Your instructor, Mary Laury, is an accomplished watercolorist and highly esteemedteacher. She encourages all her students to believe they can be successful. Painting isan exciting medium; it flows and moves and does beautiful things. If you have neverpainted in watercolors, we will start at the beginning. If you have painted before, you willpick up some new tips and tricks as well. We all learn together!

Paint flower portraits realistically. You will paint pictures of flowers in detail, but more painterly than a scientific illustration. We won’t count veins, but we will count petals! Painting flowers is a wonderful exercise in observation.

Learn brush stroke and value; white on white flowers; leaves, long and short; iris, narcissus, orchids, tulips, and other spring flowers.

We will paint on smooth paper; Strathmore Series 500, one hundred percent cotton paper, either plate or vellum. This paper can be bought at Artist and Craftsman in Portland in large sheets, which we will cut up.

Bring a #2 round brush and a #6 round brush, pencil, palette, tube watercolors in the 3 primary colors and perhaps a green. Paper towels and water container. And bring a plant or flower specimen with no more than 9 petals. This is a slow and careful process and 9 petals and some leaves is enough happiness for us all.

Step back to a time when President Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor, and their family escaped to their “beautiful little island” in the Canadian Maritimes, Campobello Island. We will be exclusive guests of the international park, staying in historic Victorian cottages. Workshop participants will explore and paint the same coastal scenery enjoyed by the summer residents at the turn of the 20th century. All meals are included in the workshop fee as well as specially planned optional evening activities designed to extend your learning from the day’s workshops. Register for the retreat then call Sherry Mitchell at 506-752-2922 to make room reservations. Acadian Arts Retreats participants will have exclusive overnight accommodations in the park.

There is a $60 non-refundable fee when you sign up through RSU 24 Adult Education