Online Class: Understanding O’Keeffe’s Palette | Color Study in Watercolor

In this class, study the color balance and color relationships found in Georgia O’Keeffe’s iconic paintings.

Class will begin with a presentation on color palette analysis using several O’Keeffe paintings, followed by hands-on studies where participants learn to pinpoint and recreate color mixes with watercolor. A longtime educator in the field of color theory for artists, teaching artist Sudeshna Sengupta will help participants understand why O’Keeffe’s color choices work so well together and will guide the class toward understanding color harmonies based on their position in the color wheel.

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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: 

• Watercolor tubes in these or similar colors: Hansa Yellow; Indian Yellow or Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue or Quinacridone Gold; Cadmium Orange Hue or Vermillion or Pyrrole Orange; Carmine or Madder Lake Deep; Opera, Opera Pink, or Opera Rose; or Quinacridone Rose or Permanent Rose; Any red-purple such as Thio Violet, or Quinacridone Purple Red; Any medium-violet such as Permanent Violet or Dioxazine Violet or Carbazole Violet; Ultramarine Blue; Pthalo Blue Green Shade, Thalo Blue, or Manganese Blue Nova; Viridian or Pthalo Green; Sap Green; 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.
• 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.
• Recommended brush brands:
  • Starter brushes:  Royal Soft-Grip Watercolor Round brushes work well. Similar quality in other brands such as Simply Simmons work as well.
  • Better quality brushes: Princeton Aqua Elite and Silver Brushes are recommended.
• Q-tips, paper towels, 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. Wide-mouth glass jars work well.
• Toothpicks and/or a blunt plastic tool such as a disposable plastic knife.
• Black Sharpie.
• Optional: Hair dryer if available, a white wax crayon or a small piece of candle for optional resist techniques, watercolor pencils for additional details.

The items above should be available locally or online from Amazon as individual items in the U.S and in Europe. They can also be purchased online as individual items or as a set from 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.