Plein Air Watercolor Painting with Geoff Allen

Community Resource Center (old Library at The Mall) & outdoors
587 Palm Canyon Dr
Borrego Springs, CA 92004

9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Member: $375

Non-member: $400

This workshop will focus on the fundamentals of how to complete a plein air watercolor in a few basic steps. 

1. Finding a subject 
2. Capturing values, using sketches to separate light from shade
3. Simplifying and connecting shapes
4. Creating visual dynamics (i.e. hard against soft)

Materials list: If you bring “the right stuff,” plein air painting goes much more smoothly because you have what you need. Please watch my YouTube video about Watercolor Plein Air Set-ups

In the studio, as artists, we practice, plan, and evaluate our art within an open time constraint. However, in a plein air practice we become vulnerable to time and the whims of nature, and interact within a social environment. I find this challenge inspirational and necessary to make my artwork. 

Watercolor echoes this idea of immediacy and nature. I find that watercolor is both medium and metaphor, and at times, both a blessing and a curse. I love that aspect of art making—when something is slightly out of my control and a challenge. It allows me to feel that I am playing with mysterious forces beyond my own understanding.

Min: 8 Max: 12