The Spring Landscape (Online Course) Spring 2025 w/ Megan Marden
May 2 to May 30 (Fridays), 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Eastern Time
**All sessions are live and will be recorded, students do not have to be present. All recordings will be available to students for 3 months after the final session, after 3 months the recording will be deleted.
Please check your email spam/junk folder for your Zoom invite.
DEMO: https://youtu.be/uuQ7qEAk4CQ
Course Description
This class will engage with the unique Spring palette and still partly defoliated landscape. Simple, portable materials like watercolor and pencil allow us to re-enter the landscape with a sense of immediacy and serve as a visual testing ground for ideas that can inspire larger paintings throughout the year.
Course Outline
Week 1 – Introduction to the Sketchbook
Students will be encouraged to begin daily work in small, portable sketchbooks. We will explore the sketchbooks of several artists and the different purposes sketchbooks serve.
Week 2 – Re-entering the Landscape
Re-entering the landscape after the winter can be intimidating and overwhelming. This week, we will take our first steps outside or observe an exterior view from a window, concentrating on discovery rather than creation. What elements of our landscape are of particular interest to us and why?
Week 3 – Building a World
By closely examining the content of the sketchbook and the work from Week 2 – each student will try to identify what elements of their landscape are of particular interest to them—the quality of light, the color, etc. We will look at artists with a ‘visionary’ sense of the landscape and talk about crafting unique visual worlds.
Week 4 – Working from Sketches
This week, we will create an invented composition using our sketches and other work from this class as source material.
Week 5 – Final Drawing/Watercolor and Final Critique
This week, we will look closely at each student’s work from the class, focusing on the discoveries made through regular sketching and engaging with the landscape and how these discoveries have been deliberately explored further through the creation of work in this class.
Course Materials List
Materials are suggested, students are encouraged to use materials they have on hand or are familiar or comfortable with.
Small Sketchbook – Sketchbook should be no larger than 6” – small enough to easily have on hand at all times.
Watercolor Paper – Arches Watercolor Block, cold press or Strathmore series 400 watercolor pad – students should select a size they are most comfortable working with.
Watercolor Brushes – synthetic brushes are fine
1 small round, 1 medium round, one mop brush and one flat brush – select sizes that work for you and consider the size of the paper you will be working with
Watercolor paint
Tubes or pans
Use what you have and like or build a new, simple palette for this class
Phthalo Blue
Ultramarine blue
Cadmium Red
Cadmium Yellow
Lemon Yellow
Alizarin Crimson
Burnt Sienna
All of these colors (plus a few extras) are included in a basic 12 half pan set from Sennelier, Winsor Newton, Schminke, etc.
HB Pencil
Eraser
Drafting Tape
Jar for Water
May 2 to May 30 (Fridays), 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Eastern Time
**All sessions are live and will be recorded, students do not have to be present. All recordings will be available to students for 3 months after the final session, after 3 months the recording will be deleted.
Please check your email spam/junk folder for your Zoom invite.
DEMO: https://youtu.be/uuQ7qEAk4CQ
Course Description
This class will engage with the unique Spring palette and still partly defoliated landscape. Simple, portable materials like watercolor and pencil allow us to re-enter the landscape with a sense of immediacy and serve as a visual testing ground for ideas that can inspire larger paintings throughout the year.
Course Outline
Week 1 – Introduction to the Sketchbook
Students will be encouraged to begin daily work in small, portable sketchbooks. We will explore the sketchbooks of several artists and the different purposes sketchbooks serve.
Week 2 – Re-entering the Landscape
Re-entering the landscape after the winter can be intimidating and overwhelming. This week, we will take our first steps outside or observe an exterior view from a window, concentrating on discovery rather than creation. What elements of our landscape are of particular interest to us and why?
Week 3 – Building a World
By closely examining the content of the sketchbook and the work from Week 2 – each student will try to identify what elements of their landscape are of particular interest to them—the quality of light, the color, etc. We will look at artists with a ‘visionary’ sense of the landscape and talk about crafting unique visual worlds.
Week 4 – Working from Sketches
This week, we will create an invented composition using our sketches and other work from this class as source material.
Week 5 – Final Drawing/Watercolor and Final Critique
This week, we will look closely at each student’s work from the class, focusing on the discoveries made through regular sketching and engaging with the landscape and how these discoveries have been deliberately explored further through the creation of work in this class.
Course Materials List
Materials are suggested, students are encouraged to use materials they have on hand or are familiar or comfortable with.
Small Sketchbook – Sketchbook should be no larger than 6” – small enough to easily have on hand at all times.
Watercolor Paper – Arches Watercolor Block, cold press or Strathmore series 400 watercolor pad – students should select a size they are most comfortable working with.
Watercolor Brushes – synthetic brushes are fine
1 small round, 1 medium round, one mop brush and one flat brush – select sizes that work for you and consider the size of the paper you will be working with
Watercolor paint
Tubes or pans
Use what you have and like or build a new, simple palette for this class
Phthalo Blue
Ultramarine blue
Cadmium Red
Cadmium Yellow
Lemon Yellow
Alizarin Crimson
Burnt Sienna
All of these colors (plus a few extras) are included in a basic 12 half pan set from Sennelier, Winsor Newton, Schminke, etc.
HB Pencil
Eraser
Drafting Tape
Jar for Water
May 2 to May 30 (Fridays), 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Eastern Time
**All sessions are live and will be recorded, students do not have to be present. All recordings will be available to students for 3 months after the final session, after 3 months the recording will be deleted.
Please check your email spam/junk folder for your Zoom invite.
DEMO: https://youtu.be/uuQ7qEAk4CQ
Course Description
This class will engage with the unique Spring palette and still partly defoliated landscape. Simple, portable materials like watercolor and pencil allow us to re-enter the landscape with a sense of immediacy and serve as a visual testing ground for ideas that can inspire larger paintings throughout the year.
Course Outline
Week 1 – Introduction to the Sketchbook
Students will be encouraged to begin daily work in small, portable sketchbooks. We will explore the sketchbooks of several artists and the different purposes sketchbooks serve.
Week 2 – Re-entering the Landscape
Re-entering the landscape after the winter can be intimidating and overwhelming. This week, we will take our first steps outside or observe an exterior view from a window, concentrating on discovery rather than creation. What elements of our landscape are of particular interest to us and why?
Week 3 – Building a World
By closely examining the content of the sketchbook and the work from Week 2 – each student will try to identify what elements of their landscape are of particular interest to them—the quality of light, the color, etc. We will look at artists with a ‘visionary’ sense of the landscape and talk about crafting unique visual worlds.
Week 4 – Working from Sketches
This week, we will create an invented composition using our sketches and other work from this class as source material.
Week 5 – Final Drawing/Watercolor and Final Critique
This week, we will look closely at each student’s work from the class, focusing on the discoveries made through regular sketching and engaging with the landscape and how these discoveries have been deliberately explored further through the creation of work in this class.
Course Materials List
Materials are suggested, students are encouraged to use materials they have on hand or are familiar or comfortable with.
Small Sketchbook – Sketchbook should be no larger than 6” – small enough to easily have on hand at all times.
Watercolor Paper – Arches Watercolor Block, cold press or Strathmore series 400 watercolor pad – students should select a size they are most comfortable working with.
Watercolor Brushes – synthetic brushes are fine
1 small round, 1 medium round, one mop brush and one flat brush – select sizes that work for you and consider the size of the paper you will be working with
Watercolor paint
Tubes or pans
Use what you have and like or build a new, simple palette for this class
Phthalo Blue
Ultramarine blue
Cadmium Red
Cadmium Yellow
Lemon Yellow
Alizarin Crimson
Burnt Sienna
All of these colors (plus a few extras) are included in a basic 12 half pan set from Sennelier, Winsor Newton, Schminke, etc.
HB Pencil
Eraser
Drafting Tape
Jar for Water