Toscana Americana

Let’s go paint under the Tuscan sun in beautiful Cortona, Italy. We will  work to capture not only the beauty and color of the ancient hills, but also bring out the emotion and flavour of the place in our paintings. We will work daily on different scenes and manage to build a substantial portfolio of paintings by the end of the week. This will be a trip of a life-time. Something you will never forget and cherish all the time.

Meet Zan Barrage...

A plein-air watercolor workshop for skilled watercolor artists, beginners welcome
(everyone will be given individual attention).

This watercolor workshop will cover everything needed to help you create memorable artwork full of the Tuscan sun and the flavor of early Mediterranean summer.

Some of the things we’ll focus on:

-           Design and composition

-           Simplifying the scene

-           Expressive and confident brush work

-           Color theory and mood

Mornings:

-           Begin with exercises to develop specific techniques and skills.

-           Brief demo to incorporate these skills and techniques into your paintings.

-           One-on-one attention and coaching with each participant while you paint

Break for lunch

Afternoon:

-           Focus on more Tools/Techniques/Skills

-           2^nd brief demo

-           One-on-one attention and coaching with each participant while you paint

-           Positive critique session

My goal is not to make you paint like me, but to give you the tools and skills you need to express yourself and develop inspired paintings of the spectacular landscapes in front of us.

Villa Santa Margherita

What to bring along for painting:

If you have your watercolor tools already, that is great. Please read on and see if you are missing anything below. If you are building your set, please see what you will need to bring below. I encourage you to email me if you have any questions so that we can all be ready and have fun on our trip.

1-     Paints:

The only thing I insist on is Artist Quality paints. Better brushes and paper will make the work easier and more enjoyable. I understand that better tools are not cheap, but they last a long time and you will have better results and have more fun with them.

Basic palette of Artist quality watercolors (Winsor & Newton Artist colours, Daniel Smith Artist Colours, DaVinci Artist Colours or H. Graham Artist Watercolors):

-        Lemon Yellow

-        Indian Yellow

-        Carmine or Per. Alizarin Crimson

-        Cadmium Red Medium

-        Ultramarine Blue

-        Thalo Blue – green shade (also known as Winsor Blue or Phthalocyanine Blue)

Expanded palette of Artist quality watercolors:

-        Yellow Ochre or Raw Sienna

-        Burnt Sienna

-        Cadmium Orange or other yellow orange

-        Quinacridone Magenta

-        Sap Green

-        Cobalt Turquoise

2- Brushes (Synthetic or natural hair brushes):

-        Round #8, # 10 or #12 (Synthetic, red sable or Kolinsky sable )

-        Dagger Brush ¼” (Synthetic or mixed hair)

-        Round wash brush (quill) – Small, medium and Large size (Soft synthetic, mixed hair or squirrel hair) Alternatively, you can also get goat hair hack brushes.

-        Any other brushes you like. Just make sure they are good quality and come to a sharp point or edge.

3- Paper:

-        1 x Arches Cold Pressed (or Rough) 140Lb block 7”x10”

-        1 x Arches Cold Pressed (or Rough) 140Lb block 9”x12”

-        1 x Arches Cold Pressed (or Rough) 140Lb block 10”x14”

4- Palette:

A folding palette with deep wells and plenty of mixing area is ideal. I prefer metal palettes that hold full pans of colour. You will need to fill the pans beforehand and let them dry in place. Please bring your tube colours as well to replenish.

5- Portable easel or pochade and potable water can

6- Green painters tape

7- Towel, Rags, Paper towels

8- Pencil (2b)

9- Small sketch book

10- Hat, sun screen, glasses, smile

What to leave behind:

-        Trouble

-        Work

-        Tension

-        Pain