Are you considering taking one of my watercolor classes in 2023?  In addition to my on-line workshops and the face-to-face watercolor and creativity workshops I organize I teach at various venues throughout the summer and autumn. 

As I reviewed my upcoming summer 2023 workshop schedule, I noticed a pattern that runs through all my upcoming offerings.  I have again scheduled ALL of my summer and fall workshops in especially beautiful places!  

Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival

My next workshop which will be in Alaska.  I am excited to be returning to the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival that takes place this July 17-28. The Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival is an amazing two weeks offering a combination of workshops and other events across the creative arts, including visual arts, music (all forms), creative writing, theatre arts, healing arts, dance, and the culinary arts.  There is something for everyone and amazing instructors.  I have taught there several times in the past.  

This year I will be offering a week-long workshop during the first week of the festival, July 17-21.  People can still register for the class for at least another week. 

Advancing Your Watercolors: Guided Watercolor Studio will be offered July 17-21, 2023, 9:00-4:00 daily.

Participants are invited to join me for this unique opportunity for watercolor painters at all levels to take the next step in their watercolor paintings. This is a special experience because the exact curriculum will be determined by the needs and interests to those who sign up for the workshop. The workshop is designed for beginners to expert painters.  Each day will include shared technique demos as well as individual feedback and guidance to move the individual participants paintings forward.

I will return to Wisconsin for a series of workshops in equally amazing spaces throughout the rest of the summer and fall.

There is No Place Like Home

Watercolor at the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center near Spring Green, Wisconsin in September 2023

In September I will be teaching two workshops at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed  Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center .  The WVS is just 40 miles west of Madison and six miles from the town of Spring Green, Wisconsin in the heart of the Wisconsin River Valley where I grew up.  I attended the school from the first grade through sixth grade.  That makes it all the more fun to be there as a teacher now, and to support this wonderful community art and cultural center.

The school was built in 1957.  I remember as a small child being taken by my father to see the construction underway of the building that would be my first school.  While there we had a chance meeting Frank Lloyd Wright who had stopped by to observe the construction himself.  It speaks to how old I was that I remember him as a tall man, though he was not.

Mr. Wright donated his design and 2 acres of land to the Wyoming School District in honor of his mother, Anna Lloyd-Jones Wright.  She had been a kindergarten teacher and encouraged his lifelong love of learning.  The school opened in 1958 with 46 students in grades 1 through 8,  and later with grades  1 through 6.  Children from the Taliesin Fellowship, just down the road, attended the school as well.

As the only two class-room school (with an additional large lunchroom/gym) designed by the foremost American architect, the school was a wonderful place to start your education and develop a life-long love of learning.   Like the old one-room schoolhouse it replaced, students in several grades took instruction together in the same room.  Younger students listened to the lessons of those ahead of them, and it was not hard to insert an advanced or slower learner in exercises appropriate to their learning level despite their official grade.

In the Flow:  A 3-Day Guided Watercolor Studio

3-days, September 1-3, 2023
(Friday, Saturday, Sunday of Labor Day Weekend)

A refresher on the basics of watercolor painting, including using wet-into-wet processes in watercolors. Beginners through advanced welcome.  This is a unique opportunity for watercolor painters to take the next step in their art. The exact curriculum will be determined by the needs and interests to those who sign up for the workshop. Mornings will include demos and exercises designed to move the participants artworks forward.  Afternoons will be open painting studio and feedback on your work. Space is limited to allow for in-depth work. Some experience with watercolor is appreciated but beginners through experienced painters are welcome.

(Vanilla Orchids, watercolor on canvas, 20×28.  Learn fun and experimental ways to paint with watercolor on canvas and other non-paper surfaces with me at the Wyoming Valley School near Spring Green, Wisconsin in September 2023.   If you have painted with watercolor on paper, you can do this too and never have to frame your work under glass again!)

Painting With Watercolor on Canvas

4-day workshop, September 7-10, 2023

You can stop framing your watercolors under glass! I am offering a workshop that is designed for artists with some experience painting with watercolor on paper, as well as for painters more familiar with oils or acrylics and other painting media, but who are interested in learning how to work with watercolor on canvas.

Participants will learn the basics and beyond, and have a chance to try out different substrates during the workshop. We will try out a range of approaches for effectively using watercolor on Aquabord, watercolor canvas, and other nonporous surfaces. Expressive experimentation will be explored in this relatively new approach to watercolor on nonabsorbent surfaces (which will be provided).  This will be an opportunity for artists to learn new approaches to a favorite medium. Bring your watercolor paints, brushes, other favorite painting tools and your lunched and I will provide the lessons, the substrates we will paint on and the means of sealing them. We will learn how to capture the glow of watercolor with the convenience of canvas.

Watercolor in Door County Wisconsin

I love Door County, and have a special relationship with Lawrence University’s Björklunden, in Bailey’s Harbor, Wisconsin.  I have been teaching there for over twenty-five years, starting in the 1990s while I was a professor and chair of the Art Department at Lawrence.  Björklunden is on the Lake Michigan side of Door County. I have been sharing my love of watercolor there twice yearly since that time.  In 2023 I will be teaching at the lake-side lodge at Björklunden and offering week-long watercolor workshops two times, in August and September.  The August workshop is already fully enrolled but there are still spaces available for the September Workshop.

September 24-29, 2023
Watercolor:  A Fresh Start at Björklunden
​Lawrence University’s Björklunden
Bailey’s Harbor, WI

This watercolor seminar is designed for absolute beginners as well as for those who have had some experience painting with watercolor but need a refresher to gain the confidence to start again.

Explore the fall at Björklunden while enjoying this opportunity to learn or re-learn watercolor from an artist passionate about the medium in a supportive and friendly learning environment. Seminar participants will explore basic traditional approaches to watercolor painting as well as fresh and experimental wet-into-wet watercolor techniques.  Seminar participants will go home with the skills and tools to keep on painting.

Watercolor at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison

I am looking forward to teaching in my home town in the amazing new teaching space at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens. Olbrich include 14 outdoor gardens within the grounds, including the Rose Garden, the Herb Garden, the Meadow Garden and Serenity Garden. Both of my 2-day October workshops will take place in the beautiful classrooms in the new educational building that overlook the gardens.

Saturday & Sunday, October 7 & 8, 2023, 10:30-4:30 p.m.
Watercolor:  A Fresh Start

This is an introductory two-day watercolor workshop designed for absolute beginners and for those who have some experience painting with watercolor but seek a refresher to start painting again. Learn or re-learn basics of watercolor including experimental wet-into-wet techniques that give you enough understanding of the medium to enjoy painting watercolors on your own. This workshop does not require drawing skills. 

Saturday & Sunday, October 21-22, 2023,10:30-4:30 p.m.
Advancing Your Watercolors

This two-day workshop is designed for artists with an interested in advancing their expressive, creative and technical approach to watercolor painting, and in expanding their approach and/or subject matter in their work. Anyone who has taken my introductory watercolor workshop is prepared for this one. We build on the techniques introduced int he first workshop and shape them to your personal interests and goals as an artist. The motto for the class is “How much fun CAN we have painting with watercolors?”

You can see all of my planned workshops offerings with links to venues and registration materials at my teaching and coaching website CreativityLessons.com. Contact me with any questions. Have a creative summer!