The 5th Annual Watercolor Live came to an end recently, wrapping up with even more of today’s best watercolor artists sharing all of their secrets, explaining their materials, methods, and more.
The next Live event is March 26-28, 2025, with the inaugural Acrylic Live. Join us then to be with fellow painters online for days of demonstrations, Q&A with your favorite artists, mingling during the breakout rooms and cocktail hours, and the incredible faculty painting auction.
Landscape and Plein Air Highlights from Watercolor Live
Painting en plein from a high vantage point in Ireland, Sebastian Thommen gave a demo on how to paint with watercolor when you’re outdoors, including insights on his plein air setup and the essentials you should bring.
In a much-anticipated segment, Thomas Schaller joined us live on camera for a cityscape demo. He explained that he almost exclusively starts a painting by focusing on the lights, then the mid-tones, and lastly the darks. “No color – no matter how beautiful – is going to save a painting if it doesn’t have the right values,” Thomas said, adding that to him, “values are 90 percent of the painting.”
Internationally renowned artist Alvaro Castagnet painted a scene from a Sunday morning in a northern Italy market for us. When it comes to painting such a scene, he says, “If you spend lots of time looking at things, you’ll always find something you love.” He wrapped up the demo by adding that there’s always something else that can be done, but that the message of the scene has been accomplished, and “before your very eyes.”
In his lesson, David R. Becker explained the essentials of watercolor, including the basic elements needed and a simple demo showing how to use watercolor if you’re brand new to it.
Landscape painter Tim Oliver said he spent a lot of time driving around Texas to find the perfect scene to paint, until he realized “ordinary” subjects, such as the structure he chose to paint for this demo, have a story to tell.
Kathleen Lanzoni demonstrated a landscape scene with the goal of creating depth by layering the compositional elements and working light to dark, soft edges to hard details, and then adding the final details.
Coming to us from an old schoolhouse-turned-studio in Stockholm, Sweden, Björn Bernström gave us good reasons to strive for, rather than avoid, creating “cauliflowers” in a watercolor painting.
Harsh Agrawal joined us from his studio in London to give us a demonstration using a photo reference of a California beach. He used distinct elements from the photo to create a unique scene in watercolor.
Tip: Harsh said he begins with thumbnail sketches to create a composition “cheat sheet.”
Remember: The next Live event is coming in March with Acrylic Live, so visit Acrylic.com now to register and be with fellow artists online for days of demonstrations, Q&A with your favorite artists, and mingling during the breakout rooms and cocktail hours, and more!
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