I had a grand time with 13 fabulous students last weekend. They were all ready to spend a weekend learning more about watercolor. After a full day of exercises on Saturday, they painted their own pieces on Sunday. Here is one of the student paintings, a class portrait.

Below are pictures of most of the students, with their work in progress.

Susan and Whitney came for some artistic mom-daughter together time.

Here is an early version of Susan's class portrait.

Whitney is building up courage to add layers of paint.

Anna came with an amazing array of supplies, and she added energy to the weekend!

Jane expanded her color knowledge by working on color swatches.

Cheryl did a lovely scene of rocks, water and flowers.

Birch used resist techniques, and mixed red and green (complementary colors) to get his dark background.

The students had a wide range of backgrounds... from total beginners, to people who had some experience with watercolor but wanted to learn more, to experienced artists who were looking to learn another media.

Ben (how did I miss getting a picture of Ben!) drove up from DC for the weekend. He experimented with wet-on-wet and Yupo paper, and Miyoung created textured backgrounds with salt. Anne did a floral still life from a blooming kalanchoe. Lois worked on letterforms with delicate colors that she later planned to layer, overpaint, and even stitch into art pieces.

Several of the students enjoyed Waterfires after class on Saturday evening.

We had a photographer spend a few hours with us, so pictures of the class will probably show up in future RISD CE catalogs.

Thanks to all of the students for your creativity and enthusiasm! It was an exciting and fun weekend for me!