Learn to paint beautiful flowers on expressive mixed media backgrounds. This course is a full introduction to botanical painting, color harmony and mixed media with artist, Cathy Nichols.
Painting Vibrant Flowers with Fun and Ease in Oils with Pat Fiorello
In this 3-day workshop, you will learn how to paint vibrant flowers while simplifying complex floral shapes, so you “suggest” rather than render every last petal.
We’ll cover how to depict form thru observation of light and shadow patterns, mix clean color (and avoid mud) using a transparent underpainting approach and add expressive brushwork to your paintings.
On Day 1, we’ll paint together with photo supplied by the instructor to learn the technique. On Days 2 and 3 you will bring in simple flowers to practice the technique and paint from life. (Instructions for that will be given on Day 1).
Event Information
| Event Date | August 16, 2023 10:00 am |
| Event End Date | August 18, 2023 4:00 pm |
| Cut off date | August 15, 2023 |
| Capacity | 12 |
| Available place | 1 |
| Individual Price | $450 (Members); $525 (Non-Members) |
| Instructor | Pat Fiorello |
| Location | The Bascom: Adult Studio B (Trail Level) |
| Categories | Classes & Workshops, Adult, Painting, Skill Level I: 1-2 years’ experience and above, Skill Level II: 2-5 years’ experience and above, Skill Level III: 5+ years’ experience/professional, Member Benefit |
Located on the Trail Level (lower level) of The Bascom’s main building, Adult Studio B hosts a variety of classes, workshops, and more. Entrance is either through the front door of the main level of the building and down the stairs or from the trail entrance on the lower level of the backside of the main building.
We are no longer accepting registration for this event
Watercolor & Pen Flowers | Easy First Day of School Art Project
Looking for an easy first day art project that you can do on the first day of school? This simple line drawing teaches radial drawing, shape, line and watercolor techniques. Not bad for the first day, right?
I’ve done this lesson with my third grade students but fourth, fifth and even sixth grade students would do very well with it. Younger kids may struggle with keeping the flowers big enough to paint. If you want to do a similar lesson with the younger set, pick one or two flower shapes, show a guided drawing and then paint away.
Heading back to school?
Download our back to School Guide | Resources to help kickstart your art program
Here’s what you’ll need:
– 12″ x 9″ 90 lb watercolor apper
– Pan watercolors (use liquid for the younger group)
– Sharpie brand black marker or any other waterproof marker
– Newspapers for table protection
Drawing the Flowers
I showed the kids how to start with a dot or small circle somewhere on the paper. Then, using the dot as a starting and stopping point, create a shape and repeat that shape all the way around the dot. The bigger the shape, the less petals you will make.
If you see some kids making some small petals, don’t worry. For this type of painting lesson, it’s okay to have small shapes.
Painting the Flowers
Using watercolor trays, instruct the kids to start with one color and paint a few petals. In the photo above, the artist chose red.
Using the colors on both sides of the chosen color, students can paint analogous or friendly colors. This is not the time to paint the petals in a rainbow of colors. It would take much too long. It’s also super helpful to show the kids how you can paint the entire flower with one color. No need to paint each individual petal; just paint the outline, then fill in the middle.
This technique is also perfect for the kids who drew a thousand petals on one flower.
Painting the Background
Once all the flowers are painted, use ONE color to paint the background. It helps if the flowers are dry so wait a few moments.
Some kids will want to use more than one color. But you knew that, right. For these kids, challenge them by having them select analogous colors from the color wheel. Pretty, huh?
What You’ll Learn
- Draw Flowers with Ease (and without overwhelm)
- Paint Flowers and give them Dimension with COLOR and LINE
- Create layered, expressive backgrounds
- How to put all of these skills together – Drawing, Painting and Collage to create your own modern expressive flower paintings.
- Throughout the class, I’ll emphasize how to achieve color harmony and pleasing compositions in your flower paintings and beyond.
What Else is Included
17 Pre-Recorded Video Tutorials
7 Core Colors
Gorgeous Reference Photos
Your Teacher & Guide Cathy Nichols
About Cathy Nichols Cathy Nichols is a full-time artist, oracle card designer, and online teacher. She specializes in vibrant mixed media paintings with layered handmade papers, sheet music, flowers and all things joyful. Her popular online courses include “Mixed Media – Painting Modern Expressive Flowers,” and “Create Your Own Oracle Deck. You can find Cathy’s studio in the River Arts District of Asheville, NC, where she lives with her family and paints her colorful, layered stories.
Reviews from Students
Cathy is a Great Teacher
Cora Glass – October 25, 2020
I was so glad to take this class in the midst of this crazy pandemic! Painting these bright flowers on creative collage backgrounds brought my heart joy. I learned about color theory, composition, techniques to draw and paint flowers, and color mixing. All these will be valuable painting skills that I’ll use long past the end of this class. Thanks for the great class, Cathy!
Next Level Flowers
by China – October 20, 2020
If you want to take your flower painting to the next level, this is the course for you. Cathy is an inspiring teacher, and her art, which is so beautiful, is also inspiring. She teaches you several ways to draw and paint flowers, as well as how to create engaging backgrounds on which to place them. I think we were all a little bit shocked that we were able to paint such gorgeous flowers; I know I was! I was also impressed with the amount of cameraderie in the class, as well as the beautiful paintings created by my classmates. This was a fun class, I am so glad I took it!
It was such a treat!
It was such a treat to take Cathy’s class this fall! The lessons were broken down into manageable steps with clear instructions. Projects had structure to give us a goal and plenty of flexibility for each student artist to create very unique, beautiful pieces of art. Working with collage, paint and new drawing skills was fun and rewarding in this very supportive environment. I can easily envision using the skills we learned in projects beyond what we completed in class. And Cathy’s warmth, joy and artistry were icing on the cake. Thank you, Cathy! I look forward to taking more classes with you!
I’m so glad I joined the course!
Cathy has done a wonderful job at breaking down her playful painting technique into simple, easy to follow instructions. I have learned so much. It is a great foundation. I am new to painting with acrylics so using Cathy’s recommended colours really helped me with colour mixing and recreating Cathy’s vibrant colour palette, which I just love about her work. A fantastic creative journey with plenty of practical advice to keep.
I CAN draw flowers.
This class was so much fun and Cathy did a great job of breaking down the steps to drawing and painting flowers. For someone who lacks confidence in my drawing skills, Cathy’s method really does help produce a wonderful end result. In addition to learning to paint flowers, we also received instruction on collage and background techniques, color mixing, color theory and compostiton that propelled the painting to a fun and colorful piece.
NURTURING, GENTLE & INSPIRATIONAL!
Cathy is not only a talented artist and teacher, but she is genuinely interested in her students. She will provide you with the encouragement, support and tips & tricks to get your through each lesson successfully. You will learn the basics of flowers and move your way up to a gorgeous composition of your own interpretation. The class is will give you the confidence you need to draw and paint flowers using Cathy’s colour mixing and colour wheel theory teachings. You won’t be disappointed! Take the workshop! You’ll be glad you did.
Wonderful! Inspiring!
This was a wonderful class and it delivers all the goods – first and foremost Cathy our guide who is always calm, confident and encouraging, not to mention inspiring. The easy instruction videos (which you can download) and well structured format. How to draw and paint beautiful flowers on various backgrounds. Selecting and mixing colour palettes. I painted on canvas with confidence. So that’s saying something too. I really found this value for money and highly recommend it. You can be sure I’ll be painting many more flowers to come.
