Go outside and learn to paint gouache and watercolor landscapes while surrounded by nature as inspiration. This open-air art workshop will teach the techniques necessary to capture environmental perspectives through the creative use of negative space, layering, various stroke techniques, and more.
Using the Museum’s exclusive access to various vistas as reference, participants will be guided through the basics of transferring the beauty of beaches and shorelines to canvas with step-by-step instruction.
No prior experience required. Participants will have a completed art piece to take home at the conclusion of the workshop. Open to ages 16+/all experience levels. All supplies included.
Sunday, March 23, 2024
10 AM – 1 PM
Location: To be released closer to the date of the program, with the goal of featuring seasonal environments.
Class Size: 18 Students
Class Fee: $43 – Museum Members receive a special discounted price applied at checkout.
Materials: All supplies are included in the class fee.
Instructor: Taylor Seamount
This class takes place outside; dress appropriately for the outdoors. Supplies may get messy, so casual attire is recommended.
About the Instructor
Growing up in the natural beauty of Santa Cruz, CA, Taylor was set on a winding path between science and art. She received her bachelors in biochemistry at UC Davis and later spent two years at the Mark Kang-O’Higgins Modern Painting Atelier in Seattle. After the atelier, Taylor moved back home to Santa Cruz due to a worsening of her invisible disability, POTS. Adapting to her new limitations, Taylor’s artistic practice refocused from large imaginative realist oil paintings to small works in gouache. She came to aspire to the visionary landscape styles of gouache illustrators, James Gurney (Dinotopia) and Kazuo Oga (Studio Ghibli), and accordingly began to study natural color and light through plein air (i.e. painting landscapes on location outdoors). As plein air became central to her creative practice, she developed a distinctive crisp flat-brush style. Additionally, she began a successful business designing and selling her own unique ultra-light-weight plein air sketch easels, fabricated here in Santa Cruz. As a UC Certified California Naturalist and climate justice artivist, Taylor uses plein air and solar punk illustration to envision a regenerative future for her community. In this work, she often collaborates with local activists and environmental stewards. Hobbies not yet incorporated into her work are napping and saying hi to the native plants that are walking distance from her house. Her pronouns are both they/them and she/her.