Watercolor workshop Part I

Several weeks ago, I did the first day of a two day workshop, taught by a gifted artist (Elizabeth Ellison).  Our studies that day were mountains and grassland, with learning different techniques and color theory. 

I've enjoyed tip-toeing back into art through watercolors, which I hadn't really done before until recently, although I did a good bit of pen and ink (with watercolor) drawings, largely of botanical subjects when I was younger, along with doing art in other media, too, for that matter.

I'd done a previous workshop with Elizabeth around nature journaling with watercolor, so I knew she's an encouraging teacher, and her demonstrations are remarkably helpful.

My mountains morphed (again) into more like the Rockies, rather the ancient rounded ridges of the Southern Appalachians.

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More nature journaling and watercolor

I suppose I'm already a nature journaler, but adding sketching and watercolor is something new again, and returning to my "roots" as a nature observer, many years ago.

My scientist and observer skills serve me well, I've found, in trying to translate what I see in the natural world to paper, in the language of an artist, as my teacher, Robert Johnson, in a recent 4-day workshop described.

His work is wonderfully evocative of the natural world, extracting the essence of what he sees.  It was a great workshop and helped me build a bit more confidence in describing my observations through an artistic medium, beyond photography.

Here were a couple of the watercolor drawings that I did!

 Serviceberry fruits and leaves

native Geranium

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Nature journaling and watercolor fun

Writing a blog about nature and gardening is really nature and garden journaling, but I've always wanted to practice real-time with sketching and art, too, but found the format intimidating, even though I loved drawing and art when much younger.

So an all-day workshop around using watercolor in your nature journaling, taught by Elizabeth Ellison, a wonderful artist based in Bryson City, NC at the NC Arboretum, was a wonderful way to encourage myself towards some watercolor artistic expression.

I've never done watercolors before (aside from pen and ink colored ones), with only a dabble into watercolor pencils, but have always loved watercolor art (and wanted to do it.)

I had a totally fun day -- great to learn some techniques and play with color.  I'm signed up for another class (much longer) in a couple of weeks.  It'll be fun.

Here are some of my impressions of trees and mountains, and a container planting (our "subjects" today).

mountains, evergreen trees, and deciduous trees

evergreen and deciduous trees

inspired by a container planting!

heading off with (pristine) art supplies

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