Intuitive Watercolor: Expression and Perception
Five Wednesdays Oct 8—Nov 5, 6:30-9:00pm
Cost: $200-$275 sliding scale* plus materials (see supplies list below)
Imagine actively harnessing your creativity through play while also learning the techniques to hone your skill. In this new watercolor class with Paige Quinn-Vasic, you’ll paint imaginatively and create in conversation with your art instead of against it, in an effort to reproduce the beauty of our subject in exactly the same way. While you will be learning techniques in watercolor such as building washes, working wet into wet and dry, and color theory, you’ll also grow to appreciate the meditative nature of the medium itself. There is a quality to watercolor unlike any other medium that allows for moments of serendipity, happy accidents, and bold expression. Use these occurrences to your advantage to render dreamscape atmospheres or whimsical textures that transition from one subject to the next. You’ll create 2-3 paintings throughout the course with tailored guidance from the instructor.
To register, please email programs@nohoarts.org with your name, address, phone number, and which session you are registering for. Payment can be made via PayPal here, or by mailing a check made out to NCFA to PO Box 366, Northampton, MA 01061.
*Payments on the upper end of the sliding scale help support our continued commitment to accessibility, including sliding scale models and the NCFA Community Fund.
Paige Quinn-Vasic is a local working artist who is trained in many creative mediums such as painting, printmaking, ceramics, and more. She completed her bachelors in fine arts and art education at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which drove her to explore an interdisciplinary practice. Her medium of choice in the last few years has been collage with painted paper, but recently got back into oil painting. The feeling of manipulating color is meditative in a way that other processes feel more removed from the quality of direct play. Her practice tends to hop between mediums as she follows the whims of her creative inner child, exploring whimsy, peculiar curiosities, and microaggressions. Since moving to Northampton in 2023, she has earned a LCC grant for her community project, Noho Art Club, and dove into teaching workshops. You can see more of her work at www.paigesquinn.com or @paigesquinn and @nohoartclub on Instagram
WATERCOLOR SUPPLY LIST
The instructor will have some paint tubes to share small amounts of paint and paper you can buy by the sheet as you go, but do not rely on them to provide full palettes ready for students.
PAPER:
1 full sheet (22 x 30) hot press watercolor paper
2 full sheets (22 x 30) rough watercolor paper
Brands: Arches, Fabriano, Canson, Waterford, Whatman, Strathmore (budget)
A small (at least 8 x 10) spiral watercolor pad
BOARD
To hold 15 x 22 size paper so should be a few inches larger in both directions.
Masonite is best though corrugated cardboard and foamcore will do in a pinch
PAINTS:
Please avoid cheap sets like Reeves, Maries, Sakura etc. They will create poor paintings. Tube paints only and please bring all the tubes to class Stick to quality brands like Winsor Newton Cotman or Professional, Grumbacher Academy, Da Vinci, Holbein, Schminke, and Van Gogh. The catalogue stores/online like Dick Blick and Cheap Joe’s (American Journey) have their own brand which is very good and cheaper. Colors: any white, any black, ultramarine blue, pthalo blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium red (or hue), cadmium yellow (or hue), yellow ochre Additional colors if you want to add more are cadmium orange, dioxazine purple, lemon yellow, and permanent rose.
BRUSHES: Good brushes – a combo of synthetic and natural- are essential. Poor brushes lose many hairs and flatten out when used which will frustrate the painter. So stay away from cheap sets. Sizes: Rounds # 4, 8, 12. Also, a Japanese Hake brush at least 1 ½” wide as well as a small stiff bristle brush (used for oil painting)
PALETTE: large rectangular palette around 10 x 14, like a John Pike palette, with wells for paint all around and large mixing area in the middle. Again, the online art companies sell their version of this palette for half the price of the other brands. Please don’t get the small round ones with a small area for mixing in the middle. They won’t do.
MISCELLANEOUS:
Small color wheel
Blue painters tape (like masking tape) from hardware store
Liquid mask (sometimes called frisket) non-permanent
White vinyl eraser
#2 pencil
Rubber cement pick-up
Black fine permanent marker (micron is good)
2 Water containers (deli containers, big yogurt container)
Small portfolio to carry artwork home – not mandatory.
Paper towels