Loosen Up! A Watercolor Workshop with Lisa Goren

Why are people afraid of watercolor? This is a workshop to help you relax and learn to love the medium. Using a wet-on-wet approach, we’ll demolish the old tropes – yes, you CAN change things, no, “mud” does NOT have to be the usual result of color mixing, controlling the “uncontrollable” IS possible, and MORE!

We focus on working with water, learning how to mix colors, understanding paper, and using the strengths (and weaknesses) of the medium to your advantage.

Within these hours (including a ½ hour for lunch), we’ll work lots of wet paint along with using many different surfaces and methods.

This is a workshop that focuses on new techniques, learning to control the uncontrollable, and having a blast with this amazing medium. It is a great workshop for beginners as well as those who are looking to shake up their practice.

Dress to make art and bring a brown-bag lunch for the break.

BEFORE you go out and buy supplies, send me a photo of what you’ve got, and I can assess if you really need that much — email a photo to lisa@lisagorenpaintings.com.

Bring what you have — it’s helpful (not required) if you have both inexpensive watercolor paper and some good 140lb paper. This way you can do a lot of small exercises without wasting the good stuff. I bring 300lb paper with me so that if you’re interested you can buy a piece (it’s expensive so I buy in bulk – I charge $20/sheet, it’s 22” x 30”). This paper is NOT required, only if you’d like to try it.

For this workshop, start with six colors (you can buy small tubes, they tend to last a long time) Again, if you don’t have these colors, I can see what you have and help you make it work:

. Indigo Blue

. Ultramarine Blue

. Cadmium Yellow

. Lemon Yellow

. Cadmium Red

. Alizarin Crimson or Permanent Rose

. Also a palette to hold the paints – even a plastic plate is fine.

Generally, any brushes you already have work – we can see if you need something else once you come to class. A good synthetic or mixed natural/synthetic does a great job. You will need at least:

. One round brush with a good tip

. One large brush, size 12 or larger (it should feel good in your hand)

. One smaller brush

I do bring extra brushes just in case.