Thomas O’Brien
Saturday–Sunday, 10 AM–3 PM
November 21–22
(2 Days, 10 total hours of instruction)
La Jolla Studio
$160/180 + $20 materials fee paid to instructor
Southern California has a distinctive visual character shaped by marine layers, muted coastal vegetation, warm sandstone cliffs, and luminous skies. This two-day workshop explores practical methods for organizing color to create stronger, more convincing landscape paintings.
Working from a combination of demonstrations, guided exercises, and painting sessions, students will examine color temperature, atmospheric perspective, value relationships, and palette organization. Emphasis is placed on simplifying complex color relationships, creating harmonious palettes, and using color deliberately to strengthen mood, depth, and visual impact.
Students will complete a series of color studies and exercises before applying these concepts to a finished landscape painting. While demonstrations will primarily utilize gouache, the principles presented are equally applicable to watercolor, acrylic, and oil painting.
Suitable for adventurous beginners through intermediate painters.
Topics Covered
Understanding Southern California light and atmosphere
Building harmonious landscape palettes
Color temperature and value relationships
Atmospheric perspective and creating depth
Chroma control and natural color mixing
Palette organization and efficient color selection
Translating observation into expressive landscape paintings
Demonstrations, individual instruction, and group critique
Materials: Paint (Watercolor, Gouache, Acrylic, or Oil) limited palette: Titanium White, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue, Cobalt Teal (or Cerulean Blue), Lemon Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red Light, Magenta. Additional colors may be brought if preferred.
Brushes: #10 flat / filbert, #6 flat / filbert, #10 round, ½” or 1” fan brush, rigger or liner brush
Surface: watercolor paper (140 lb. cold press or equivalent painting surface), watercolor board or painting panel/canvas (optional).
Drawing Materials: HB or 2B pencil, kneaded eraser, sketchbook (recommended).
Other: mixing palette, water container or solvent container (appropriate to your medium), paper towels, painter’s tape or clips.
Max Students: 15
Immediately after you register, look for a confirmation email and receipt. In the week preceding the class start date, you will receive another email with more details.