Online Class: Fundamentals of Watercolor Washes & Brushwork

Build a solid foundation to strengthen your watercolor practice through structured guidance! Using Georgia O’Keeffe’s watercolors as examples, Sudeshna Sengupta will explain and clarify the qualities unique to transparent watercolors. Through interactive demos and instructions, she will show participants how to create a variety of watercolor washes and gradients, as well as build the muscle memory needed for confident brush strokes, breaking down the steps to acquire and sharpen your watercolor skills.

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

Space is limited, reservations required.

This program will take place via the video conferencing app – ZOOM. Details for accessing the Zoom meeting will be with your receipt upon registering and again sent via email the day prior. Please register in advance in order to access the program. Note that all program times are in Mountain Time.

Online classes are not recorded. Online classes are offered only as a live and interactive experience.

Supplies needed for this class:

• A set of watercolor paints (either tubes or half-pans).
• Watercolor pad or block of Strathmore 400 series or any other brand in any size between 9” x 12” and 12” x 16”. 
• Masking tape if a watercolor pad is used instead of a watercolor block. 
• A pencil and an eraser. 
• Watercolor brushes (synthetic ‘Taklon’ brushes work well): 3 to 5 Round brushes in the range of Size 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 1 Flat brush of at least 1” width. 
• Watercolor palette with multiple wells and a larger area to mix paints. A plastic palette works. 
• 2 to 3 empty glass jars or containers for holding water. Used yogurt containers or wide-mouth smaller glass jars work well. 
• Sheets of paper towel or tissues, or pieces of cotton rag for blotting and lifting areas of color washes. Cut-up pieces from a clean, used t-shirt work great. 
• Optional: Q-tips for blotting and lifting excess water from washes. 
• Optional: Hair dryer if available. 
• Optional: A white wax crayon or a small piece of candle for optional resist techniques.

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 received her Master of Fine Arts degree in 1985 from Visva-Bharati, an international university founded in India, by the humanist poet Tagore, the first non-European Nobel Laureate (1913). After teaching art and design at the college level in New Delhi, Seattle, and California, she taught at NMSU-Alamogordo, where she established its first intaglio printmaking studio in 1995. Since moving to Santa Fe, she has been teaching credit courses in online studio art at the Santa Fe Community College. She also conducts workshops and short courses and presents lectures and community-based art events for various age groups with civic, cultural, and community organizations in the US and in India, often with a focus on multicultural and inter-cultural experiences that emphasize human, cultural, and environmental connectedness through creativity. To see her art please visit: notes-and-doodles.com

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.