About the Workshop

Skill level: Experienced Beginners and up

Materials used: Watercolor only

This workshop is all about seeing and capturing light in your paintings.

On the first day, we’ll focus on building a strong foundation with watercolor techniques—how to handle the medium, create clean washes, and practice building layers. You’ll work through two guided exercises.

During the following two days, we’ll apply these skills as we paint from both life and photographs. I’ll walk you through my personal process for observing and painting different types of light, including direct, reflected, and ambient light. We’ll explore how light interacts with various surfaces—opaque, translucent, and transparent—and how these interactions define form.

On the final day, weather permitting, we may venture outdoors to paint on location—or bring plants inside as natural subjects if conditions aren’t ideal.

Each day will include live demonstrations and time for guided practice so you can develop confidence in painting light with intention and clarity.

Geoff Allen is an award-winning Plein Air watercolor artist, whose painting “Color for Nothing” was recently on the cover of Plein Air Magazine (June/July 2024 issue). He finds that watercolor is both the medium and metaphor for “going with the flow.” This is what inspires Geoff. He loves the process of inserting himself into an environment with the goal of capturing its elusive essence in a quick fresh watercolor style. The mystery of not knowing the expressive outcome and allowing for discovery along the way makes plein air painting Geoff’s preferred art making process.

Artist’s Statement

To borrow Alfred Korzybski’s phrase “the map is not the territory”, meaning the map is merely a plan and the “territory” is reacting in the moment whatever the conditions may be.

In the studio I have attempted to bring the spontaneity of my watercolor practice inside. Still life painting feels like the inside of me, intimate. While plein air feels like the outside of me, exploratory. Both pursuits are joined by the elaboration of light, freshness, and a desire to be spontaneous. The paintings I love the most are the ones I keep changing my direction as I paint them. This reassures me that I am reacting to the moment.

Watercolor echos this idea of immediacy and nature. I find that watercolor is both medium and metaphor, and at times both a blessing and a curse. I love that aspect of art making- when something is slightly out of my control and a challenge. It allows me to feel that I am playing with mysterious forces beyond my own understanding.

Recent Awards and Exhibitions Highlights

2025

• Irvine Museum Award, 27th Laguna Invitational

• Patrons Award, Watercolor West at the Hilbert Museum

• Honorable Mention, Sonoma Plein Air Artists Choice Award

• Best of Show, Story Award, 5th Annual Watercolor Carson City

• First Place, 23rd Annual Paint Sant Clemente

• Second Place, Quick Draw 23rd Annual Paint San Clemente

• Faculty demonstrator at Plein Air Convention and Expo Reno/Tahoe

• “Close to Home”, Group Exhibition, Encinitas Cultural Arts Dept., May 6 - Sept.4

• Third Place for “Best Western” 9th Annual Waterworks, LPAPA Gallery

• Best of Show in Plein Air, Palm Desert Plein Air Festival

• Ninth Annual Plein Air Exhibition Juror. San Diego Watercolor Society

2024

• The Hilbert Museum Award, Laguna Plein Air Invitational

• Frank Bette Award, Frank Bette Plein Air Paint Out, juror Barbra Tapp

• Quick Draw Artists Choice Award, Frank Bette Plein Air paint Out

• Second Place, San Diego Watercolor Society, “Plein Air Show”, juror Shuang Li

• Plein Air Magazine, Cover and Contributing Writer, July 2024 Issue, Article “A Deep Dive Into a Favorite Subject”, by Kelly Kane

• Third Place, Carmel Art Festival, Plein Air Event

• Second Place Borrego Plein Air Invitational

• First Place, Quick Draw, Borrego Plein Air Invitational

2023

• First Place Artist’s Choice Award at Sonoma Plein Air Invitational 2023

• First Place, Oceanside Museum of Art Plein Air Festival

• First Place Artist’s Choice Quick Draw Award, Frank Bette Center of the Arts Paint out

• First Place, Huntington Harbour Art Association Plein Air Competition

• Best of Show, 2023 7th Annual Waterworks Exhibition, Laguna Plein Air Painters Association

• First Place, 19th Annual Best of Plein Air, Laguna Plein Air Painters Association

What’s Included

This workshop includes a mix of complimentary food and beverages. Included are the following:

• Complimentary continental breakfast: Yogurt, fruit, coffee, teas, juices, hard-boiled eggs, and pastries

• Coffee, hot and/or iced tea, lemonade, soft drinks, sparkling waters, and fruit-infused still water are available all day

• Catered lunch brought into the studio or painting location for $20 (optional)

Supplies

The supply list for this class can be opened via the button below and printed at your convenience.