Spend an enjoyable day painting landscapes en plein air while learning the tricks to painting with gouache as well as how to simplify a landscape for a painting. Some experience with any paint and mixing colors is recommended.

Gouache has several advantages for plein air painting. Your supplies are compact and lightweight and you could even paint in your lap in a pinch. You don't need solvents and can paint on paper, and you paint smaller and more quickly.

SUPPLY INFORMATION

Please bring:

• your own plein air easel (the classic wooden french easels are fine, as are the pochade boxes and uprights attached to a tripod, which are lighter weight), OR at least a camping table to use with one of our table top easels or just to have beside you if you paint in your lap.
• collapsible chair or stool to sit on, even if you stand to paint (it's a long day)
• brimmed hat
• lunch and water (there are some cafes nearby with limited food and drinks)

We provide gouache, paper and brushes, but feel free to bring your own watercolor journal or pad if you want. If you choose to bring your own gouache, it should be artist/professional grade, not student grade.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Anne Pfeiffer has a graduate degree in painting and decades of experience as a high school art teacher, community college art instructor, and adult and teen workshop instructor. She currently lives in Port Angeles and paints landscapes and still lifes, often plein air, and participates in regional and national exhibitions and events.

Acrylic is a versatile and convenient painting medium, but it has its challenges. In this four-session class with supplies provided, we'll explore just about everything — from which types of paint and brushes to use, what the mediums and additives are for, and how to mix colors, blend colors and slow drying time. We'll have plenty of time to explore during Monday sessions from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, July 27 through August 17. 

We'll start with some fun color theory exercises, and then dive into painting still lifes to become more fluent in the medium. We'll finish with an abstract landscape, and come away with expanded skills and confidence. 

SUPPLY INFORMATION

• An 11x14 or larger mixed media or watercolor sketchbook

ABOUT ANNE

Anne Pfeiffer has a graduate degree in painting and decades of experience as a high school art teacher, community college art instructor, and adult and teen workshop instructor. She currently lives in Port Angeles and paints landscapes and still lifes, often plein air, and participates in regional and national exhibitions and events.

Artist website: Anne Pfeiffer, @annepfeifferartist and @annepfeiffer

Gouache is having a moment. Painters of other mediums have adopted it as their plein air and travel medium, or for small paintings. It is opaque like oils but water-based and painted on watercolor paper, drying quickly with easy clean up, and is lightweight and portable. 

However, gouache has unique consistency challenges that might have frustrated you if you tried to learn it on your own. Luckily, it is pretty easy to figure it out when someone shows you the tricks. Teaching artist Anne Pfeiffer has been painting with gouache for 15 years and will quickly expose the mysteries.

We will start with a slide show of examples from modern day gouache masters, do a few mixing exercises, and then move on to a simple still life to get the feel of gouache. After lunch we will go outside and paint en plein air on the beautiful Fort Worden grounds (or if the weather is not ideal, we will paint more complex still lifes in the classroom). 

SUPPLY INFORMATION

Students should bring:

• Artist grade gouache in tubes - In warm and cool primaries plus white, or whatever palette colors you are used to using in your other medium, or have already purchased in a set.  Artist grade brands are: Winsor Newton Designer Gouache (not the ones that aren't the designer line), Turner Designer Gouache (preferably not the Acryl), M. Graham, Schminke, Daniel Smith, Holbein Artist Gouache (not the acrylic gouache). Feel free to save money by sharing tubes with a friend who is also attending the workshop because this is one of those mediums where the less expensive brands and student grade versions are a waste of your money and will just cause you more frustration. Online stores like Blick or Jerry's can save you money but order early because delivery can take two weeks. 
• 140 lb (300 gsm) cold press watercolor paper in a pad, 9" x 12" or 8" x 10". Suggested brand is Fluid cold press because of its texture, but other quality watercolor pads are fine. Drafting tape, or low-tack beige tape, or artist tape to make borders (you can share with a friend).
• Brushes - Gouache is different from watercolor because you don't want your brushes to hold a lot of water, so leave your beautiful sables or other soft, thick brushes at home. Inexpensive short handled synthetic white or golden taklon brushes that are thin at the flat bristle edge, with a little bounce in the bristles are the best for gouache. 1/4" and 1/2" flat or bright, and an optional small round or smaller flat.  You want them to be softer and thinner than oil brushes, but a little stiffer and thinner than watercolor brushes. You can find these at Michael's. 
• Mixing tray (these are also available for your use at the school).
• Absorbent paper towels or Scott shop towels. Optional: the fat, absorbent green auto towels will save you from using a lot of paper towels, but also bring some paper towels for cleaning your mixing area.
• Plastic bag for throwing your used towels in.
• A portable chair or tripod stool, and a hat with a brim for plein air. Optional: A table top easel for painting the still life, a plein air easel for painting outdoors. Like watercolor, you can also just paint in your lap when outdoors. A portable or easel umbrella.
• Sketchbook for notes and preliminary sketches, 2B pencil, eraser, portable sharpener.
• Water in a tightly-lidded large container for plein air. Second empty tightly lidded container for emptying your dirty water into. Water dish. You will refresh your water more often than watercolor or acrylic. Optional: The airtight 16-well paint storage box from Dugato on Amazon, which comes with a collapsing silicon water dish. The removable silicon cover keeps colors from spilling into each other when traveling.
• Small misting spray bottle.
• Drinking water and snacks.
• A bag or backpack for carrying your supplies.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Anne Pfeiffer has a graduate degree in painting and decades of experience as a high school art teacher, community college art instructor, and adult and teen workshop instructor. She currently lives in Port Angeles and paints landscapes and still lifes, often plein air, and participates in regional and national exhibitions and events.

Artist website: Anne Pfeiffer, @annepfeifferartist and @annepfeiffer

In this two-day workshop, you will interpret your observations of the Fort Worden State Park environment to create abstract art that is wholly your own. You’ll also expand your artist’s eye by learning different ways of seeing, loosen your grip on realism, and move into an exploration of essence. Teaching artist Meg Kaczyk guides you in an iterative approach, so you can lean into a variety of mediums, including watercolor, graphite, oil pastel and cut paper, to personally express the magic of the Olympic Peninsula landscape. Along the way, creative process insights are shared that can free your hand and strengthen your visual voice. This Mothers Day weekend class can be a joyful gift for Mom or oneself, and/or a shared activity!

SUPPLY INFORMATION

Students should bring:

• A smartphone or tablet with a camera or a digital camera. Photographing in the field can be the sole or supplemental source material for the workshop’s studio sessions.
• Whatever they may normally use for outdoor, informal field sketching such as portable sketchbook, watercolors, pencils, pastels, etc. Sketching in the field can be the sole or supplemental source material for the workshop’s studio sessions.

All other course materials and supplies are provided.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Meg Kaczyk guides artists of all levels in classes and workshops based on her own studio process. Her work is fed by daily life, the natural world, poetry, and a long-standing meditation practice. Originally trained as an illustrator and graphic designer, Meg has enjoyed a long creative career including art direction, graphic design, arts administration, and teaching. She exhibits her paintings across the region.

Artist website: Meg Kaczyk, @megkaczyk

This class is for beginners with a little or no experience painting with acrylics, as well as for those who are coming back to painting and would like a little help getting started again. We will explore the basics of acrylics including materials, surfaces, brushes and other tools, then a little about color theory, color mixing, paint application, and composition — and then we'll move into techniques!

In this fun one-day workshop, teaching artist Beth Herrild takes you through her creative process.  She will demo how she paints trees, and you'll then create a background and paint your own trees or whatever subjects you choose. You'll also have a chance to paint on a couple of different surfaces. 

The natural world is full of endless inspiration! Beth loves painting trees because they are easy to draw: nature comes in all shapes and sizes and isn't perfect! When you complete the class, you'll have one completed (or almost complete) painting, and you'll be ready to take your paints and brushes home and continue painting and exploring on your own. 

SUPPLY INFORMATION

At minimum, you should bring acrylic paints in the three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue), white, and black. No craft paints, but the acrylics you bring don't have to be high end. Beth recommends a set of Liquitex basics, but if you already have some tubes of another brand they should work (as long as they're not liquid craft paints).

For brushes, Beth recommends having a couple of flats, around 1/2" wide and around 1" inch wide. If they're not exactly those sizes no big deal. 

You can bring your own canvas board if you have one, or use what is available at Northwind Art School.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Beth Herrild is a mixed media acrylic painter on Whidbey Island. Her work is an exploration into our perception of the physical world, its importance in our lives, and how our understanding is shaped by our environment and our own perceptions and attitudes. She combines vibrant color, value, and texture, to create pieces that balance the representational and abstract. She has an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts and a Master's in Whole Systems Design. Many years ago she was fortunate enough to see the profound impact art can have in people's lives. She taught art to children, as an art docent, in public schools for over 12 years, taught at a juvenile detention center, worked with youth & young adults experiencing homelessness, and currently teaches art to inmates at the Island County jail. She shows her work at Cultus Bay Glass on Whidbey Island. 

Artist Website: Beth Herrild, @bethherrild_art