PREMIER WORKSHOPS

 

PREMIER WORKSHOPS

SAWG is excited to announce this coming year's Premier Workshops.   Registration opens for members on July 15th at noon Pacific time.  Non-members are welcome to register beginning September 1st if the classes are not filled.

 

Workshops Coming in 2024-2025

October 15-18, 2024 – David Lobenberg,  California Vibe Watercolor Portraiture " (https://david-lobenberg.pixels.com/)

November 12-13, 2024 – Roberta Rogers "Hoiday Watercolors" (https://robertarogerswatercolors.com/) Cancelled

January 14-15, 16-17, 2025 – Matt White “Painting Light and Atmosphere”  (https://mwhiteart.com/)

February 11-14, 2025 – Tom Francesconi “Painting Fresh and Expressive Watercolors(www.tomfrancesconi.com/welcome.html) 

March 25-28, 2025 – Randy Hale “Creating Impressions of Reality”  (https://halegallery.com/)
 



Our workshops are held at St. Francis in the Foothills Celebration and Performing Arts Center. This location provides us a room that is very spacious allowing us to spread out comfortably. There is lots of natural lighting and a beautiful view of the Tucson Mountains through the two-level picture windows.

 

 

 

 


2024-2025 Workshops 


 

   

                                         

David Lobenberg
 

Workshop 1: Tuesday - Friday, October 15-18, 2024 
All workshop days will run from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.
The tuition for 4-day workshop is $495 for SAWG members, and $595 for non-members

"CA Vibe Watercolor Portraiture"
Class Levels - All levels are welcome and encouraged to attend.  

David’s California Vibe Portraiture™ workshop is painting with expressive color and energetic paint application techniques that can be applied to other subjects such as landscapes and animals. 

No portrait drawing experience is necessary because he supplies the subject reference photos and their associated outline drawings to trace. The creative fun begins with his California Vibe Watercolor Portraiture™ instruction.

Each day will be devoted to painting one of the three subjects that he provides in his pre-workshop list and instructions. The fourth day will be devoted to learning his “Meandering Line and Wash Portraiture” CA vibe style. During all the of sessions, students will follow his step-by-step painting leads so that no one is left behind. There will be plenty of time during each painting step for questions and for David to see how each student is doing.

 

   

 

 


 

   

 

Roberta Rogers

 

Workshop 2 – Tuesday - Wednesday, November 12-13, 2024 - Sorry, this workshop has been Cancelled.

All workshop days will run from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.
The tuition for 2-day workshop is $275 for SAWG members, and $325 for non-members

"Holiday Watercolors "
Class Levels – All Levels  

We have revised our two-day November workshop to include all levels. Roberta Rogers' workshop on Nov 12-13 is a great one for everyone as she will help the beginners with getting started and will encourage those with more experience where they need help. 
 
With such a fun holiday theme, Roberta will help you design and paint a cherished memory or vision for the holidays such as a poinsettia bouquet, a decorated front door, a snowy winter scene, Santa Claus or a desert winter, etc.  She is providing reference photos but also encourages you to bring your favorite photos. You will paint both days, have demonstrations and critique.  Roberta is providing the crayons to accentuate your paintings, especially those with snow. 

 

     

 


 

   

   
Matt White
 

Workshop 3A & 3B: Tuesday-Wednesday, January 14-15, 2025 and Thursday-Friday, January 16-17, 2025. 

All workshop days will run from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. The tuition for these 2-day workshops is $275 each for SAWG members, and $325 for non-members

"Painting Light and Atmosphere"
Class Levels - Intermediate 

Matt will teach the key principles that enable painters to create light and atmosphere in their paintings.  These include:  values, color mixing, creating depth, watercolor timing and simplification.  He will teach lessons on each of these as well as give demonstrations  where he incorporates all the skills. Day 1 you will learn how to create light using his approach to values and learn to see the big shapes and find connections.  Day 2 you will learn how to paint skies and learn watercolor timing techniques.  Each day will allow painting time and 1-on-1 check-ins.

 

Session B will offer different demos, so that you may take both sessions to have more fun and to reinforce what you learned in Session A but they are both great as standalone workshops. 

 

       

 

 


 

 

   

 

Tom Francesconi

 

Workshop 4 – Tuesday - Friday, February 11-14, 2025 

All workshop days will run from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.
The tuition for this 4-day workshop is $495 for SAWG members, and $595 for non-members.

"Painting Fresh and Expressive Watercolors"
Class Levels - All levels

Emphasis will be on creating stronger paintings through a better understanding of value
relationships and design principles. Tom will share his thoughts on how color can play a more
meaningful role in our paintings and how he creates interpretive watercolors that are fresh and dynamic. Subjects for this workshop may include the following: landscape, waterscape, urban landscape and the figure. Each morning begins with a discussion about the day’s topic, followed by a full demonstration and exercises aimed at helping students better understand certain concepts. Afternoons are reserved for student painting time during which Tom attends to each student individually. Daily critiques will be scheduled.

 

          

 

 


 

   

 

Randy Hale
 

Workshop 5 – Tuesday - Friday, March 25-28, 2025 

All workshop days will run from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.
The tuition for this 4-day workshop is $495 for SAWG members, and $595 for non-members.

"Creating Impressions of Reality!"
Class Levels - All levels - but have some familiarity with the medium

Over four days a variety of interesting subjects will be addressed. Participants will have the opportunity to transform topical reference information into paintings which will reflect individual, personal expressions...that are truly impressionistic depictions. Letting hues mix, mingle, and flow across the surface of paper; loosening up edges; allowing a painting to breathe; and providing room for a viewer’s imagination to roam will inevitably make much more imaginative IMPRESSIONS versus simply copying reality. 

We will cover the following items:  Travel Journaling, Working Wet, Loose & Fluid, Essentials of Composition, Understanding Negative Shape Painting, Reality -Seeing Subjects in a New Way, Abstracting our Reference Photos, Creating Impressions not Copies, Designing and Pushing Abstraction