Geoff Allen
Joys of Plein Air Painting in Watercolor
July 17 - 19
Tuition: $600
Skill Level: All Levels
Learn the joys of capturing the moment, color and mood of Whidbey Island. This workshop will cover the basic watercolor techniques that can speed up your process, loosen you up, and increase your success in capturing outdoor scenes.
There will be daily skill building exercises focusing on controlling moisture in the your paper, mixtures in your brush, and application timing to get the watercolor effects you want. Geoff will review the difference in brushes, color palettes and show students how to let water do the work for them. There will be daily demonstrations, one day in the classroom and two in plein air taking inspirational scenes through a process of simplification while enhancing design dynamics, expression and creating atmosphere. It all starts with practicing watercolor’s quartet of skills; values, major shapes, visual dynamics, and calligraphy.
Geoff will be following up individually with students to reinforce concepts and skills such as judging values, separating light and shadow, “one-go”mark making, and softening edges in order to get an impressionistic expressive watercolor painting.
About
Geoff Allen
Geoff Allen is an award-winning Plein Air watercolor artist, whose painting “Color for Nothing” was recently on the cover of Plein Air Magazine (June/July 2024 issue). He finds that watercolor is both the medium and metaphor for “going with the flow.” This is what inspires Geoff. He loves the process of inserting himself into an environment with the goal of capturing its elusive essence in a quick fresh watercolor style. The mystery of not knowing the expressive outcome and allowing for discovery along the way makes plein air painting Geoff’s preferred art making process.
