Colour Harmony: Making the most of a limited palette

$30 members/$40not-yet members

Mixing colours that glow and don't turn muddy is one of the trickiest challenges when learning to paint with watercolour. The fewer pigments we use, the clearer and more harmonious our results will be. Kateri will demonstrate the use of three different limited palettes of five or six pigments to show the vast variety of colours that can be achieved.  Participants will look into the differences between pigment characteristics such as transparency, lightfastness, granulation and staining and the importance of achieving a balance between warm and cool pigments.  Create a colour chart from a selection of pigments from your own paints after creating a variety of limited palettes using the information learned.

Watercolourist Kateri Ewing says that her work isn’t so much about creating art or making a statement as it is an avenue to convey how thoroughly in awe she is of the natural world around her. She expresses that awe in richly detailed paintings of songbirds, treasures of the plant kingdom and sweeping landscapes of the places she loves. Largely self-taught and committed to her continuing development as a painter, her technique evolves with each painting as she imagines ways to share the beauty and uniqueness of her winged and botanical subjects. 

Kateri has lived in Western New York for more than half her life, and counts Europe, the Midwest, the Desert Southwest and Texas as previous homes. In preparation for painting these days, she regularly walks and photographs the woods, meadows and waterways in two of her favorite places: Wyoming County and her beloved Knox Farm State Park in East Aurora, a park she helped rescue from New York State’s budgetary axe a few years back.

A writer as well as an artist, Kateri freelances for various publications. An accomplished poet, she was a featured reader at the Eden Mills (Ontario) Writers’ Festival in 2008. For her artistic endeavors and for her dedication to community, she was honored with the 2012 Mary and Gil Stott Award at Roycroft. Kateri teaches regular workshops in watercolour and drawing at MUSEjar in East Aurora, as well as private lessons from her home studio. Her first solo exhibition, "On a Wing," was at Meibohm Fine Arts in April and May of 2015.

Grace Meibohm, owner of Meibohm Fine Arts in East Aurora, represents Kateri locally and on the Internet. Of Ewing’s work she says, "Kateri's knowledge of her subjects and her passion for them is evident in her work which is fresh, direct and appealing. We keep looking forward to what will be rendered next."

To register contact Kathy Gaye Shiroki at 716-878-3549 or email shirokkg@buffalostate.edu or download the registration form on the BPAC website.

Supply List:

 Two water containers
A white plate or palette for mixing
Paper towels
Number 8 or so round brush for mixing (not your best sable brushes!)
Several quarter sheets of PRACTICE-grade watercolour paper, NOT good Arches paper.
Also bring your collection of watercolour pigments, tubes or pans.