Baltimore City always has something fun going on and this year I learned that Mt. Vernon Place Conservancy holds several free events throughout the summer in the Mt. Vernon Place parks.  One of the series that piqued my interest was the “Art in the Park” series.  Art in the Park is a series of classes throughout the summer.  They teach watercolor, photography, cyanoprinting, etc.  Their classes fill up quickly so it is important to sign up early and/or get put on a waitlist.  You can view their events for the rest of the year here:  http://mvpconservancy.org/events/

Art in the Park

This weekend, I got a spot for my mom and I for “Art in the Park: Watercolor”.  The class was taught by Sarah Butcher (www.sarahbutcher.com) who first taught us the basics of painting with primary colors and using only primary colors for a “plein air” watercolor painting.

OMG! FREE WINE!

En Plein Air is, in a simple sense, “the act of painting outdoors”.  In a more technical sense it’s a style of painting characterized by the luminous effects of natural light and atmosphere. Basically, you pick a landscape you like and paint it while looking at it outside…instead of painting it inside based off of a photo.  (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/plein-air).  Monet is probably one of the most famous plein air painters.

These coneflowers caught my attention

The class was totally free.  From the instruction to the art supplies.     The art supplies were donated by Blick Art Materials (https://www.dickblick.com/) Also, a nice little surprise was they provided some wine as well!

she said just a quick sketch, so that’s what I did! lol

I decided to paint some coneflowers that were near me.  Whilst my mom decided to paint the building and tree that was across from her.  My mom has always been an artist.  She’s pretty good at painting but she likes to be very technical and exact.  It took her a little while to get used to how watercolors work.

She did this in 1.5 hours!

For me, on the other hand, I find that watercolors help make my sloppy painting look better! Lol

Although I did feel a little Monet-ish sitting in the park painting, I am in fact not Monet…

It was supposed to be a hot day on Saturday but with the shade and passing wind it was quite nice to sit outside and paint.  Since we only had one and a half hours out there I did not have time to finish my painting so I hope to finish it at a later date.  My mom’s painting looks great and I’m going to frame it!

I did not get my mothers artistic gene!