Mobile Watercolor Techniques
August 4, 6, 11, and 13 from 6:30-9pm
(Please hold August 18 for a rain date)
Cost: $160-$225 sliding scale*, plus supply list (below)
Take advantage of the creative magic that happens during late summer on this explorative traveling watercolor adventure. Explore the quiet and bustling spaces of our quaint town with your on-the-go palette set up. Be inspired by the many seasonal offerings from the blossoming daylilies and lush summer foliage to the active city streets full of market goers. This art class is on the move!
This mobile watercolor class will put into action the very techniques exploring shadow, light, and form that are essential to building up a watercolor practice that flows with ease. Learn how to harness your essential color palette with guided lessons or explore alternative and exciting ones with metallics or neons. Once you are able to apply the color theory concepts, these style pivots can be thrilling and bring an extra sparkle to painting outside. Students will start with simple washes and planes then move on to more complex city scapes.
Class will be held outdoors in and around 33 Hawley until the sun sets, and finish up indoors, so make sure you bring a phone with a camera to document your subject.
To register, please email programs@nohoarts.org with your name, address, and phone number. Payment can be made via PayPal here, or by mailing a check made out to NCFA to PO Box 366, Northampton, MA 01061.
*Payments on the upper end of the sliding scale help support our continued commitment to accessibility, including sliding scale models and the NCFA Community Fund.
Paige Quinn-Vasic is a local working artist who is trained in many creative mediums such as painting, printmaking, ceramics, and more. She completed her bachelors in fine arts and art education at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which drove her to explore an interdisciplinary practice. Her medium of choice in the last few years has been collage with painted paper, but recently got back into oil painting. The feeling of manipulating color is meditative in a way that other processes feel more removed from the quality of direct play. Her practice tends to hop between mediums as she follows the whims of her creative inner child, exploring whimsy, peculiar curiosities, and microaggressions. Since moving to Northampton in 2023, she has earned a LCC grant for her community project, Noho Art Club, and dove into teaching workshops. You can see more of her work at www.paigesquinn.com or @paigesquinn and @nohoartclub on Instagram
SUPPLY LIST
Small watercolor notebook with spiral or glued binding. Sizes vary from 3 ½x 5 ½ to 5x 8 give or take an inch or two. Moleskine watercolor notebook is high end , Strathmore 400 series watercolor art journal is mid-end, and Canson on the cheaper end are examples. There are many kinds to choose from. Please don’t go bigger than 6x 8 for this. And make sure it’s for watercolor or mixed media. Sketch book paper is too thin and your paintings will cause the paper to buckle.
Small travel watercolor paint set either with tube paints or pan or a combo of both. You can cobble together your own set using a very small palette and basic colors. Or, you can use a white/clear daily pill case and put the 7 colors (no white) in each compartment. The lids are used as a palette. Portability is what’s important. If you bring your own colors, please include cadmium yellow, pthalo blue or Prussian blue, ultramarine blue or cobalt blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium red, any black.
Brushes: only a few: #2 or #3 round, #5 or #6 round, #9 or #10 round. You can bring more if you want. A small to medium flat brush can be great for capturing shapes in architecture quickly.
Pens: Black permanent markers. Fine point - .03 or .05.
Small water container (like individual yogurt cup or applesauce cup)
Small rag
2 Binder clips for keeping your sketchbook open. Paper clips will cover your paper
A tote bag or carrying case for all the supplies