Description
PAINTING WATERCOLOR LANDSCAPES with a focus on LANDSCAPE
FEATURES (ROCKS, TREES, AND SHEEP!)
– Angela Wrahtz
August 3 & 10
10am – 2pm
The secret to painting a compelling landscape lies in the balance between strong composition and convincing natural elements. We will focus on the essential anatomy of a landscape — painting skies, mountains, trees, and rocks. The instructor will provide handouts and guide you through exercises designed to strengthen your skills. You will learn to use atmospheric perspective to pull the viewer into your scene, using techniques that include wet-into-wet and glazing.
Students will learn how to capture a group of sheep in a golden meadow. We’ll use what we learned in the first session to put in a great sky and mountain in the background. Techniques will include wet-into-wet and lifting. We will learn about painting rocks with grasses growing around and between them. This is an important element to foregrounds and our exercise/project will stand on its own as a lovely painting. The technique we will explore is realistic fine details and vignetting as a frame to your work.
Artist Bio Angela is an award-winning artist living in the Northwest. Her principal medium is watercolor with mixed media, blending traditional techniques and unexpected experimental methods (such as acrylic marbling) which give her work a unique energy. Angela has won numerous top awards at juried competitions, including, in 2023, Best of
Show at WSO’s Spring Experimental Exhibition and People’s Choice Award at OSA’s Spring
Annual Water Media Juried Show. She was the top-selling artist at the 2024 Celebration of Creativity Fine Art Show and Sale, and she has served as a juror for various art associations and the Oregon State Fair Fine Art Show. Angela has a BA from Hiram College (Ohio) and an MA from the U. of Michigan. She enjoyed a career in publishing in the Bay Area before relocating to Oregon, where she teaches art and volunteers in the community. www.angelasarthouse.com.
SUPPLY LIST
o PAPER 3 pieces of good quality watercolor paper: 11” x 15” (i.e., “quarter sheets”), or larger if you are used to painting large. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ITEM IN YOUR SUPPLIES LIST. Lesser quality paper just won’t work.
I use Arches cold-pressed 140lb natural or bright white.
o PAINTS I use M. Graham but bring what you have. Please have a warm and cool options for your primaries:
Reds (Quin Red or Quin Rose)
Blues (Ultra Blue and Phthalo Blue)
Yellows (Azo Yellow and Hansa Yellow)
Titanium or China White, Bleedproof White, or white gouache
Also bring other colors you love for mixing, like Nickel Quin Gold, Pyrrol Orange, Phthalo Green, Dioxazine Purple, Burnt Sienna or Quin BS, Payne’s Gray.
o BRUSHES An assortment of brushes. It will be very helpful to have a wide wash brush to cover larger areas. Generally, you want a large brush that can load a lot of water and is soft so it won’t scratch your paper. You’ll also want a mop brush (i.e., a #20 round, again that holds a lot of water and paint) and an #6 or #8 round with a good point for detailed work to finish the project.
o MASKING FLUID
o PALETTE KNIFE o SPRAY BOTTLE Be sure to bring one!
o OTHER
• A surface to tape your paper to such as a Masonite board or gator board
• A couple old towels to dry up excess water and paper towels for lifting
• Water container
• Pencil and eraser
• Artist tape or blue painter’s tape works
THE INSTRUCTOR WILL BRING “handouts of inspiration” for the projects.
