I'm just starting to teach my second watercolor at Maude Kerns Art Center in Eugene, Oregon. So I thought I would write about how this came about, and what my first class was like.

In March I applied to teach a watercolor class for Maude Kerns Art Center. They are the oldest art center in Eugene, and may be one of the oldest in the state of Oregon. I went in for an interview and got the job! The class is an eight week class, taught once a week on Wednesday evenings from 6-8:30 pm. The class is offered three times a year, Spring, Fall, and Winter.

I had three weeks from my date of hire until the class would begin, so I spent my waking hours and some of my sleeping hours preparing for the class. I ended up with nine students, most of whom had not painted in watercolor before. Some of them had no drawing experience either. There was a mix of ages, and it was a very nice group of people.

I took them step by step through the process of learning watercolor painting, but I also covered composition, value and color to help them create good paintings. They did a wonderful job and I had a great time over the 8 weeks getting to know each person, and seeing their work develop.

Here is a sampling of my student's work from the Spring 2017 class.