In-Person Class: Botanical Watercolors | Cultivating a Place-Based Palette 

Explore the local and seasonal plant life of Abiquiú, New Mexico, to create unique, functional watercolor paints! Working with both cultivated and foraged plants from the surrounding landscape, this class is a sensory exploration of place, plant knowledge, and sustainable creativity. 

Throughout the workshop, participants will learn the complete process of making watercolor paint from plants—from identifying and ethically harvesting wild dye plants, to extracting color, to binding pigment into rich, archival-quality paints. You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of the ecological and chemical principles behind botanical color, your own handmade set of six watercolor paints, a collection of painted swatches and experiments, and a printed booklet of recipes and instructions so you can continue the practice at home. 

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Supplies for this class are included. Please bring snacks and a water bottle—the Welcome Center has a filling station. The first portion of the class will include a walk through O’Keeffe’s garden.

Registration

All supplies are included: Members $75 | Non-members $85

About the Instructor:

Kayla Powers (b. 1988) is a place-based artist and naturalist whose textile work is rooted in ecological connection. Working with traditional practices of foraging, dyeing, weaving, and stitching, she explores the common threads of our shared humanity with the aim of fostering deeper connections—to the earth, to craft, and to one another.
She holds an MFA in Fiber Art from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BA in Art History from Western Michigan University. Her work has been presented in solo exhibitions at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in Melbourne, Stetson University in Deland, Florida, and Simone DeSousa Gallery in Detroit, among others. Powers has participated in artist residencies across the U.S. and abroad, including AiR Green in Norway, the Icelandic Textile Center in Iceland, and Breck Create in Breckenridge, Colorado. She was the 2025 International Artist in Residence and Hancock Fellow at the Australian Tapestry Workshop and a 2025 recipient of an Environmental Artistic Activism Grant from the Puffin Foundation. She has also received the President’s Award for Sustainability from Cranbrook Academy of Art, a Windgate Fellowship at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and a 2020 Knight Art Grant in Detroit. You can find more of her work at kaylapowers.studio

Photos Courtesy of Kayla Powers