Watercolour Summer Course

A 4-week watercolour course exploring essential techniques, colour, and composition through still life, landscape, and portrait subjects.
About this Event

This four-week studio watercolour course introduces students to the expressive and versatile nature of watercolour painting through a structured exploration of techniques, materials, and subject-based practice.

Designed for both beginners and more experienced painters, the course combines demonstrations, guided exercises, observational work, and individual support while encouraging students to explore their own creative responses to the medium.

Throughout the course, students will work across three main subject areas — still life, landscape, and portraiture — while developing confidence in colour mixing, composition, tonal values, mark-making, and the handling of watercolour materials.

Week 1 introduces the essential foundations of working with watercolour, including papers, brushes, colour mixing, wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry techniques, lifting paint, resist methods, and mark-making. Through demonstrations and practical exercises, students will begin building confidence and understanding the unique qualities of the medium.

Week 2 focuses on still life painting, applying the techniques explored during the first session while developing observational skills, composition, tonal awareness, and proportion. Students will experiment with thumbnail sketches and viewfinders to strengthen compositional decisions.

Week 3 explores landscape painting through a variety of styles and visual approaches inspired by different watercolour artists. Students will investigate colour relationships, saturation, monochrome palettes, complementary colours, and the effects of light and shadow within landscape compositions.

Week 4 concentrates on portrait painting in watercolour using mirrors or photographic references. Students will explore facial proportions, skin tones, highlights, shadows, and the challenges of painting curved surfaces while continuing to develop confidence working from light to dark. The course concludes with a small informal display of work celebrating students’ progress and creative development.