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Registration Dates:
- Summer Registration opens to members Wednesday, April 30. Please login here or activate your membership in order to register.
- Summer Registration opens to the public Wednesday, May 7. Not a member? Click here to join us for exclusive benefits!
Before registering for this class, please review our registration policies in full.
Description & Schedule: Deepen your connection to nature through art in this immersive two-weekend workshop. Designed as a follow-up to Nature Up Close: Introduction to Field Journaling, this extended course offers students the opportunity to take their skills further while continuing to work directly from life in inspiring outdoor locations.
Over four days across two weekends, Teaching Artist James Freed will guide you through advanced techniques in watercolor and gouache, color mixing, composition, and journal design. Through a mix of studio practice and fieldwork, you’ll explore how to create meaningful, expressive pages that reflect your personal experience of place.
- Weekend One
- Day 1 @ Donkey Mill Art Center: Practice mixing colors and experiment with various painting methods. Learn about journal types, page layout, materials, and tools from James as he models with a demonstration of both watercolor and gouache techniques.
- Day 2 @ a Private Garden in Hōlualoa: Work in a lush native and canoe plant garden nestled in the hills. Focus on drawing and painting tropical plants and trees with a demo from James on how to get started.
- Weekend Two
- Day 3 @ Manini Beach Park (Kealakekua Bay): Painting on location! This gorgeous little beach park offers spectacular views of the bay and surrounding lava flows and hillsides. It’s a great location for including people in your drawings and paintings. The water is an amazing color and the surf provides a soothing soundtrack to the day. We’ll focus on painting land and seascapes and people. Demo included.
- Day 4 @ Hōnaunau National Historical Park: Paint in one of Hawai‘i Island’s most culturally significant locations. The day includes a live demo, historical background & interpretation, and a group share to close the workshop.
Level: Beginner/Intermediate, Ages 16+. Some drawing or painting experience is highly recommended, but not required.
Please note: Registration will close Saturday, June 14 at midnight.
Students should bring:
- Sketchbook with high quality paper. Spiral binding recommended so pages lay flat. Sized drawing paper works well for watercolor or colored pencils.
- Recommended additional small watercolor-specific sketchbook, or block paper (cold press or hot press, your preference).
- Watercolors: A small travel set of half pans is recommended. Professional quality paints, not student grade. High-quality brands include: Winsor & Newton, Daniel Smith and Sennelier
- Gouache (optional), recommend the smaller sized tubes instead of half pans.
- Watercolor paint colors recommended to purchase for the limited palette being taught during this course:
- Windsor Yellow (primary yellow)
- New Gamboge (cool yellow – mixes nice greens)
- Quinacridone Red (primary red)
- Permanent Alizarin Crimson (cool red – mixes nice violets)
- Pthalo Turquoise (greenish blue – tropical ocean color when mixed with ultramarine)
- Indanthrene Blue
- French Ultramarine Blue (primary blue)
- Raw Umber (a dark neutral brown that is also good for toning and darkening colors)
- Optional: Payne’s Gray (a dark indigo like blue that is good for toning and darkening cool colors)
- A few assorted watercolor brushes for watercolor. #4 or #6 flats and rounds
- Drawing pencils, graphite, HB, B, 2B, 4B, 6B and a sharpener
- Soft erasers like magic rub and kneadable erasers
- Black waterproof ink drawing pens in assorted sizes. 005, 01, 03 (Sakura Micron pens, for example.) These work well if you want to work ink washes or watercolor over your ink drawing.
- Watercolor style mixing trays with several wells for mixing watercolor and ink washes
- 2 Water containers such as large yogurt containers
- Clean rags or heavy-duty paper towels.
- OPTIONAL:
- Set of gray markers from light to dark. Copic Sketch markers recommended as they have a brush tip
- Ink pen drawing points and holders. India ink, black or sepia or brown colored.
About the Artist: James Freed is a talented draftsman and painter with a rich background in architectural design. Originally from Los Angeles, James spent his formative years in the San Francisco Bay Area before returning to Southern California in the late 1980s to attend Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He earned a BFA in Illustration from Art Center in 1992, then transitioned from the software industry, where he worked as an artist and animator, to exhibit design.
In 2013, James completed a Master’s in Education at Sonoma State University. He now runs his own exhibit design firm and teaches part-time. With over 25 years of teaching experience at the university level, James is currently an associate professor at Santa Rosa Junior College in Sonoma County, CA, where he teaches drawing and design. He also offers drawing and painting workshops through his website.
James's work is deeply rooted in drawing. After focusing exclusively on drawing and watercolor for several years, he recently returned to oil painting, enjoying its directness and the challenges it brings. An avid hiker, swimmer, cyclist, and climber, James loves drawing and painting outdoors, finding endless inspiration in nature. He lives and works in Sebastopol, CA, accompanied by his loyal wire-haired terrier, Charlie.
About Our Programs: As a place of convergence, the Mill serves as both a community and a physical place–celebrating the power of the arts, bringing people, ideas and perspectives together. We are proud to offer adult and youth programs that focus on awareness of one’s individuality in the contexts of family, community and the natural world. Our exhibitions provide a space to reflect, share perspectives and grow as a community. Our classes & workshops are designed to inspire creativity, foster connections, and provide enriching experiences for all participants. We invite you to join us in the studio.
