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• Watercolor Basics 5-week class (For Beginners): Joan Croce

  • Start
    26 Sep 2025
  •  
    10:00 AM
  • End
    24 Oct 2025
  •  
    12:30 PM
  • Location
    Rhode Island Watercolor Society Classroom
  • Spaces left
    0

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  WATERCOLOR BASICS (For Beginners) 5-Week Class

  Instructor: Joan Croce
  Date/Time: September 26th - October 24th 10am-12:30pm every Friday
  Location: RIWS classroom

  Description:

  Love the look of watercolor but you don’t know where to begin? Or have you tried watercolor but feel you need more instruction? Then this class is for you!

  You will be learning basic watercolor techniques through a series of paintings and exercises, with one-on-one instruction. This class will help you begin your journey by advising your selection of paint and materials, and setting up your palette. In class, you will learn the basics of color mixing, using a variety of watercolor techniques, and how to design a painting for the best impact. Step by step instructions, photo references, and art vocabulary notes will be provided in an encouraging and low pressure setting.

  Joan has taught both youngsters and adults for over 30 years and is a Signature Member of the RI Watercolor society. Joan believes that with a good attitude, practice and the proper instruction, you can learn to paint in watercolor!

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• Painting the Colors of Fall in Watercolor with Susan Stranz: 6-WEEK CLASS

  • Start
    27 Sep 2025
  •  
    9:30 AM
  • End
    08 Nov 2025
  •  
    12:00 PM
  • Location
    Rhode Island Watercolor Society Classroom
  • Spaces left
    0

  Registration is closed

  
  

  Painting the Colors of Fall in Watercolor with Susan Stranz
  6-Week Class

  Advanced beginner and beyond
  Instructor: Susan Stranz BIO
  Date/Time: Saturdays, September 27th - November 8th (no class October 11th) 9:30am-12pm
  Location: RIWS Classroom (Lower Level Gallery)

  DESCRIPTION: 

  Celebrate the beautiful jewel tones of our New England Fall season...Paint a variety of local landscapes and seasonal botanical subjects. Instruction will include a preliminary sketch to plan composition and values, color theory and color mixing. A wide variety of watercolor techniques will be demonstrated in addition to class exercises. Learn how to create luminous and cohesive paintings using a limited palette.

  *INSTRUCTOR IS VERY ALLERGIC TO FRAGRANCE. PLEASE REFRAIN FROM WEARING SCENTED PRODUCTS.

  This class is suitable for advanced beginner and beyond.

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• Betsey MacDonald: The Value of Color - 4 Week Drawing & Painting class (All Levels Welcome!)

  • Start
    23 Oct 2025
  •  
    10:00 AM
  • End
    13 Nov 2025
  •  
    1:00 PM
  • Location
    Rhode Island Watercolor Society Classroom
  • Spaces left
    5
  • Registered
    9 registrants

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  The Value of Color: A 4-Week Drawing & Painting Class
  All Levels Welcome! (Some art experience recommended)

  Instructor: Betsey MacDonald
  Date and Time: Thursdays, October 23rd - November 13th, 10am-1pm

  Location: RIWS Classroom

  Description:

  “Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own”, Charles Dickens. October brings us so many things to observe and draw! We’ll study natural objects such as fall foliage, vegetables and seed pods. From acorns and apples to pumpkins and pine cones, we’ll marvel at nature’s designs and study the complexity of the life around us as we create art inspired by these objects. Our observation skills will improve as we carefully study value as it relates to form and record what we observe using first graphite then colored pencils and finally watercolor. We’ll work on transitioning from value studies to color and learn how understanding values can improve our color drawings and paintings This class is designed for anyone who wants to better see the beauty of nature and use their creativity to study it both in black and white and color.

  Objectives:

  • Improve observational skills through drawing and painting
  • Use value and color to render objects
  • Acquire skills for drawing with graphite and colored pencils
  • Acquire skills in the use of watercolor
  • Creatively render natural objects by in a variety of media
  • Learn techniques in pencil, colored pencil and watercolor
  • Learn about color and mixing colors in both watercolor and pencil
  • Gain a greater appreciation of the wonder all around us
  • Observe, critique and discuss student work and master drawings

  
  Materials student will need to provide: Only pencils, erasers, stumps, heavy paper ( I love hot press watercolor paper 140lb but Bristol board is great too) are needed for the first class as we’ll discuss other materials as needed also please bring a magnifying glass if you have one. Materials that you may choose to use: pencils,HB, 2B, 4B and 6B, erasers, stumps, permanent fine point felt pen, watercolor (an inexpensive tray is fine) and brushes, colored pencils. Heavy drawing paper, or mixed media paper and watercolor paper. Instructor will bring lots of materials as well.

  Betsey MacDonald Bio

  

  

  
  

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• Watercolor for Beginners - Susan Stranz: 5-WEEK CLASS

  • Start
    29 Oct 2025
  •  
    9:30 AM
  • End
    03 Dec 2025
  •  
    12:30 PM
  • Location
    Rhode Island Watercolor Society Classroom
  • Spaces left
    0

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  Watercolor for Beginners - Susan Stranz
  5-Week Class

  Instructor: Susan Stranz BIO
  Date/Time: Wednesdays, October 29- December 3 (no class Nov.26) 9:30am - 12:30pm
  Location: RIWS Classroom (Lower Level Gallery)

  DESCRIPTION: 

  Join Susan as she teaches you all about the process of creating a watercolor painting. With over 20 years of painting and teaching experience, Susan will guide you through the complete process at a pace comfortable for beginning watercolor painters. You will learn about the materials, the basic fundamental techniques, and how to develop a good composition. Instruction will also include basic color theory and color mixing to create beautiful and cohesive paintings. A variety of subjects will be painted. Small class size will ensure individual attention for all.

  *INSTRUCTOR IS VERY ALLERGIC TO FRAGRANCE. PLEASE REFRAIN FROM WEARING SCENTED PRODUCTS.

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• Skies, Glorious Skies! Watercolor Workshop with Susan Klas Wright: 2-DAY WORKSHOP

  • Start
    31 Oct 2025
  •  
    10:00 AM
  • End
    01 Nov 2025
  •  
    3:00 PM
  • Location
    Rhode Island Watercolor Society Classroom
  • Spaces left
    10

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  Skies, Glorious Skies! Watercolor Workshop with Susan Klas Wright

  Instructor: Susan Klas Wright
  Date/Time: Friday & Saturday October 31st, 10am-3pm & November 1st, 12:15pm-5:15pm
  Location: RIWS Classroom (Lower Level Gallery)

  Capture the glorious moods of our skies! We’ll explore the colors of the sunlit air that surrounds us, the azure blue of a summer sky, deep cobalt of autumn skies, the blaze of sunset, a starry night sky, the subdued view through fog, and the green tint of a threatening storm. We’ll also use some unusual colors that play well with the colors of your landscape or seascape.

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• Painting Impressions with Watercolor with Keiko Tanabe, NWS, AWS - 3-Day Workshop

  • Start
    14 Nov 2025
  •  
    9:30 AM
  • End
    16 Nov 2025
  •  
    4:00 PM
  • Location
    Rhode Island Watercolor Society Classroom
  • Spaces left
    0

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  Painting Impressions with Watercolor with Keiko Tanabe, NWS, AWS
  3-Day Workshop
  Advanced Beginner/Intermediate

  Instructor: Keiko Tanabe, NWS, AWS www.ktanabefineart.com
  Date and Time: Friday - Sunday, November 14th - 16th, 9:30am to 4pm each day, 30-min to 1 hour lunchbreak.
  Location: RIWS Classroom

  Workshop Description: 

  Do you paint everything that your eyes see? In this class, you will start seeing things differently and learn how to turn reality into a captivating, impressionistic image. The goal is to capture the essence of the subject that conveys a certain mood and atmosphere. Keiko will show you how to take the initial inspiration, through the simplification process, to an expressive painting that is strong in composition and content.

  The introduction focuses on the fundamentals including getting to know our materials and seeing things with an artist’s eye. The areas of topic covered in this workshop include: a preliminary drawing and composition, a variety of watercolor techniques in paint application and brush handling, what makes a good design, understanding of relationship of dark and light values, planning & intuition, and how to edit complex visual information.

  Keiko does a daily demonstration with helpful tips and insights. Reference photos will be provided. There will be plenty of one-on-one guidance/critique and a question-and-answer session on a daily basis.

  Recommended Experience: All levels (basic knowledge & some previous experiences strongly recommended to benefit from this workshop)

  Keiko will be creating a unique composition just for this workshop and we will provide registrants with photo reference ahead of time via email.

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  About Keiko Tanabe: Keiko Tanabe, AWS, NWS, AIS, LPAPA. Often working en plein air, her atmospheric watercolors perfectly capture a sense of time and place. Through her use of color, textures, and signature brushwork, Keiko’s landscapes and cityscapes, beautifully convey both the exotic and the simple scenes of the many places she travels. Never attending art school, Keiko took only one drawing class to learn basic technical skills before she started painting in 2005. One year later, after learning basic drawing and watercolor painting skills at a local community school in San Diego, Keiko decided to paint full-time. From then on, she intensely taught herself to be fluent in watercolor painting, just as one would do to master a foreign language. Her subjects include landscape, cityscape, waterscape and interior scenes, which will be demonstrated in the workshop, using representational and impressionistic compositions. Since 2011, Keiko has completed successfully numerous workshops and live demonstrations around the world. She has 4 DVDs and several books of her art and has been featured in many art magazines.

  

   

   

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• Capturing the Beauty of the New England Coast with Joel Popadics, AWS, ASMA - 3-Day Workshop

  • Start
    29 May 2026
  •  
    9:00 AM
  • End
    31 May 2026
  •  
    4:00 PM
  • Location
    Rhode Island Watercolor Society Classroom
  • Spaces left
    17

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  Capturing the Beauty of the New England Coast with Joel Popadics, AWS, ASMA
  3-Day Workshop
  Advanced Beginner/Intermediate

  Instructor: Joel Popadics www.watercolorpop.com
  Date and Time: Friday, Saturday, & Sunday, May 29th - 31st, 2026 9am-4pm each day, with time for a lunch break
  Location: RIWS Classroom

  Workshop Description: 

  Join acclaimed watercolorist and marine painting master Joel Popadics for an immersive three-day workshop dedicated to capturing the timeless beauty of the New England coastline. Designed for advanced beginners to intermediate-level painters, this workshop will focus on developing techniques to express the drama, light, and atmosphere of coastal scenes.

  A signature member of the prestigious American Society of Marine Artists, Joel brings decades of experience painting the Northeast’s iconic shoreline — from the soft dunes of New Jersey to the rugged, windswept rocks of coastal Maine. His deep knowledge of maritime subjects and masterful control of watercolor make him an inspiring and insightful instructor.

  Through live demonstrations, personalized guidance, and plein air studies, you’ll learn how to confidently paint a variety of boats — from weathered working vessels to elegant schooners — with accuracy and expression. In addition, Joel will guide you through the techniques for rendering crashing waves, foamy surf, dramatic skies, and the rich textures of a rocky shore.

  Whether you're looking to refine your marine painting skills or gain a deeper understanding of capturing water, light, and movement, this workshop promises to elevate your work and deepen your appreciation for coastal watercolor painting.

  Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn from one of today’s leading marine watercolorists and be inspired by the ever-changing beauty of the New England coast. Spaces are limited — reserve your spot today!

  

  
  

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