Finding your voice: watercolor with Joe Cibere

Name: Finding your voice: watercolor with Joe Cibere
Start: 2026-05-02T10:00:00-07:00
End: 2026-05-02T16:00:00-07:00
Location: 1591 Spinnaker Dr. Suite 207, Ventura, CA

Schedule

Sat May 02 2026 at 10:00 am to 04:00 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

1591 Spinnaker Dr. Suite 207, Ventura, CA | Ventura, CA

Watercolor
with Joe Cibere
Finding Your Voice
A Color Harmony, Design & Composition Workshop

Register NOW :
https://baa.wildapricot.org/event-6628963/Registration

Saturday, May 2nd 2026
extended hours: 10:00am to 4:00pm with break

This Workshop synthesizes the core principles of value structure, compositional design, and color harmony, applying them within the expressive possibilities of watercolor. Emphasis is placed on strong underlying design, confident value control, and allowing the medium’s natural flow to enhance rather than obscure intention.
Artists learn to balance structure and spontaneity, using watercolor as a responsive partner in the painting process.
What you'll learn:
How To Make a Successful Painting
Designing a painting is about planning how an idea will come together visually before and during the process. It starts with a basic concept or mood, followed by gathering references for guidance. You then sketch a simple composition, deciding on focal point, balance, and layout.
Next, choose a limited color palette to keep harmony, and optionally create a small test version to experiment. Build the painting in layers—starting with broad shapes and gradually adding details—while using light, shadow, and contrast to create depth.
Throughout the process, step back to evaluate and make adjustments, and avoid overworking once your main idea is clear. Overall, strong painting design focuses on simplifying forms, organizing shapes, and guiding the viewer’s eye rather than just copying what you see.
This outlines a structured approach to designing a painting:
Start with small thumbnail sketches to plan composition, simplifying the subject into a few large value shapes and testing different viewpoints. Use key compositional techniques—like a strong focal point, rule of thirds, leading lines, and framing—to guide the viewer’s eye and create balance.
Focus first on value (light, mid, dark) to build depth, then apply a limited color palette with thoughtful contrast and temperature for mood. When painting, begin with an underpainting, block in large shapes, and gradually refine details, especially around the focal area.
Finally, evaluate the work using a checklist: ensure balance, unity, variety, and strong contrast.
A 3-color palette creates harmony, clarity, and consistency by limiting choices to a focused set of colors. It speeds up learning and mixing, sharpens attention on fundamentals like value and composition, and offers versatility through clear roles (dominant, secondary, accent). It also strengthens branding and improves accessibility through better contrast.
Similarly, a 3-value study (light, midtone, dark) simplifies complex scenes into clear shapes, helping artists focus on lighting, avoid over-detailing, and build stronger, more cohesive compositions.
Finding your artistic voice is a process of self-discovery built through experimentation and creating work rooted in your own passions rather than trends. Over time, it becomes your unique “signature,” shaped by the choices you consistently make.
The 70/30 rule in art suggests structuring a composition so that about 70% is dominated by a main element, theme, or color, while 30% provides contrast or support.
I hope this process helps you in your ongoing journey to visualize and execute your beautiful, powerful and exciting art. It works for me! Joe Cibere
Remember the 3 P’s: Process, Perseverance and Patience

Build strong compositions by understanding value structure and how it guides the viewer’s eye
Develop confident control of light and dark to create depth, clarity, and impact
Apply color harmony principles to create cohesive, expressive watercolor paintings
Learn to balance structure and spontaneity by working with watercolor’s natural flow, not against it

FEES
BAA Members: $120
Non-Members: $145
Register
DATES / TIMES
Saturday May 2nd, 2026
10:00am to 4:00pm with break
LOCATION
The Buenaventura Art Center
1591 Spinnaker Dr. Suite #207, Ventura, CA 93001
3rd entrance into the Ventura Harbor Village parking lot, (above Le Petit Cafe)

Integrative Workshops
Integrative workshops practice design and technical skills in the studio. Artists with intermediate to advanced skill levels are invited to join this workshop and strengthen their grasp of these timeless concepts with master artist instructors.
NOTE PARKING CHARGES:
Be aware the Ventura Harbor Village collects parking fees on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. Parking in the lot outside of Buenaventura Art Center will cost $1 per hour up to 4 hours. After four hours the all-day cost is a flat $10.
Free parking is available on the street on Spinnaker Dr. or in the "Dolphin Lot" which is toward the entrance to the Harbor area at Spinnaker Dr. and Harbor Blvd. You'll see some big signs for Safe Harbor Ventura Isle and other dolphin signs. Park in that parking lot for free and enjoy a 5 - 10 minute stroll down the promenade to the Art Center above Le Petit Cafe.