Beyond Watercolor

Adult Class | Available

All levels welcome.
1/6/2026-3/17/2026
1:00 PM-4:00 PM EST on Tue
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$325.00
$295.00
$47.00
$20.00

Beyond Watercolor

Adult Class | Available

Would you like to further your experiment with watercolor painting? In this class, students will explore a wide range of traditional and contemporary techniques using ink, gouache, and pastel alongside watercolors. Working from still life and masterworks, participants will use combinations of these mediums to achieve greater precision, depth, volume, and expressive possibilities. Instructor demonstrations and visual presentations of other artists’ work will complement this hands-on class, fostering a collaborative and supportive community of creatives.

What you will learn:
1. How to use various mediums in combination to enhance precision, depth, volume, chromatic variation, and expressive possibility
2. How mediums interact and how to combine or modify them to achieve the desired result
3. Learning through examples of others’ work

  • You can have a rich and rewarding class using simply a basic watercolor set and some pastels. Having said that, there are limitless possibilities you are invited to explore. The supply list below indicates that possibility. Each student’s experience will be tailored to what they bring and what they want to do. We will make whatever you bring work; this class is all about resourcefulness.

    Watercolors:
    • Tubes and/or pans (they are interchangeable and inter-mixable). If you do not have any, begin with a basic set of (approximately) ten colors. If you have some colors, supplement the colors you have so that you have a white, a magenta, a red, an orange, a yellow, a green, a cyan, a blue, a violet, and a brown.
    • Recommended colors: Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Viridian, Dioxazine Violet, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Lamp Black, Chinese (Zinc) White.

    Brushes:
    • Minimum: 3/4-in wash flat, #10 round, #5 pointed round.
    • Optional applicators: more brushes, sponges, dip pen, reed pen, painting knife, toothbrush, spray bottle, squeegee...

    Supports:
    • Watercolor paper - 90lb minimum/140lb recommended. Cold press (for a start). 11”x14” or larger. Blocks or pads are good.
    • Optional: cover stock, mounting paper in stretchers, wooden panels, and (fine-grained) canvas. Some alternative supports will require PVA size, Golden Absorbent Ground and/or Fine Pumice Gel.

    Dry materials:
    • Please select a few or many of the following: graphite pencils, pastel pencils, pastel crayons, Conté pencils/crayons, charcoal (compressed, vine, powdered, etc.), Lyra Aquacolor (or similar) water-soluble pencils/crayons...

    Liquid materials:
    • Please select a few or many: India Ink (waterproof), colored inks, gouache, acrylic paints, Golden Absorbent Ground, Golden Fine Pumice Gel, coffee…

    Mixing & Cleaning:
    • Paper towels and/or rags
    • Mixing tray
    • 2 jars for water

Bernard Collins

Exhibitions: Gallery Soho 20, Chelsea NY Gallery Ciano, Philadelphia PA October Gallery: Philadelphia PA Walt Whitman Cultural Center, Camden NJ Fox Gallery, Philadelphia, PA. Zonks Art Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Art in City Hall, Philadelphia, PA Community College of Philadelphia The African American Museum of Philadelphia, “Silent Voices, Loud Echoes”, 2005 The African American Museum of Philadelphia, “Statements”, 2008 The Smithville Mansion, Burlington NJ, 2006 The Hopkins Heritage House, Camden County, NJ, 2006,2007 Community College of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 2007 The Willingboro Public Library, Willingboro, NJ, 2006

Public Art Mural commissioned by Kingswood Recreational Center, Wilmington Delaware,( Mural project commissioned by The City of Philadelphia, Curran Fulton Correctional Center Mural commissioned by the Cathedral of Fresh Fire, Wilmington Delaware

Graphic Design: “Seasons of Her”, Tonya Marie Evans- Cover design; Illustrated by Bernard Collins Jr “Beyond the Back of the Bus” written by Sandra Turner Barnes; Illustrated by Bernard Collins Jr “Straight from My Heart”, Bill Holmes- Original Book Cover Design; Illustrated by Bernard Collins Jr “Constipated Conversations”, Bro. Life- Cover design; Illustrated by Bernard Collins Jr “1998 Festival of Black Writing” - Poster design Illustrated by Bernard Collins Jr.