Visual Arts Workshop

Virtual Watercolor Studio
with Carolyn Gates
First Wednesday of the Month | 1:00-4:00pm
April 7 | May 5 | June 2 | July 7
Tuition $180
via Zoom | link will be sent the day before class each week

 

Virtual Watercolor Studio with Carolyn Gates

The first class in this series was recorded and is available to anyone
who signs up for the series
but missed the opening class.

If you are interested please contact the Hoffman Center at: [email protected]
with Virtual Watercolor Studio in the subject line.

The Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita announces the Virtual Watercolor Studio, meeting once a month over Zoom and online, led by Carolyn Gates. Each month, participants will explore a new topic in watercolor and continue growing and developing skills.

Topics will be varied and may include a particular subject matter, such as painting flowers or animals or a specific technique like learning how to work with salt for texture in our paintings. The list of topics is long and wide-ranging.

Carolyn’s Virtual Watercolor Studio kicks off with four monthly sessions on the first Wednesday afternoon of each month starting April 7, 2021. Each session begins with an exploration of the month’s theme, perhaps with an exercise followed by time to paint. Sessions feature live demonstrations as well as individual attention and help for each participant. There will be an online forum displaying paintings, in progress or finished, with input by the instructor and comments from students. Following the class, links to a recording of each session are provided.

Another four-month series will follow when this initial series ends.

Materials List:

Sketchbook: Bring your favorite sketchbook to use for thumbnail sketches and planning ideas.

Paper: 140# Cold Press paper – This can be any 100% rag or cotton paper, such as Arches, Fabriano, or Fluid 100 (100% Cotton Paper). You can buy it in full sheets (22” x 30”) or blocks or pads. For each class, you will need paper for at least one exercise and one painting. The size is up to you, but Carolyn recommends either an eighth of a sheet or a quarter sheet for each session.

Brushes: Bring any watercolor brushes you already have. Synthetic brushes are the least expensive, and you should get the best you can afford. One recommendation is Winsor Newton Sceptre Gold II for a Sable/Synthetic blend. Pure sable brushes are the best but are the most expensive. The minimum types of brushes recommended are: No 12 round, No 8 round, No 4 round, 1” flat, and ½” flat.

1-2 Yellows    (Aureolin or Hansa Yellow,  & Cadmium Yellow or New Gamboge)
1-2 Reds         (Cadmium Red or Pyrrol Red, & Alizarin Crimson or Carmine)
1-2 Blues        (French Ultramarine or Cobalt Blue, & Prussian Blue or Phthalo Blue)
1 Green           (Sap Green, Winsor Green (Yellow Shade), or Pthalo Green)
1 Violet           (Winsor Violet or Dioxazine Violet, or Carbazole Violet)
1 Brown          (Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, or Sepia)
1 Black            (Ivory Black, Payne’s Gray, or Neutral Tint)

Materials are easy to find at:
Dots ‘N Doodles in Astoria

Or online:
Jerry’s Artarama

Cheap Joes
Amazon
Dick Blick

Carolyn Gates has been working in watercolor for the past 17 years, and although she works in colored pencil and pastel, watercolor is her main medium. She enjoys working with the unexpected results of mixing pigment with water on textured watercolor paper.

The qualities that characterize her work are strong color, and compositions that explore the relationships of shapes. This can make pleasing visual patterns that result in an abstraction of the subject. Her work investigates beauty, shape and color, and she hopes to discover the interplay between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

She currently teaches watercolor workshops for the Hoffman Center for the Arts, and has taught Watercolor Fundamentals at Maude Kerns Art Center
in Eugene since 2016. She enjoys teaching and is inspired by the work her students do. Her focus is teaching basic concepts, while encouraging each student to find their own voice.

Gates has studied studio art at MiraCosta College in Oceanside, California, and watercolor painting at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon. She has studied watercolor with Carol Carter, Satoko Motouji Kris Nugent, and Judy Morris. She is a member of the Watercolor Society of Oregon, and resides in Eugene.

For more information and to view her work, visit her website