Watercolour Workshops

Watercolour is becoming increasingly popular and our Watercolour New Zealand workshops are keenly subscribed. Build new painting skills and get inspired with leading watercolour artists.

To enquire about our workshops, please email bookings@watercolournewzealand.nz


2-Day Outdoor Painting Workshop - Keeping it simple with Andrew James

Dates: 1st/2nd March 2025 10 am – 5 pm
Venue: Wellington Art Club 27 Chelsea Street, Miramar
Class level: Suitable for all levels of experience
Student fee: $200

Learn a straightforward and practical approach to drawing and painting outdoors with pen and watercolour. Andrew is an enthusiastic and empowering teacher with heaps of ideas for making your life easier when painting on location.

Delivered with energy and humour, this workshop is suitable for everyone: Beginners with no idea where to start, intermediate painters who are freaked out about painting in public and experienced painters who want to level up their work.


Topics covered: Values, composition, getting to know your paints, planning, working out what matters and what to do when you don’t like your painting.

Bring your usual painting kit, a sunhat and a packed lunch for a fun and informative weekend.

To book this workshop please email bookings@watercolournewzealand.nz




Cambridge Three-day workshop with Hazel Soan Class 2025/3

Dates: 5/6/7 April 2025 9.30 am - 4.30 pm
Venue: St Andrews Church Hall, 85 Hamilton Road, Cambridge, Waikato
Class level: Intermediate and experienced painters
Student fee: $610

During this workshop Hazel will share with you the techniques and skills she uses to bring her own watercolours to life. Through multiple demonstrations and individual guidance, she will help build your expertise, giving you the tools to advance your own watercolour journey. Watercolour is a vibrant medium, benefitting from efficient colour mixing and meaningful brushstrokes. Through wet into wet blending and layering you will learn how to trust this exciting medium to create lively paintings. Your eyes will be opened to the differing properties of the pigments and how to take full advantage of them. You will grasp that it is not just the hue of a colour that counts but its whole set of properties such as opacity or transparency, lifting or staining, and its warmth or coolness. With this understanding you will enter a new realm of freedom and confidence in watercolour painting. The themes for this adventure will be varied, featuring subjects dear to Hazels heart, from her own reference. The aim is to broaden your understanding of this remarkable medium and give you a newfound confidence in your painting.


Blenheim Two-day workshop with Hazel Soan Class 2025/4

Dates: Wednesday 30 April and Thursday 1 May 9.30 am 4.30 pm
Venue: Marlborough Arts Society Studio, 204 High Street, Blenheim
Class level: Intermediate and experienced painters
Student fee: $405

Watercolour is a visually appealing medium, known for its transparency and spontaneity. It is lively, rich and vibrant and able to convey movement. This two-day workshop is a standalone class, but builds on the themes and techniques explored in the Cambridge workshop so that those wishing to attend more than one event will not find it repetitive (except in a good way!). This workshop will concentrate on watercolours ability to convey life and movement. Along with explaining the properties of the colours it will explore wet into wet blending and how to take full advantage of this uniquely fluid medium. The emphasis of this workshop will be on creating lively watercolours. A variety of subjects will be demonstrated using reference from Hazels favoured subjects and personal guidance offered. The aim is to enhance your trust in the medium to perform its wonders and as ever, build on your own confidence.

Blenheim Two-day workshop with Hazel Soan Class 2025/5

Dates: Sunday 4th May and Monday 5th May 2025 9.30 am 4.30 pm
Venue: Marlborough Arts Society Studio, 204 High Street, Blenheim
Class level: Intermediate and experienced painters
Student fee: $405

Aspiring artists sometimes find it hard to pull their paintings together or bring them to a strong finish, often overworking them in the process. Watercolour is a direct and spontaneous medium, benefitting from a bold approach, it is also a delicate medium known for subtle and transparency. This workshop will encourage both a direct and sensitive approach, aiming to get the most out of this beguiling medium. It will explore the importance of light and shade and the selective process of knowing what to leave out and what to leave in as well as knowing when to stop. This class will be a standalone workshop but will build on the information disseminated in the other 2 workshops so that anyone wishing to participate in more than one workshop will benefit from an alternate emphasis. Tonal values are paramount in figurative painting, being brave in application is vital. Understanding tone and colour in combination and through interaction will enable better and more consistent results.






2-Day Marlborough Magic Workshop in Blenheim with Jacky Pearson

Dates: Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd May 2025 9 am – 4 pm
Venue: Baptist Hall, 8 Beaver Road, Blenheim
Level: Beginner/intermediate to experienced painters
Student fee: $295

Jacky Pearson tutors at venues across New Zealand and overseas. She is an excellent teacher, explaining, demonstrating and giving individual attention to all students.


Jacky’s plan: “Let’s get sloshing and have a fun two-day workshop in the Marlborough Region. We will paint the Marlborough Sounds with its trees clinging to the hillsides, beautiful light, reflections, skies and boats. The emphasis will be wet on wet washes and wet on dry glazes which gives a watercolour a glow and depth.

We will prepare a tonal version of each painting to better understand the riddle of composition and technique. We will practise these aspects of painting before completing two paintings over the weekend with step-by-step demonstrations.” Reference images and handouts will be supplied. Some watercolour experience is required.

To book your seat email bookings@watercolournewzealand.nz




1-Day Watercolour Landforms Workshop in Blenheim with Charlotte Hird

Dates: Friday 2 May 2025 9 am – 4 pm
Venue: Marlborough Arts Centre, Blenheim
Level: Beginner/intermediate to experienced painters
Student fee: $120

If landforms catch your eye and intrigue you, come and learn techniques to capture the light on the ridges and dark valleys filled in the shade. In this one day workshop you will use the core techniques of watercolour to paint two different landforms using different processes to create beautiful landscape paintings.



This course is suitable for experienced students looking to further develop their watercolour skills. All reference images and handouts will be supplied.

To book please email bookings@watercolournewzealand.nz




WORKSHOP REPORTS & REVIEWS


Please check online watercolour lessons & painting tips from our tutors.