Close To Home: A Watercolor Landscape Journey

Hi everyone.  I'm so excited to finally share that I'm back to teaching some classes.  This time it's in the form of watercolor painting!  Please join me and check out my class called Close To Home: A Watercolor Landscape Journey.  You can view all the details and sign up for class over at the Jeanne Oliver Network.  Link is here.  

 If you're new to Jeanne's site, she hosts wonderful classes given my herself and other talented artists. I've taken many and they are fabulous with a great amount of informative content.  It's my favorite place to learn something new about art.  Jeanne has such a way of sharing and I'm honored to be asked to join her creative network.

 We'll learn all about gathering up supplies for a travel art kit, refresh some art principles and review the color wheel.....and so much more......then put it all together to create simple and beautiful landscape watercolors in a journal.

If you've had that yearning to get back into your art....or to start new.....this class is for you.  We'll combine what we learn about painting with connecting our art to the beautiful surroundings right around us.  Come with me on a beautiful journey, you deserve it.

Plein Air Painting and John Muir...

I'm so inspired by our beautiful country.  Landscapes are definitely my favorite thing to draw and paint, whether it be from a photograph, a vintage postcard, a book...but especially right from nature itself.  Today I have a mixed media spread from a small artist journal, featuring a landscape inspired by this postcard below. 

 This was my set up of supplies.  I'm painting inside because it's still fairly cold for outdoor painting for me.

 Some of my colors inspired by a small travel palette from Green Earth and Blue Berry.

 My finished painting.

 I found this wonderful quote from John Muir to add at the end.

 Although this painting was done outside, I went out later and did a watercolor sketch from my vehicle.  Sketching outside just brings all the senses alive.  It's really the best way to capture the true essence of a landscape.

 That brings me to Plein Air painting.  It means paint outside, simply.  And John Muir?  You've probably read a lot of his nature inspired quotes.  He was a conservationist and a leading role in why we get to visit beautiful places that we call call National Parks.

I'd love for you to watch this video about John Muir's role in the history plein air painting.  It's fascinating to me and I've watched it several times.  If you have an interest to paint landscapes, especially from the great outdoors, this is a must see short documentary.  It's from the great people of Plein Air Magazine and the Paint Outside website.  It's called Outside The Lines and direct link is HERE. I hope you enjoy.....and let me know what you think.