Taking Mixing Watercolours on Paper ONE STEP Further - Painting & Drawing Tips

Mixing Watercolours on Paper is a GAME CHANGER!!

I know, mixing all those puddles of colour can be a very meditative practice.  One that helps to set up the process and nourishes inspiration.  I love to do it too.  

But . . . mixing puddles is not the only way to find that special colour.  

Scarlett Macaw: A Play of Colour -  Matted 14 x 18, $340

In my last blog, May 4, 2025, "6 Steps to Mixing Watercolour on Paper"  I discussed how I used this technique to paint my Macaw.  When I finished, I was asked how would paint the background.  

I realized this too was a very useful place to use this technique, BUT with one very important difference.  

Things are much WETTER.  

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There is further discussion on this topic on my YouTube post: The Magic of Mixing Watercolour on Paper Part 2 
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Mixing Colour on the Paper  Part 2: 

I love using this method as it gives me a background that moves from loose to tight and gives great depth to my work.  It also helps to bring cohesion to my piece.  

Wet the area in the background

1.  Wet down the area to be covered: At this point you can also mix some of those paint puddles.  It is good to have a puddle of each of the major colours used in your subject area.  (You will notice I am not finished in the mid and foreground but I wanted a better idea of what my background values were before I finished off the front.)

Drop in colours

2.  Drop in Colour: I use all the colours that are found in my mid and foreground when I drop in my colours.  It is important to drop colours beside other colours so they only mix at the edges.  This is not a time to fiddle, just drop and move on.  

Begin to suggest shapes

3.  Begin to create shapes: Yes, the paper is still wet, not soaked, but damp.  I start to add some shapes.  At first, the colour I was adding on top was running which told me I was too soon.  I want to start adding shapes but I don't want their edges to be too fuzzy.  This is a test-as-you-go situation.  

Create more shapes

4. Create more shapes: Referring to my reference I add shapes that would be in the background.  Notice how my paint on top of the underpainting gives me lots of variety in the background colours but still stay true to my mid & foreground.  

Adding Bolder Shapes

5. Add Bolder Shapes: The final shapes are getting bolder and their edges are getting sharper.  I am still working on damp paper but as you can see shapes are keeping their form.  You may have to spritz your paper a bit to keep it damp.  

This whole process goes quite quickly.  There is no time for mixing extra paint or wondering off.  As I worked through the background I did paint the rock in the front.  This was because things were too wet and I needed to patiently monitor how wet/damp things were.

  

It is very important that your brush strokes are smooth and confident.  This is not a place to rework an area or fiddle around.  If you do that you will loosen the pigment underneath and things will lose their fresh clean look.  

Special Note: This is no place for a blow dryer.  Work while things are damp and then leave it to dry naturally.  This will help to give you some interesting mixes on your paper.   

You may want to practice this a few times before hitting your main piece.  Once you have mastered this technique, you will find this method is very helpful no matter what part of your painting you are working on.  

Have fun with your painting.

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There is further discussion on this topic on my YouTube post: The Magic of Mixing Watercolour on Paper Part 2  
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Taking Registrations for my Spring/Summer Events: 

•  4 Day Outdoor Sketching Art Retreat hosted by Joanne Denis, June 20-23, 2025.  I will be the instructor.  This is an all inclusive: food, instruction, accommodations and drive from Lower Mainland.  $350-$600 depending on the room choices.  www.aventurasbc.ca
  
  
• Create Your Own Adventure - Let's go Outdoor Sketching  2.5 hr $85.  Sm Group Rates $65ea  Contact me to set up a date. Location: Lower Mainland
  
  
• Save the Date:  next set of 3 Zoom classes Thursdays, October 9, 16 & 23.   Enhancing Your Drawing & Painting Skills.  New focus for each set of classes

Always  Available at Art by Wendy's Studio

Original work, Commissions, Private Drawing Lessons, Prints and Cards of her Work, 

Be sure to like and share my posts.  You won't miss a single post if you Follow by Email 

Have a great Artful Day,

  

Wendy

6 Steps to Mixing Watercolours on Paper - Painting & Drawing Tips

Are your Paints just not working for you?

You mix away but you can't get the colour you want.  It needs to be a bit blue, but has yellow tones and is light and dark in places.  HOW CAN YOU MIX THAT!!??

Scarlet Macaw - 5 x 8, Watercolour 

I like to paint nature which includes both foliage but also the birds and animals that live there.  My work has a realistic look.  I achieve this by creating subjects that have mass and shape.  They bend and curve like they are 3 dimensional.  To do that I need to mix that "bit of blue, that has yellow tones and is light and dark in places". The colour changes have to be subtle and gradual, to create that realistic look.  

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There is further discussion on this topic on my YouTube post: The Magic of Mixing Watercolour on Paper
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To create these colour changes you will not always be able to find your answer mixing paint in your pallet.  You need to move onto your paper and get help there. 

You will find mixing your Watercolours on paper, opens up a whole new world of colour. Well it did for me and I hope it does for you as well.  

There are many different ways that this 'mixing' can occur but today I am going to focus on a method I use a lot.  

Lets have a look at the process 

1.  Underpainting emphasizing some of the colour changes on the body

Take a look at my Scarlett Macaw.  (Just got back from Mexico 😉and loved getting shots of this guy)

I have first of all painted an underpainting on him to set up the colours I want to emphasis in each area.  Once they are totally dry I can proceed. For purposes of my discussion I will focus on his chest.  

But first a word about Watercolours.  They have tons of secrets.  One secrete is about transparent colours.  This means when you paint over something with a transparent colour you can see the colour underneath. 

2. A Second Layer of red is painted over the chest - Note underpainting still showing

This is often referred to glazing with watercolours.  For a true glazing technique, the colour painted on top is a very thin (weak) layer and makes only a slight colour change.  The colour underneath is still very visible.  This thin layer is added over and over to a dry surface until the effect is achieved.  Depending on what is wanted this can be 5-10 layers.  

I have used this principle for my Macaw's chest.  I am using Permenent Rose, which is a transparent pigment. In my case I only want hints of the underlaying colour so I have used paint with more pigment.  (this becomes a practice thing to determine how much pigment you want to add at a time.  I usually have a practice paper beside me to test my strength of pigment)

3. Adding the shadows to my bird's chest 

The key step in this process is to paint over a DRY surface and with light wet strokes.  To understand the process, visualize the dry paint getting a layer on top of it.  The underlaying paint will become damp as soon as the wet paint touches it.  If you work the surface by pressing too hard with your brush or using too much water, you will activate the underpainting.  This will cause the pigments to mix and you  wont get the effect you are looking for.  

4. Adding another layer of the red - not the smooth edges into the shadow areas

This process has many uses.  In the case of my Macaw, I used it to bring in that yellow/orange glow into my reds but also to build up the shadow areas.  By putting in the shadow colours as one of my glazing layers I can get smooth transitions in my colour changes.  

5. Darkening the shadow areas

By using this process you can control the pigment load on your paper.  With lighter layers of paint you can add subtle colour changes.  This is very important when creating birds and animals. You can also control the edges of your transition colours.  In my case, my style is to have blended edges, so this is a very common technique for me to use.  

6. Last layer of red 

Once I had my shadows in place I put my last layer of red on top.  It gives me a rich red with dark hints of shadows and light tings of yellow and orange on his chest.  When it came to finishing around the his face and left shoulder, I did a light glaze of yellow to bring out the tones even more.  

BTW - Extra Bonus with this process.  You can lift colour and get back to the colour underneath.  I lifted a bit from my bird's left shoulder to get a little flash of yellow there.  

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There is further discussion on this topic on my YouTube post: The Magic of Mixing Watercolour on Paper
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Working with this process gives you lots of ways to alter your pigment colour.  The difference is, the changes all happen on your paper, rather than on your pallet.  Try glazing with thin pigment layers but also with thicker pigment layers.  You will find it amazing the colours you can create.  

Have fun with your painting.

Taking Registrations for my Spring/Summer Events: 

•  4 Day Outdoor Sketching Art Retreat hosted by Joanne Denis, June 20-23, 2025.  I will be the instructor.  This is an all inclusive: food, instruction, accommodations and drive from Lower Mainland.  $350-$600 depending on the room choices.  www.aventurasbc.ca
  
  
• Create Your Own Adventure - Let's go Outdoor Sketching  2.5 hr $85.  Sm Group Rates $65ea  Contact me to set up a date. Location: Lower Mainland
  
  
• Save the Date:  next set of 3 Zoom classes Thursdays, October 9, 16 & 23.   Enhancing Your Drawing & Painting Skills.  New focus for each set of classes

Always  Available at Art by Wendy's Studio

Original work, Commissions, Private Drawing Lessons, Prints and Cards of her Work, 

Be sure to like and share my posts.  You won't miss a single post if you Follow by Email 

Have a great Artful Day,

  

Wendy

A DIY Private Painting Lesson - Painting & Drawing Tips

Do you Golf? Curl? I do. Both.  

In the winter I am busy curling.  But when the sun shines I am ready to head for the greens.  

It's been my life for many years. 

 

Sketchbook Activity: Bennet's Point, Vancouver Island, BC

No, I am not a Scratch Golfer nor a Curler that plays the circuit.  But I love the games and I love the energy.  I am pretty good with both but of course always obsessed with making 'that great shot'!!  So, yes, I am open to new adventures and ideas to up my game. 

A few weeks ago I had attended a 2 day workshop with Swapna Das.  (Instagram:  @kosen_rufu_artist) - Mastering the Art of Charcoal: A Creative Drawing Workshop. She has awesome ideas for drawing and so I knew I would find something there to up my Art Game.  And I did.  

Reference for Bennet's Point Painting

It started with a quick Warm Up.  

I know, you have heard that before, but bare with me.  Swapna had a few different ones, and this particular one really resonated with me.
Look at your reference, whether it is real life or a photo and make a quick sketch of the MASS in black and white.  No detail. Just shapes. Make it big. Close to the size your final picture will be.    If it is Value 5 or more it is black.  If not just leave it white.  Work quickly.  You only get 2-3 minutes.  

A 2 minute study to grab the darks

Now stop!! . . .  Step back. . . . .  Evaluate.  

Are the shapes interesting? Do you need to group some of them? What does the negative space look like? 

I found several things happened at this point.  
1.  I became more familiar with my subject and my plan for my painting

2.  I could see where I needed to make changes to my composition

(Ok, I do admit I snuck a little light smudges in the back for the horizon.  But I really did try and just do the darks) 

Capturing the line and shadows 

Step 2: Capture the line

Now here, you will spend more time.  Using a pencil or pen, capture your plan with a line.  Take 5-8 minutes and set up the shapes. Outline the shapes and their relationship to each other. 

As you can see I didn't stop there with my line drawing.  I went one step further and added detail and shadows.  I wanted a closer look at how to deal with the foreground.  (As adults, we definitely have a hard time faithfully following the rules.  🙄 )

At this point you will notice:

1. If your composition is really working. 

2. You are way more familiar with your subject 

3. The black and white masses help you understand how to deal with the values in those nebulous areas.  In my case, the foreground below the tree. 

4. How to set up the values in the mid and foreground areas.  When I looked at mine I felt I had a great sense of depth in my drawing. 

Bennet's Point, Vancouver Island, BC

Step 3: Get Down to Business 

Time to paint your picture.  You will find as you paint that your process will now be slightly different.  You will be faster, have a clearer plan of how to proceed.  And a place to check that your are on track.   

I found as I worked away, I was flipping back to my studies: checking my values to see if they were right; looking at my colour choices to see if they should be warmer or cooler; making sure I was grouping shapes as they should be.  It was nice to have something to refer too.  

A close up view of the foreground.  

As a follow up, I made a grayscale version of the picture for your to look at.  I found it interesting to compare it with my line drawing and mass sketch.  

Grayscale version of finished Bennet's Point

Take-Aways: 

1.  It definitely helped me keep control of my values in the foreground.  

2.  I found I was able to group my darks more affectively. 

3. I felt I found an interesting pattern for the branches at the bottom of the tree.  That was a very tricky area. 

Would I do all of this for every picture? No.  But I certainly like the idea of creating a 'Black and White sketch of the Mass'.  I usually do some kind of a value study for all my work and this really seems to fit right in with my process.  

 

Take a picture and try it.  It's your own DIY Painting and Drawing Lesson.  

Taking Registrations for my Spring/Summer Events: 

•  Join me in the Shuswap for a 4 Day Outdoor Sketching Art Retreat hosted by Joanne Denis, June 20-23, 2025.  I will be the instructor.  This is an all inclusive: food, instruction, accommodations and drive from Lower Mainland.  $350-$600 depending on the room choices.  www.aventurasbc.ca
  
  
• Create Your Own Adventure - Let's go Outdoor Sketching  Grab a friend or 2 and let's go.   2.5 hr $65ea.  Contact me to set up a date. Location: Lower Mainland
  
  
• Save the Date:  next set of 3 Zoom classes Thursdays, October 9, 16 & 23.   Enhancing Your Drawing & Painting Skills.  New focus for each set of classes

Always  Available at Art by Wendy's Studio

Original work, Commissions, Private Drawing Lessons, Prints and Cards of her Work, 

Be sure to like and share my posts.  You won't miss a single post if you Follow by Email 

Have a great Artful Day,

  

Wendy

How to Become Confident with Your Pen Work - Drawing & Painting Tips

Do you remember when you were learning to Ride a BIKE? 

It was hard.  And the ground was hard. Road Rash was not fun.  

Learning to draw confidently with a permanent ink pen is WAY easier!!

Pink Flower Puff - Sketchbook Activity - Freehand Line Work 

I love drawing with black ink. I love sharp crisp lines.  Although, I often use other colours, black is by far my favourite. Learning to draw with a pen, is all about mark making.  Pen work can be used to add mass, to create shapes, to produce texture and enhance the flow of your work.  

Creating interesting marks with your pen confidently is alot like learning to ride your bike.  Learning a few basics before 'going it alone' really helps.  

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There is further discussion on this topic on my YouTube post: Become Friends with Your Pen - The Line 
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Wendy's Drawing with Pen 101 

Start with Confident Line work that sweeps across the page. 

First your materials: 

- .05 or .08 Pigma Permanent Ink Pens.  
(If your book is smaller than 9 x 12, use the smaller pen.   I like black but they do come in other colours.  Steadler pens are a great brand as well and come in these sizes)

- Multi Media Sketchbook: They have smooth paper for drawing on and will take water if you want to add watercolour (I  use the Canson XL 9 x 12) 

- HB pencil, kneaded eraser and vinyl eraser

- 3 favourite watercolours and a brush

That's it!

Make some interesting shapes with your watercolours 

1.  Put a wash on your page: Paint 3 of your favourite colours on your page, making sure to make interesting shapes, keep the colours light, leave white spaces and take some of the colour out to the edges of the pages.  Let it dry completely.  

It is really hard to draw on plain white paper.  It kills your confidence.  Having colour on the page will really help you relax and just draw.  Try it.  

2.  Loosely Draw a Flower Vase: No perfection here.  Take a pencil and lightly draw a vase that is an interesting random shape. Don't worry about symmetry.  Once you have the shape, draw it in one long continuous line with your pen leaving the top open for the flowers that will cover part of it.  

Outline a design on the vase loosely with a pencil and then use your pen to draw it.  Don't trace over the pencil lines just use them as a guide.  Add the details as well - freehand.  

Flower 1: Draw an elongated shape with a center, echoing the shape

3. Draw your Flowers: For this project I will introduce you to 3 different flowers.  Each is to be done freehand with your pen.  The first one will be an odd loose shape and the other two will be circles.  Not perfect circles.  Just loose circles.  

Flower 2: small .5 inch circle with a small circle in the center.

Use a pencil to draw the flower's shape and centers.  For the little flowers (Flower 2)  use your pen to fill in all the details: 3 petals, darken the center and a few directional lines in each petal. For Flower 3 - The Carnation type flower, draw circles of wiggly lines.  The first circle is small, the center and then do several rows around it, to get the size you want.  

Flower 3: Circles of Wiggly Lines 

Draw loose flower circles behind and above your basic 3 flower shapes to fill your vase.  Be sure and have some peeking out from behind, some hanging over the edges and others reaching for the top.  

4.  Take a flower break: Draw lines from the top of your vase to the bottom leaving your design shape in the middle untouched.  Draw the lines freehand, sweeping down the page in a continuous manner.  They do not have to be an exact distance apart.  Let them follow the flow of the vase.  

Add a few embellishments as you fill up your Vase - WIP. 

5.  Add Embellishments: Add some darks using leafy branches, sweeping little lines with little black circles and longer droopy leaves.  I also grounded my vase by putting a lined mat under it.  

6.  Lightly paint your vase and mat: I painted my vase with a light wash of the pink, to make my flowers pop.  I also added a light shadow under the flowers that spilled over the edge of the vase.  I then painted the mat a slightly darker pink.  

Pink Flower Fluff - Sketchbook Activity - Freehand Line Work

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There is further discussion on this topic on my YouTube post: Become Friends with Your Pen - The Line 

Taking Registrations for my Spring/Summer Events: 

•  Join me in the Shuswap for a 4 Day Outdoor Sketching Art Retreat hosted by Joanne Denis, June 20-23, 2025.  I will be the instructor.  This is an all inclusive: food, instruction, accommodations and drive from Lower Mainland.  $350-$600 depending on the room choices.  www.aventurasbc.ca
  
  
• Come join me for An Adventure - Let's go Outdoor Sketching   2.5 hr $65.  This is small group instruction.  Contact me to set up a date. Location: Lower Mainland
  
  
• Save the Date:  next set of 3 Zoom classes Thursdays, October 9, 16 & 23.   Enhancing Your Drawing & Painting Skills.  New focus for each set of classes

Always  Available at Art by Wendy's Studio

Original work, Commissions, Private Drawing Lessons, Prints and Cards of her Work, 

Be sure to like and share my posts.  You won't miss a single post if you Follow by Email 

Have a great Artful Day,

  

Wendy

Painting Green Bushy Trees and Shrubs - Painting & Drawing Tips

Here on the West Coast, ‘green’ is a year round colour in Nature. 

But painting ‘green’ things is a challenge that can bring any artist to their kneels.

View Off Bold Point Trail, Quadra Island - Matted 14 x 18 $340 

I love the colour green.  But I also, have been humbled when trying to paint my dream. 

I have discovered a few things that really help.  I would love to share them with you.  Maybe you could share a few of your secrets too. 

Wendy’s Secrets to Green Trees & Bushes

(I decided to demo with the shrub as it was smaller and easier to see the steps I follow.  This is an ink and watercolour painting.  You can omit the pen work if you wish. )

 

Note the pattern of the shrubs running along the rocks

1.     Try a find a pattern in the shape - When it came time to painting this shrub that trailed along the rock, I first captured the movement with loose pen strokes.  Notice there are two rows.  The second row of line work was to capture the change in value.

I first painted the water behind the shrub - note the looseness around the pen work.  

2.    Focus on the Colour temperature - As I blocked in the colour of the shrub, I was mindful that the colour green in the sun was more a bright cool yellow, top right side.  So I blocked it in with a cool yellow.  For the remainder of the shrub I painted a more neutral midtone green.  This of course blended at the edges with the yellow.

Blocking in the colour for the shrub

      I danced my brush strokes across the area to get the feel of the bouncy foliage in my strokes. 

3.    Add a darker layer - Looking at the foliage I noted the colour and value changes as it moved right to left - Olive green to blue green.  And also in waves of light green backed with a darker value green for the upright branches and darker closer to the rock.   Again the brush strokes danced like leaves rather that just one big stroke.  Some of the ‘dabs’ of green were on the yellow. 

4.    Dropped in the Very DARK - Using my darkest green, almost dry brushing, I added the greens where they fitted in.  This was really the same areas and in step 3 but not covering as much.  Thus creating another value layer of green.    At the same time I also added a bit of warm yellow under the upright branches and to the patch behind the trees to indicate some branches were slightly shaded. 

   Throughout the process I was working wet on dry with each layer and using short brush strokes to mimic the pattern and movement within the shrub itself.    I have found that creating full bushy trees and shrubs is very much like painting fur.  There is a need for different values, attention to the pattern of the values and attention to the colour temperature.  

Close up of the trees from the painting 

When you look at the trees and other shrubs in the whole painting you can see I followed the same process.  

I know there are other ways to paint trees and get that fullness but I prefer to glaze with my colours and so this is my favourite way to proceed.  I would love to know some of your secrets.  

Taking Registrations for my Spring/Summer Events: 

•  Join me in the Shuswap for a 4 Day Outdoor Sketching Art Retreat hosted by Joanne Denis, June 20-23, 2025.  I will be the instructor.  This is an all inclusive: food, instruction, accommodations and drive from Lower Mainland.  $350-$600 depending on the room choices.  www.aventurasbc.ca
  
  
• Come Outdoor Sketching with me in local parks.  2.5 hr $65.  This is small group instruction, max 3.  Dates to be determined as weather warms up, contact me to get onto my call list.
  
  
• Save the Date:  next set of 3 Zoom classes Thursdays, October 9, 16 & 23.   Enhancing Your Drawing & Painting Skills.  New focus for each set of classes

Always  Available at Art by Wendy's Studio

Original work, Commissions, Private Drawing Lessons, Prints and Cards of her Work, 

Be sure to like and share my posts.  You won't miss a single post if you Follow by Email 

Have a great Artful Day,

  

Wendy

Making Reflective Light Your Friend - Wendy's Painting & Drawing Tips

LIGHT and SHADOWS. 
They have been my constant friends this last few weeks.  I have just finished 2 sets of Online classes focusing on these two friends.  

Seagull on the Post - 5 x 7 - $75 (no mat) 

I know, we all understand light and shadows.  We see them everywhere.  However, the more I studied and talked about them, I realized the less I knew. 

How can that be, you ask.  I have been painting and drawing for over 25 years now, surely I would know all about them.  

Well, if you follow my blog, you will seen my blog on Make Magic with Ambient Light.  As I worked with students digging deeper into this type of lighting, I realized it had much greater implications.  

In order to move forward, you needed to really understand the function of Reflective Light.  

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There is further discussion on this topic on my YouTube post: Make Reflective Light Work for You.  
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Seagull on the Post

This resulted in an paint exercise with this little Seagull. He is a happy little guy perched on some pylons at a dock.  He was most obliging to hold still while I got some clear shots of him basking in the sun.  My exercise for the class was to change the background colour around him.  

No more BLUE.  

This proved to be a big change.  In order to change the 'blue' to another colour each part of the painting had to then reflect the new colour.  I choose pink/yellow for my background.  

Suddenly everything I knew about Reflective Light went out the window!

As I painted each area I needed to evaluate what light was hitting it and what colour that light was.  No more blindly following along where my photo took me.  This by the way is where you find out how little your photographs really tells you.  

Can I really put PINK on a WHITE seagull??

What colour is that shadow if it no longer reflects the blue from the sky?
What colours are the really dark spots?  A cool black just doesn't cut it.   

What colour should the metal caps be?  Should they really be pink? 

Does this mean my seagull is no longer gray and white??  

Reflective Light bounces everywhere!!

Suddenly the colour of everything was in question.  That simple little picture became very hard.  In the end I was really pleased with this exercise.  My students really felt challenged, they were excited with their results, and inspired to do more.  As their teacher I was thrilled. 
Take the Challenge, change up your "sky colour" and see where it takes you.  

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There is further discussion on this topic on my YouTube post: Make Reflective Light Work for You.

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Taking Registrations for my Spring/Summer Events: 

• ·         Join me in the Shuswap for a 4 Day Art Retreat hosted by Joanne Denis, June 20-23, 2025.  I will be the instructor for Outdoor Sketching.  This is an all inclusive: food, instruction, accommodations and drive from Lower Mainland.  $350-$600 depending on the room choices.  www.aventurasbc.ca
  
  
• ·         Come Outdoor Sketching with me in local parks.  2.5 hr $65.  This is small group instruction, max 3.  Dates to be determined as weather warms up, contact me to get onto my call list. 
  
  
• ·         Save the Date:  next set of 3 Zoom classes Thursdays, October 9, 16 & 23.   Enhancing Your Drawing & Painting Skills.  

Always  Available at Art by Wendy's Studio

Original work, Commissions, Private Drawing Lessons, Prints and Cards of her Work, 

Be sure to like and share my posts.  You won't miss a single post if you Follow by Email 

Have a great Artful Day,

  

Wendy