Online Class: Watercolor Calla Lily with Wet-on-Wet Background

Inspired by O’Keeffe’s paintings of calla lilies, this watercolor class will explore the flower’s sinuous beauty by using a bold and vibrant style of watercolor painting with a wet-on-wet background. To achieve this result, teaching artist Sudeshna Sengupta will guide participants through the concept of negative-positive painting—an essential watercolor technique that defines a composition’s main positive shapes by painting the spaces around them. 

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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.

In addition to your own reference photos of calla lilies, you may follow Sudeshna’s on-screen set-up which will be used during her demonstration.

Supplies needed for this class: 

• Watercolor paints — individual tubes are recommended but a box of half-pans may work as a starter set. Watercolor tubes in these or similar colors: Hansa Yellow, 2. Indian Yellow or Quinacridone Gold, 3. Pyrrole Orange or Vermillion, 4. Carmine or Madder Lake Deep, 5. Opera, Quinacridone Rose, Permanent Rose, Opera or Opera Rose, 6. Quinacridone Purple, or Dioxazine/Carbazole violet, or Permanent Purple/Violet, 7. Ultramarine Blue, 8. Winsor Blue or Manganese Blue Hue or Manganese Blue Nova, or Phthalo Blue, or Thalo Blue, 9. Viridian, 10. Sap Green, 11. Leaf Green, 12. 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.
• 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 regular 2 pencil (a.k.a. HB) or 2B pencil
• A white eraser.
• Round and Flat Watercolor brushes (synthetic ‘Taklon’ brushes are fine): 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.
• An ordinary ¾” – 1” mop brush to be used as a clean-up brush after erasing pencil lines.
• Q-tips and 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. Used yogurt containers or wide-mouth 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, a white wax crayon or a small piece of candle for optional resist techniques.

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.