WATERCOLOR WORKSHOP
with Geoff Allen
WHEN:
October 30, 31 November 1, 2026 - 9am to 4pm
Three Full Days
HOSTED BY:
New England Watercolor Society Gallery
at the Plymouth Center for the Arts
11 North Street Plymouth, MA 02360 (gallery location)
Workshop Description:
"Capturing the Moment in Plein Air"
Learn the joys of capturing the moment, color and impressionistic mood in watercolor from a photo or en plein air. This workshop will cover the basic watercolor handling techniques that can speed up your process, loosen you up, and increase your success in capturing outdoor scenes. Beginning and intermediate topics will be covered in the studio and in plein air.
There will be daily skill building exercises focusing on controlling paper moisture, mixtures, edge control and timing. Geoff’s demonstrations will review materials and illustrate how all these techniques flow together and show students how to “keep it fresh” with focused brush handling. Each demo strives to highlight one aspect of landscape painting; organic forms (trees, rocks), skies, water, simple architecture, and figures in the landscape.
Geoff’s daily demos will cover how to take your inspiration through a process of simplification while enhancing design dynamics, expression, and creating atmosphere. It all starts with practicing watercolor’s quartet of skills; values, shapes, color, and mark making. Geoff will be following up individually with students to reinforce concepts and skills at their easel.
Day One: In the classroom, beginning with the basics of watercolor handling with learning how to read moisture in the paper, in order to respond with a brush mixture. The class will focus on understanding a three-value approach to applying watercolor layers. This will be the busiest day with a total of three demonstrations.
Day Two: Geoff will demonstrate one exercise and one complete beginning to end painting in the morning followed by a student paint session. There will be an afternoon demonstration with another student session.
Day Three: The class will meet on location (TBA) for a morning demo by Geoff that will focus on plein air basics, anticipating light, setting up, and interpreting a scene as it unfolds. This demo will be followed by a student painting session. There will be an additional demo if time allows. The class will end the day with a “share time” to review artwork.
About Geoff Allen:
Multi-award winning artist Geoff Allen brings to his work his passion for the outdoors and his enthusiasm for the beauty of watercolor. His plein air painting allows him to focus intensely on his work while promoting a sense of mystery and spontaneity. In watercolor he can echo the idea of immediacy and nature that abounds in his plein air experience. To this San Diego resident, the tradition of plein air painting feels to him about an appreciation of life, nature and transforming that excitement onto paper. In this workshop, learn the joys of capturing the moment, color, and impressionistic mood in watercolor from a photo or en plein air. It will cover the basic watercolor handling techniques that can speed up your process, loosen you up, and increase your success in capturing outdoor scenes. Beginning and intermediate topics will be covered in the studio and as if in plein air. To learn more about Geoff’s work, go to www.geoffallenart.com.
This workshop is limited to TWENTY participants.
TUITION FOR THIS 3-DAY WORKSHOP IS:
$450 for NEWS members
$525 for non-members
DEPOSIT of $225 required at sign-up
FULL PAYMENT is due by October 8, 2026
This Workshop is SOLDOUT
CLICK HERE to Add your name to our WAITLIST
