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Artful Gathering Starts Tomorrow!

Artful Gathering Starts Tomorrow!

Watercolor Toolbox Workshop starts tomorrow and runs for 6 weeks!  If you are new to watercolor this is the class for you!  

Have you ever wanted to try watercolor painting but did not know how to start? In this fun class, you will discover what makes watercolor painting exciting and beautiful. Exploring techniques to get you started on your artistic journey, you will learn the correct way to set up a palette and care for your watercolor art supplies as well as a variety of basic watercolor techniques. All your examples can be put into a file or journal creating a toolbox for future reference. This workshop is the perfect introduction to watercolor painting! 

There is a $5 registration fee to get you into the online retreat.
Included with your annual $5 Registration to Attend 2016
  • Access to our private event website May through August.
  • Access to all door prizes offered May – August.
  • Participation in any of our sponsor related activities May – August.
  • Access to mini promotional video tutorials May – August.
  • Access to all workshop descriptions and check-out for workshop enrollment May – August.
Watercolor Class for Beginners, Watercolor Toolbox an Encore Presentation

Watercolor Class for Beginners, Watercolor Toolbox an Encore Presentation

Registration is now open for my online workshop, Watercolor Toolbox.  The workshop starts June 6, 2016.  This workshop is especially for beginner watercolor artists.  Here are some of the things that are covered in this workshop:  how to correctly set up your watercolor palette, which brushes and paper to use, watercolor basics such as how to do a wet-into-wet wash, how to glaze, using value in your paintings.  The final project will be a fun, easy watercolor painting. 


This workshop is available online for six weeks.  We will have our own class room where you can post questions and photos of your beautiful paintings.  
I look forward to painting with you this summer!

More Color Studies

More Color Studies

Our class continues to mix and mingle different colors together to see which are the best combinations.  I showed how to make fun color chickens where you start at the head of the chicken with one color and then switch to a different color at the body.  The goal is to have blended and mingled colors in the body part of the chicken using two different colors.
The younger students got very creative and started painting other animals like color horses and bunnies!

Creating a Color-Filled Day!

Creating a Color-Filled Day!

My All About Color class has just started in my Tumalo Art Studio.  We are learning how to use the colors on our watercolor palettes and the color wheel to create harmonious paintings.  Since I am a color artist this is always one of my favorite classes to teach!
I would like to share with you some ideas over the next few weeks on how you can learn to get to know the colors on your palette and use the more effectively.
Here is my first suggestion – Make a painted color swatch of each of the colors on your palette.  Label them with the manufacturer’s name, the pigment number and the light fastness.  Color charts are fun and relaxing to do!
1.  For the manufacture’s name, I use abbreviations such as DS for Daniel Smith and WN for Winsor Newton.
2.  The pigment number can be found on the tube and also can be found on art supply web sites.  For Winsor Green, Blue Shade, the pigment color is PG37.  I love to collect this information because as it turns out, Winsor Green, Blue Shade is the same pigment as Daniel Smith’s Phthalo Green, Blue Shade.  I don’t need them both on my palette.
3.  Light Fastness.  This will tell you how permanent the pigment color is and it’s resistance to fade or change over time.
Here are some photos of our class working on their color charts.

More from Art and Soul, 2016

More from Art and Soul, 2016

I was so impressed by the beautiful art that my students created at the Portland Art and Soul Retreat. I shared some fun, easy watercolor exercises and then gorgeous watercolor paintings started happening!  Painting soothes the soul and make our hearts happy.  Here are more photos of the paintings we did:

Art and Soul 2016

Art and Soul 2016

Art and Soul, Portland, 2016 was a huge success!  My students had so much fun creating color-filled watercolor paintings.  They all learned some new techniques along the way too.  I always love reconnecting with students that have taken my classes before and return for more.  Making new friends in art is a treat.  Here are some photos of our week together in Portland, Oregon.  Look at how beautiful their paintings are!

Our Colorful Whites Class

Darcy and Amy showing off their artistic aprons

Messy palettes = happy students!

Check Out the New Issue of Cloth Paper Scissors

Check Out the New Issue of Cloth Paper Scissors

Just out is the March/April issue of the the Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine.   My article, Making Your Own Map, is featured in the Jump-start section.  Check it out!  This is a technique that we will use in my upcoming watercolor journaling trip to Orvieto, Italy, with Adventures in Italy.  There is still time to sign up for this fabulous trip!

Coloring Books Meet Mixed Media

Coloring Books Meet Mixed Media

The new Cloth, Paper Scissor’s Coloring Book,  Coloring Book Sketchbook, offers more than other coloring books.  Not only does it offer various mixed media art techniques, but it is a collection of sketches from many different artists, including one of my sketches of an old Italian door.  In her blog post, Jeannine Stein, shows how she uses mixed media to color my sketch of the door.
It was an honor to be asked to contribute sketches for the book and an honor to have Jeannine use mine sketch as a demo!

Here photos of how Jeannine Stein colored my door sketch:

Demonstration on How to Paint a Field of Sunflowers, Watercolor

Demonstration on How to Paint a Field of Sunflowers, Watercolor

Here is a free demonstration on how I painted a colorful field of sunflowers in my watercolor journal.  It has as a little cabin in the back of the field.  Watch closely how I negative paint around the sunflowers to make them pop!  The video is in fast motion, set to some fun music. so it only takes three and a half minutes to watch the whole thing.  I hope you enjoy watching. If you want to join me in ITALY, painting on location, I would love to have you join my trip with Adventures in Italy, May 2016!

Painting a Field of Sunflowers in Italy

Creating an Art Journal

Creating an Art Journal

Teaching in my studio in Bend, Oregon – I have been sharing one of my favorite things to do with my art journals – take them apart and reconfigure them to be more creative, artistic, and tactile!  We have been getting messy mixing acrylic products with watercolors.  We have been using ordinary office supplies and manipulating them into extraordinary journaling enhancements!  Would you like to join me in Orvieto, Italy for my Colors of Umbria: Keeping a Watercolor Journal Workshop?  We will be doing similar artistic creations in our journals as we slow down, observe and savor our time in Italy together!