Mar 03

Watercolor Community Show at the Goat

Laurie Wigham - Nature Journal Club - April

Imagine that you’re sitting in those blue chairs, getting ready to paint all the different greens in the forest. Would you pick a blue and a yellow and see if that would mix them all? (Which blue and which yellow?)

Or would you start with a pre-mixed green and nudge it in different directions? (Which green? Have you ever stared at the Daniel Smith color chart, hoping that you could find just the right tube of green to make it all easy?) 

In this class we’ll look at those questions and more of the tricky issues around painting greens. How can you capture the glorious explosion of color in a spring meadow with ordinary paint? What about those lichens that look like they were painted on with day-glow colors? Do those deep forest shadows go to black, and is sage green more of a purple or a blue? And what’s the rookie mistake almost everybody makes when starting to mix greens?

We’ll talk about some color-mixing theory, look at why you might want to buy some of those special tubes of green paint, and get in some practice matching the colors of leaves. We’ll also cover some strategies for painting different landscapes, like how to get a mix of textures in a distant forest, or the barely-there shimmer of greens in the desert.

BRING: your regular watercolor palette, sketchbook and brush (waterbrush if you’ve got one), plus a scrap of good watercolor paper to try out some special effects. If you forget something, I will have some materials for borrowing.

All ages and experience levels are welcome. No registration necessary, $20 suggested donation.

TUESDAY April 14
• Tiburon: 10-11:30 AM, Richardson Bay Audubon, 376 Greenwood Beach Road.
• San Francisco: 12:30-2 PM, Building 989 in the Presidio (Near the Warming Hut, not the usual East Beach location.)

WEDNESDAY April 15
• Lafayette: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM,Library and Learning Center, 3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd.

FRIDAY April 17
• Saratoga: 9:30-11:00 AM, West Valley College, 14000 Fruitvale Ave
• Cupertino: 12:00-1:30 PM, McClellan Ranch, Santa Clara Valley Audubon, 22221 McLellan Road
• Palo Alto: 2:30-4:00 PM, Environmental Volunteers EcoCenter, 2560 Embarcadero Road.

More information: It's a good idea to check all times and locations on John Muir Laws' Events page before the day.