Down East Vistas: Sketching the Coastal Beauty of Bar Harbor in Watercolor - I

Join Canadian watercolor artist and travel sketcher Shari Blaukopf (CSPW, AWS) for a five-day location painting workshop. With watercolors and brushes in hand, you’ll learn to “see” and capture the always-changing coastal beauty of iconic Bar Harbor.

Mount Desert Island is beautiful in all seasons, but at its most spectacular in autumn. In this workshop we’ll hop around the island to find the most sketchable spots — scenic villages and secluded harbors, with their fishing boats at anchor and maritime gardens, as well as rugged coastal scenes animated with jagged rocks and crashing waves. There’s no shortage of scenes to capture in our sketchbooks. If you love plein air sketching in watercolor, this workshop is for you. Join me as we explore the ever-shifting autumn vistas of the town of Bar Harbor and scenic Mount Desert Island. We’ll begin each day with a morning demo, during which I’ll cover the essentials of successful sketching: 

• Values: Learn to “see” the tonal values in a scene and transfer them to a thumbnail value sketch 
• Composition: Learn to use basic design principles to compose your sketch
• Color: Understand your palette and select the most appropriate colors for your scene 
• Technique: Learn to keep your washes fresh and colors bright 

As part of a small group, you’ll get to watch plenty of demos and receive individual attention, as we work on color, composition, simplifying a scene, and keeping our watercolors fresh and lively. We’ll focus on capturing a variety of coastal scenes, so you can return home with a new set of skills to help you feel confident while sketching on location.

Minutes from Acadia National Park, students can explore its beauty during their free time.

Workshop Schedule:
Sunday Night: Welcome Meet and Greet at 6pm
Monday – Thursday: 9am – 4pm
Friday: 9am – 2pm
*Subject to change*