Description
What happens when we stop trying to control watercolor and give it a little more freedom to flow, blend, and surprise us?
In this class, we’re going to explore loose and expressive abstract watercolor through simple shapes, beautiful color palettes, and playful mark-making. Rather than focusing on perfection, we’ll use repetition, movement, and those wonderful unexpected watercolor effects to create artwork full of depth, texture, and personality.
We’ll begin by experimenting with different watercolor papers to see how dramatically paper can change the way our paint behaves. Then we’ll explore a collection of inspiring color palettes and create our own palette cards—giving us a chance to test our paints, discover beautiful color combinations, and see how they interact on our chosen paper.
From there, we’ll use what we’ve discovered to create four different abstract projects: soft atmospheric landscapes, tall wonky stripes, layered rows of flowing stripes, and playful wonky ovals. Each project takes the same ideas of loose watercolor, repetition, and color blending in a slightly different direction.
We’ll finish our paintings with simple, intuitive mark-making—adding dots, lines, scribbles, metallic details, and other little touches that help bring the compositions to life.
This class is perfect if you love watercolor but want to loosen up, experiment more, and worry less about creating something “perfect.” It’s also a wonderful way to get to know the paints and papers you already own while developing color combinations and techniques you can carry into your own artwork.
So gather your watercolors, grab a few pieces of paper, and come experiment with me. Let’s see where the paint takes us!
**The video workshops come with Online access and you can download videos to keep.
I repeat loose oval shapes, overlap warm watercolor washes, and add little lines and dots to turn a simple shape into a lively composition.
I make watercolor palette cards to test color combinations, compare paints, and discover unexpected palettes before starting an abstract painting.
Check out what students are saying about my other workshops:
“I watched this while spending 6 weeks with my sister. I am a landscape artist but like abstract art as well. As I couldn’t bring all my supplies, I used the smallest neocolor ll set along with my Daniel Smith paints, a few markers and a12 piece set of watercolor pencils to follow along. These are great for satisfying your artistic urges no matter what size trips your trigger. Had already started the class on patterns before leaving home and am excited to pickup where I left off once I have all my goodies to play with. This is great for all levels but super for artists that need to refresh.” ~ Eileen M.
“A wonderful class with Denise. It’s always such a treat to watch and learn from D. The PDF resources are presented beautifully. I also learn a lot from D as she paints and talks. Terrific tips and easy to follow. The class flows in a marvelous way- before you know it you have made beautiful abstract art! Thank you, Denise” ~ Ellen B.
“This is one of Denise’s best classes! Her enthusiasm is wonderful. This is a great class for having a play with color and mark making – stress-free. I highly recommend this class!” ~ Susan B.
“This is a great idea, and Denise knocked it out of the park again! Such an amazing instructor! I love all of her classes, and specifically look for them when I have time to paint.” ~ Jen L-H
I let watercolor flow into soft vertical shapes, then add small marks and details wherever the painting feels like it needs a little more rhythm.
Once you make your purchase – your course will be available for you immediately. You will access your course under the “my courses” tab up top under the “my account” tab.
You must be logged in to view your course. All of the videos are available for download for you to keep. I provide a Vimeo link below each video – which will allow you to access the Vimeo video page for your download options.
