Instructor: Angela Fehr

Title: Brave, Spontaneous Watercolour Landscapes

Medium: Watercolours

Level: Intermediate to advanced (including plein air)

Dates: August 12-15, 2024 (4 days: Monday-Thursday, 9am to 4pm)

Fees:  Early Bird—$550; $600 after February 29

About the workshop

In this four day workshop, Angela will demonstrate her process for getting to the heart of a scene and painting a landscape that sings with energy and expresses the life of the artist and the beauty of watercolour.

This workshop will best suit artists familiar with watercolour techniques who paint fairly regularly and spend time painting. It will include plein air painting as well as studio painting sessions.

Course outline

Gibsons, BC is a perfect setting for intuitive watercolour landscape painting, and in this four day workshop, Angela will demonstrate her process for getting to the heart of a scene and painting a landscape that sings with energy and expresses the life of the artist and the beauty of watercolour.

This workshop will best suit artists who are familiar with watercolour techniques and spend time painting fairly regularly and will include plein air (on location) painting as well as studio painting sessions.

Day 1: Bringing YOU to your painting process

For artists yearning to paint more loosely, you’ve already learned that trying harder to be loose is a contradiction. I will choose a subject for exploration and demonstrate exercises for relaxing into the process and strategies for strengthening watercolour technique.

Day 2: Learning to See

Good observation is critical to developing stronger landscape paintings, even when you aren’t aiming for photo-realism. If weather allows, we’ll explore plein air painting as a method for immersing oneself in your environment and developing observational skills. If you’re intimidated by plein air painting, you’re not alone! I have spent many years avoiding plein air painting and have learned to enjoy it by developing strategies to make it more approachable and growth-oriented.

Day 3: Iteration and Experimentation

My method of painting multiple versions of one subject can often lead to frustration, and a stage where it seems like you’re just repeating the same process over and over. I  will demonstrate how to challenge yourself to push through the frustration stage and use it to propel you to new directions in your work, trying new materials and breaking the boundaries of what you thought your art should look like.

Day 4: Freedom Strategies

Where does an artist take all of this learning when you head back home? I  will demonstrate that every painting is continuing the conversation started by the paintings previous to it and that your body of work is informing your future work.

This day will be dedicated to abstracting your subject even further as a method of training yourself to see patterns of light and shadow as the underlying “bones” of your painting upon which the details are built. Whether you are a detail-oriented or abstract artist, learning to see your subject in this way will strengthen your art and create more confident, impactful paintings.

Supplies list

Download the supplies list for the workshop.

About the Instructor

From her home in northern British Columbia, Canada, through her video lessons on her website and YouTube, Angela Fehr has created a community of watercolour lovers that spans the globe. She wants every painter to know the freedom of fearless self expression and she has made it her mission to share this empowering message through lessons in watercolour technique and loose intuitive painting. More than anything she demonstrates that the most important thing you bring to your art is you.

Angela’s approach to watercolour is one of that prioritizes self-expression, developing her paintings sharing her love for the landscape in multiple, experimental studies. Angela describes her painting process as “heart-led,” pairing her extensive knowledge of watercolour technique with a willingness to allow the painting to evolve with freedom, as each brush stroke suggests a new direction to be explored with curiosity and vulnerability.

On the web

Visit the artist’s website at: angelafehr.com

Return to the overview Workshops page.