a bold colorful application by painting on dry paper and lifting off highlights. There are usually 2 steps. One is putting paint on with a heavy brush and lifting off by pressing a clean damp brush firmly and actually wiping off paint. Step 2 is going back over the pigment to make it denser and gently softening the lifted portion.
#4 is using jet black gouche to darken and deepen interiors and negative spaces.
Its hard to see but I draw everything out with a mechanical pencil and have to say that its one of my favourite parts of putting a painting together.
Classes are 5 to 10 people and everyone works on their own project. That way a person can hear how people solve a landscape issue , or a portrait issue or an almost fail issue!!! I circulate around to give advice and give pointers and suggestions!
Three of my favorite pieces of advice for a beginning painter are:
#1. Begin with the end in mind! Work out the entire painting before you start painting! (Often things don't get clearer as you go along!!)
#2. Start with all your light areas first. Its easier to make something darker than lighter!
#3. Find your own way! There are hundreds of ways to paint with watercolor and while I can give you some tips there is your own style waiting for you! Just keep painting!!
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