Discover how a few simple changes in moisture and timing can create watercolor landscapes filled with light, atmosphere, and calm.

In this live online workshop, you'll learn how to create luminous light, soft atmosphere, and beautiful reflections by understanding how water behaves on your paper. Through several focused demonstrations and one complete landscape, you'll gain techniques you can apply to every watercolor you paint.

In This Workshop You'll Learn

By the end of this workshop you'll understand how to:

✔ Read the moisture on your paper

✔ Create luminous skies and soft atmosphere

✔ Paint reflections with confidence

✔ Control soft and hard edges

✔ Preserve the feeling of light

✔ Simplify the landscape without losing its beauty

✔ Know when to paint—and when to wait

Why This Workshop Is Different

Many watercolor artists try to control the paint.

Instead, you'll learn to understand the water.

As you begin to recognize different stages of moisture on your paper, you'll discover how light, atmosphere, soft edges, and beautiful reflections happen naturally.

These are techniques you can use in every watercolor—not just landscapes.

A Unique Opportunity

Before the workshop, you're invited to submit one of your own landscape reference photos. During the workshop, I'll select one image and demonstrate how I would simplify the composition, preserve the light, and create a successful watercolor painting.

Paint With Greater Confidence

This workshop isn't about copying one landscape.

It's about understanding why watercolor behaves the way it does.

When you understand the relationship between water, pigment, and paper, you'll approach every painting with greater confidence and freedom.

Included

✔ Live online workshop

✔ Lifetime replay access

✔ Downloadable workshop guide

✔ Reference photographs

Workshop Details

Live Workshop (Pacific Time): 9:00 AM – 11:00 PM PT

Other time zones:

• 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET
• 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM CT
• 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM MT

Approximately 2 hours

Replay included

Technique-focused instruction

⭐ Bonus: Live Reference Photo Demonstration

Watch me transform a student's landscape photo into a paintable composition, explaining every design decision along the way.

Is This Workshop Right for You?

Perfect For

✔ Beginning watercolor artists wanting greater confidence

✔ Intermediate painters looking for softer, more luminous results

✔ Landscape painters

✔ Anyone who struggles with water control, muddy washes, or overworked paintings

You'll apply everything you've learned to create a finished landscape featuring expressive clouds and beautiful light.

Additional demonstrations show how the same watercolor principles create different moods and atmospheric effects.

This workshop is ideal if you:

✔ Feel frustrated by muddy washes.

✔ Want to understand how water really works.

✔ Love peaceful landscapes filled with light.

✔ Want techniques you can apply beyond one painting.

✔ Prefer learning principles instead of simply copying a photograph.

Continue Painting at Your Own Pace

If you can't finish during the live session, don't worry.

You'll receive lifetime access to the replay so you can revisit each demonstration, pause when needed, and paint at your own pace.

My Teaching Philosophy

One of the things I love most about watercolor is that it encourages us to simplify.

Rather than painting every detail, we'll focus on understanding the larger shapes, preserving the light, and allowing expressive brushwork to tell the story.

We're not painting a particular sky.

We're learning how to paint light and atmosphere.

Meet Your Instructor

For over 30 years, I've had the privilege of teaching watercolor artists around the world through workshops, online courses, and international art events. My passion has always been helping artists move beyond simply copying a reference photo to truly understanding light, design, and the expressive qualities of watercolor.

As a faculty member for Watercolor Live and a former juror for the Transparent Watercolor Society of America, I've worked with thousands of artists at every stage of their creative journey. Again and again, I've discovered that stronger paintings don't come from painting more details—they come from learning to see differently.

My teaching emphasizes observation, simplification, and confident brushwork. Rather than focusing on perfection, I encourage students to understand the larger shapes, preserve the light, and enjoy the unique beauty that watercolor offers.

Whether you're just beginning or have been painting for years, my goal is to help you build confidence, strengthen your skills, and create paintings that feel fresh, expressive, and uniquely your own.

I look forward to painting with you!

Birgit O'Connor



Former Juror, Transparent Watercolor Society of America

Watercolor is one of the most rewarding and forgiving mediums you'll ever paint with. I hope you'll join me as we explore its beauty together.