Online Class: Painting Trees in Watercolor

Inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe’s nature-based drawings and paintings, this class will focus on capturing the forms, colors, and textures of various trees in transparent watercolor.

Through interactive demos and instructions, teaching artist Sudeshna Sengupta will guide the class through the concepts and techniques needed for capturing the overall shape of various trees. She will also go over how to use tonal blending and texturing with watercolor to capture their expressive and characteristic features.

Reference photos will be provided in advance for the in-class project, but participants are welcome to use their own photos or printouts of trees during the lesson.

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This class is suitable for youth ages 12 and up. Children are welcome to participate alongside their adults.

This program will take place via the video conferencing app – ZOOM. Details for accessing the Zoom meeting will be with your receipt upon registration and again sent via email the day prior. Please register in advance to access the program.

Note that all program times are in Mountain Time. Space is limited, reservations required.

Supplies needed for this class: 

• Paper:
  • Watercolor block (preferred) or pad (tape-bound, not spiral-bound) of Fluid, Strathmore 400 series (not 300 series), Canson, or any other brand with acid-free 140 lbs (300 gsm) sheets in Cold-Press finish that is between 9” x 12” and 12” x 16” in size.
  • A 9” x 12” sketch book for preliminary drawing practice

• Brushes:
  • Round and Flat Watercolor brushes (synthetic ‘Taklon’ brushes work well): 4 to 5 Round brushes in the range of Size 6, 8, 10, 12, 14. 
  • Optional: a 1 Flat brush that’s 1⁄2” to 1.5” wide. Royal Soft-Grip or Simply Simmons Watercolor. Round brushes work well.
  • Recommended brands:
    • Starter brushes: Royal Soft-Grip Watercolor Round brushes work well. Similar quality in other brands such as Simply Simmons work as well.
    • For better quality brushes, Princeton Aqua Elite and Silver Brushes are recommended.

• Paints: Individual tubes are recommended but a box of half-pans may work as a starter set.
  • Watercolor tubes if available, in these or similar colors: Hansa Yellow, Indian Yellow or Quinacridone Gold; Pyrrole Orange or Vermillion; Carmine or Madder Lake Deep; Opera, or Opera Pink, or Opera Rose, or Quinacridone Rose or Permanent Rose; Quinacridone Purple, or Dioxazine/Carbazole violet, or Permanent Purple/Violet; Ultramarine Blue; Manganese Blue Hue or Manganese Blue Nova, or Pthalo Blue, or Thalo Blue; Viridian; Sap Green or Leaf Green; Optional: Burnt Sienna or Quinacridone Burnt Orange
  • Recommended brands of watercolor paint tubes:
    • Student/Learner grade: Van Gogh, Grumbacher Academy, or W & N Cotman.
    • Professional grade: Holbein, M. Graham, Daniel Smith, or Winsor & Newton
• A 12-well circular palette with a larger center to mix paints. Jones Travel Palette is recommended.
• Additional Items:
  • A regular #2 pencil (a.k.a. HB) or 2B pencil and a white eraser.
  • Q-tips and paper towel or pieces of cotton rag. Cut-up pieces from a clean used t-shirt work well.
  • Masking tape if a watercolor pad is used instead of a watercolor block.
  • 2 to 3 empty glass jars or containers for holding water. Used yogurt containers or wide-mouth smaller glass jars work well.
  • Toothpicks and or a blunt plastic tool such as a disposable plastic knife for sgraffito technique.
  • Optional: Hair dryer if available.

These items should be available locally or online from Amazon as individual items in the U.S and in Europe or can be purchased online as individual items or as a set for Sudeshna Sengupta’s class-list (U.S. domestic shipping only).

About the Instructor:

Sudeshna Sengupta’s career as a teaching artist spans multiple decades, continents, and cultures that inform her pedagogy for decolonizing studio art. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in 1985 from Visva-Bharati University, founded by the first non-European Nobel Laureate (1913) and humanist poet Rabindranath Tagore.

After teaching art and design at the college level in New Delhi, Seattle, and California, she taught at New Mexico State University-Alamogordo, where she established its first intaglio printmaking studio in 1995. Besides the O’Keeffe Museum, Sengupta teaches credit courses with the School of Art & Design of the Santa Fe Community College.

Her etchings and lithographs from the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi have been featured in a landmark exhibition on Women Printmakers of India at the NGMA-New Delhi in India. Her work is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Association Musée d’Art Contemporain, France; Kala Institute, Berkeley, and more.

Sengupta also conducts workshops, short courses, lectures, and community-based art events focusing on multicultural and intercultural experiences that emphasize human, cultural, and environmental connectedness through creativity.

To learn more, please visit notes-and-doodles.com and visit her Instagram @santafe_online_art_studio

This class is being offered on a sliding scale.

$10 minimal fee.

$20 covers the cost of the class.

$30 covers the cost of the class, plus a contribution to support educational programs.