“Plein Air Watercolor” with Mary A. Smith

Thursday, September 23 & Friday, September 24, 2021

9 am- 4 pm

$300 members / $325 non members

Description:

This class will cover plein air watercolor painting with an emphasis on sketching first, then painting quickly to capture an image and weather conditions in a nearby location to be chosen each week as the class goes along. We will talk about painting outdoors a bit, paint outside for about 2 hours, then take a look at what we did in a short discussion at the end.

9-11:30 We will talk about painting outdoors in the morning, with examples and a demonstration.  Then we will do some sketching and try some of the techniques.

12:30-4  We will paint outside for about 2-3 hours, then take a look at what we did in a short discussion at the end.

Supplies— in a backpack or canvas bag

1. Outdoor painting palette, foldable or with a cover (small white ones are sometimes   available at Ocean State for a couple of dollars)
2. Plastic quart sized plastic bag with pencils, erasers, sharpener, 5 x 8 spiral sketchbook
3. Medium size brushes rolled in a mat or brush holder—-small, medium, large
4. Watercolor paper pad or block—5 x 8 or 9 x12  —- OR a piece of watercolor paper taped to a stiff backing, like foam core.
5. A roll of masking tape 3/4” or 1”, roll of paper towel , Kleenex
6. Tube watercolors—5ml is fine, larger if you want,

Suggested: Payne’s Grey, Ultramarine, Yellow Ochre, Aureolin, Brown Madder, Sepia, Sap Green, Alizarin.  Plus any others you might already have.

1. Bottle of water, dish for water, hat, bug stuff, extra shirt, camera, snack bars, an old towel to put on the ground, etc.
2. A folding seat or an easel or both.

Michael’s has watercolor tube paints (small size with 12 tubes is fine), sketchbooks,

watercolor paper pads, brushes available under the Artist’s Loft Brand.

Ocean State has small white palettes which are perfect for this class and for travel for $2.00

Instructor bio—  Mary A. Smith

Mary Smith graduated from Boston University, College Liberal Arts in 1966 with further study in art at  BU School of Fine and Applied Art. She attended the Radcliffe College Program in Landscape Design in 1978 and later received a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1982.

She was the owner and principal of Mary Smith Associates, Landscape Architects for 25 years. Her company designed a wide variety of landscape projects for private estates,  condominiums, police stations, senior centers, office buildings, private schools, parks and public works.

Mary is a Gallery Artist at South Shore Art Center, a juried artist at the Cape Cod Art Center and a member of the Copley Society since 1975. She has participated in a number of local and national shows over the years and won numerous awards. Recent shows include the New England Watercolor Society, Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Highfield Hall  and the South Shore Art Center. She has shown in a number of galleries including South Street Gallery, Bare Cove Gallery, Staircase Gallery, Wood’s Hole Gallery, Chapman Gallery and the Cape Cod Art Center.  Her work is in many private collections.

Work can be seen on her Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/smithsummerstreetstudio/  and at https://www.marysmithwatercolor.com/

She has been painting Plein Air for many years both at home and when traveling — in Italy, France, England and China and she has been lucky enough to win a couple Plein Air prizes.

• Nantucket Plein Air Frank Swift Chase Award, 2015
• Honorable Mention, Plein Air Key West, 2016

She finds inspiration in these artist’s work:  John Singer Sargent, Wolf Kahn, Edward Hopper and David Dewey