Sep 8-10, 2025
The Hawthorn Center
6175 Sunny Spring Rd. Columbia, MD 21044-5623
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Registration:
Members: Jun 10, 2025, $290
Non-members: Jun 24, 2025, $330
Registration ends Aug 31, 2025, or when the event is full.
Not a Member?
Consider becoming an Associate Member for $30/year.
To pay the member fee you must become a member then register for this class.
Join us here.
FOR ONLINE REGISTRATION VISIT: www.bws.wildapricot.org and go to Public Events.
If a Member, Be sure to login before registering.
If you don't login the system will not know you are a member so you will not be able to register during the members only registration time and the computer will not give you the members only price.
All registrations have to be paid within 5 days of registering. No exceptions please.
Workshop Instructor:
Join artist April Rimpo for a 3-day class dedicated to the vibrant and rewarding art of bird painting. This course will delve into the essential techniques and skills needed to capture the beauty and essence of birds, whether through realistic depictions or more interpretive styles.
April Rimpo GWS, IWS, LWS, MoWS, PWS, SW, WAS-H Elite
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
Key Elements:
In this class, we will focus on key elements that bring bird paintings to life:
1. Feathers: Create the illusion of feathers, adding texture and depth to your artwork where needed.
2. Eyes: Discover how to develop and emphasize the eyes of your bird subjects, as they are crucial to identity.
3. Essential Features: Study what features are vital to capture the essence of different bird species and understand what aspects can be simplified without losing the bird's distinctiveness.
Bird Species:
We will explore 2 or 3 bird species to broaden your skills and experience, including local song birds, shore birds, or exotic, brightly colored birds. By working on more than one type of bird we will discuss when details and delicate features are needed, and when experimenting with vibrant palettes and creative interpretations may be appropriate. Each bird species will be its own painting. Plan on two quarter sheet and one half-sheet for paintings. If you work extremely fast feel free to bring a more paper. April's goal is one type of bird each day.
Skills and Techniques:
Students will practice:
1. Creating realistic and interpretive representations of birds. One or two paintings will focus on realism and the third will be more interpretive.
2. Integrating different backgrounds and how they interact with the bird subject will be explored.
Teaching Aids:
April will have sample paintings available to provide examples integral to the learning process:
1. Backgrounds: View a variety of background treatments from abstract to realistic to inspire your own creative choices.
2. Treatment of Birds: Understand different approaches to painting birds; some that are a combination of realism and simplification and others that are more fanciful renderings.
RECOMMENDED EXPERIENCE:
All levels are welcome but students should have an understanding of the watercolor medium.
SUPPLY LIST:
Please bring your usual watercolor painting supplies, to include:
- Watercolor Paper – Be sure to bring professional watercolor paper, not student grade paper. April will use 140 lb Arches Cold Press, but any quality Cold Press watercolor paper will be fine. Strathmore paper is NOT recommended.
If you normally work with Rough paper you may use it; however, it may affect the texture of the bird features. 300lb paper is more absorbent and will operate differently than 140lb paper, so April’s techniques may not work the same on 300 lb paper.
You may use single sheets or blocks of watercolor paper.
April will provide small sheets of hot press and illustration board for each student so you can experience the different results based on the paper.
- Painting support boards – If not using a block of watercolor paper. You will need to tape your paper to a support board. Gator board and Foam core boards are good lightweight options.
- Paint - You can use any Professional Artist quality tube watercolor paint you have, April works with fairly large mixes of paint, so using fresh paint from the tube is highly recommended during class.
April typically uses Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor, Holbein, or Senelier paints. Some Windsor Newton and QoR, are in her collection and are other excellent brands of Artist quality watercolor paint.
Bring what you have, but try to have a light value and dark value of blues and reds, a warm blue and cool blue, warm yellow, dark value yellow, a warm red and a cool red, some neutral colored paints, and white. Example paints in each category are listed below.
When painting birds April finds having granulating colors helps with lifting feather details. However, if you layer non-granulating over granulating or mix granulating and non-granulating, the result will generally still lift to lighter colors. Don’t worry if you don’t know if your paint is granulating or not, we’ll discuss it in class and play with it on spare sheets of paper.
Below are a list of paint colors April uses. Which colors she chooses for a painting depends on what she is painting and how much lifting she expects to need. Do plan to lift paint to create some of the feather textures. Here are examples of color options. Not all of these colors are required for the class. April will provide specific colors for each of the 3 projects as guidance about one month before the workshop, but they will not be mandatory. She'll select which colors she's using not based only on the hue but also on how well they lift and how transparent they are, based on how important those properties are to the project.
- Light value, warm yellow - Windsor Newton (WN) Raw Sienna, WN Yellow Ochre, Daniel Smith (DS) New Gamboge (non-granulating, low stain, transparent), or DS Quinacridone Gold (granulating, low stain, transparent)
- Neutral/cool yellows - Hansa Yellow Light or Cadmium Yellow Medium
- Dark value yellow - DS Quinacridone Burnt Orange (gran, low stain, trans) or Holbein B Sienna–where the burnt orange is redder and the sienna is more yellow
- Medium value orange - DS Permanent Orange (non-gran, low stain, trans)
- Light valued warm red - DS Quinacridone Coral (light staining)
- Light valued warm red - Sennelier Cad Red Light
- Medium value cool red - DS Quinacridone Red or Rose (non-granulating, med-staining, transparent)
- Dark cool red - DS Permanent Alizarin Crimson (non-gran., med staining)
- Light value warm blue - DS Cobalt Blue (granulating, low staining)
- Dark value cool violet - DS Cobalt Blue Violet (granulating, low staining)
- Dark value, warm blue - DS French Ultramarine Blue (granulating, med staining), DS Indanthrone Blue‐(non-granulating, med staining, trans.), DS Phthalo Blue (Red) (non-gran, high staining, trans.)
- Light value cool blue - Holbein Cerulean Blue or Manganese Blue Hue
- Dark value cool blue - DS Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) (non-gran, staining, trans)) or Prussian Blue
- Dark Green - Phthalo Green (Blue Shade) (non-gran, staining)
- Warm neutral - Raw Umber (granulating, low staining, semi-trans)
- Warm Dark neutral - Holbein Sepia
- Cool Dark neutral - Indigo
- – Daler Rowney Pro White (Opaque Ink) or PEBEO Studio Gouache
Specialty colors (Useful for creating opaque or muted colors)
- DS Buff Titanium (gran, non-staining)
- DS Moonglow (gran, low stain, transparent)
- Holbein Lavendar (gran, opaque)
- Holbein Mineral Violet
As a reference, one 15ml tube of Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor is about $11-$18. Daniel Smith paints include a great deal of pigment and last well.
- Masking Fluid –(optional – likely won’t need) Any brand you prefer. April uses Pebeo drawing gum.
April will also have General Purpose Masking Tape which she prefers for masking large spaces and a snap-blade knife for cutting the tape. April has snap-blades you can borrow.
- Palette - You can use your normal watercolor palette with large mixing areas
- Brushes - These are the minimum needed. Bring your favorites as well.
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- A small flat brush (April uses 3/16” Richeson Profession 7010 Flat Brush (https://shop.quillergallery.com/Flat-Brush-Watermedia.html ) - very versatile and great for lifting fine lines that are critical in painting feathers.
- 3 round brushes in sizes ranging from #6 to #12 (Brands to consider: Princeton Select Series, Cheap Joes Dream Catchers-natural and synthetic blends, White Sable, Escoda Perla, or KingArt Gold Synthetics 9020 series) Calligraphy brushes also work well.
- Optional brush Needle liner - These are great for fine lines that will likely be useful for fine details in the feathers and eyes. (examples follow):
Cheap Joe’s Lizard Lick (available in sizes 4, 6, 8, or 12)
- Sketchbook or notebook for taking notes, making sketches, testing color blends
o Roll of Paper Towels for lifting colors from your painting and clean up
o Cloth towel for adjusting the water in your brush
o Two Containers for water (like a large tub of margarine or deli container)
o Drawing pencil (#2 or HB) or what you prefer to use on watercolor paper - Note: you should have your drawings on your watercolor paper before class begins.
o A kneaded eraser or PVC Latex Free Art Eraser (e.g., Moo)
1) Prospek proportional scale divider – helps you verify proportions
Can be purchased individually or in a set with a small color wheel, small gray scale, and small view finder.
2) If you struggle with values consider bringing a value finder.
INSTRUCTIONS
About 30 days before the event, you will receive three image that we’ll paint in the workshop. Line drawings for each will also be provided to those registered. If you desperately want to paint a different bird you may, but the demonstrations will be for the images provided.
Once you receive the painting reference images be sure to draw line drawing on your quarter or half sheets of paper. You will find painting details is harder on smaller paper.
You may trace April’s line drawing or sketch your own drawing based on the photo references. Often creating your own will help you understand the drawing more easily than just copying April’s drawing.
April will also provide a few additional images for warm up/practicing detailed features, like eyes and feathers. These studies will be done on a quarter sheet (11” X 15”). Plan on 2 quarter sheets for these warm up/practice activities, but bring more if you think you’ll want to do more practice.
Which images are for the paintings and which are for warm up/practice will be identified
BIOGRAPHY:
April Rimpo is an accomplished artist who has a deep passion for storytelling through her artwork. Her preferred medium is watercolor, but she also paints using fluid acrylic. She skillfully employs these watermedia to create pieces that are both visually stunning and emotionally evocative.
With every painting, April sets out to create a narrative that reflects some aspect of life, using color and light to draw viewers in and captivate their attention. She is a careful observer when photographing her reference material and when deciding what are necessary elements to include and what to simplify while painting. When others tell her the stories they see in her paintings, she feels a tremendous sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
April has exhibited in nearly 100 National or International exhibitions and holds Signature Status in eight watercolor societies, including Signature-Elite status in the Watercolor Art Society of Houston (WAS-H) and Watermedia Master with the Baltimore Watercolor Society (BWS-WM). She is also a Signature member of the International Society of Acrylic Painters, and has received Signature-Nautilus Fellow in the International Society of Experimental Artists (ISEA-NF).
Learn more about her work by visiting her website at www.AMRart.org.
WORKSHOP PRICE:
$290.00 for BWS members (Signature Artists, Associates, and Students) and
$330.00 for non-BWS members.
The class size is limited to 22 people, and the workshop cannot be split with another person.
PAYMENTS:
Please pay online if possible. The payment system allows the use of Credit Cards. Otherwise, checks should be made out to Baltimore Watercolor Society. Please enter the name of the workshop on your check. You will receive another email with the instructions for the check payment, if online payment is not opted during checkout process. Questions can be addressed by replying to this email.
Confirmation of your registration will be sent upon receipt of your check or online payment. Checks must be received within 5 days of registration to be considered as registered.
FOR ONLINE REGISTRATION VISIT:
www.bws.wildapricot.org and go to Public Events > Upcoming Events.
If a Member, be sure to login before registering.
Remember that these workshops fill up very quickly. When filled, you can join the waiting list.
WAITING LIST:
BWS maintains a workshop waiting list. When openings occur, BWS fills the openings from the waiting list on a first-come, first-served basis.
BWS adds names to the waiting list according to the date and time.
You can join the waiting list if a workshop is filled. There are often openings so it is worth doing if you are interested in the class.
You can't join a waiting list before registration opens.
Waiting List registrants - Do not send payment until you are informed of an opening and have been sent an invoice. Any check sent before you have been informed you have a spot will be destroyed.
CANCELLATIONS AND REFUNDS:
BWS makes decisions and incurs fixed costs based on the number of initial registrants. Cancellations can affect these costs even if there is a waiting list. In addition, cancellations incur processing fees and other costs paid by BWS as well as requiring extra time and organizational effort. Refunds for extenuating circumstances are at the discretion of the event coordinator.
From registration date to 60 days prior to the event = 90% refund
59 days to 21days prior = 75% refund
20 days to 8 days prior = 50% refund
7 days or fewer = no refund
In the event of inclement weather, the workshop will still be held unless the Hawthorn Center is unable to open or the workshop artist is unable to travel. If BWS cancels the workshop, then all paid registrants will receive a full pro-rata refund for those days that were cancelled.
Check the website for changes, updates and new information.
Questions and requests to be added to the waiting list can be directed to Workshop chair by replying to this email.
LOCATION:
The Hawthorn Center is located in the community of Hickory Ridge in Columbia, Maryland:
6175 Sunny Spring Rd. Columbia, MD 21044-5623
Tel: (410) 730-7327
WORKSHOP HOURS:
First Day Hours - Sep 8, 2025 - Hawthorn Center doors open at 9:30 AM to allow you to set up your workspace. Workshop instruction begins: 10:00 AM on the first day and end at 4:00 PM.
Sep 9 and 10 - Doors will open at 9:00 AM and instruction will be from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM.
One-hour break for lunch
Please plan to leave by 4:15 PM. Hawthorne Center closes and doors are locked promptly at 4:30 PM
MASKING POLICY:
If you feel more comfortable wearing a mask feel free to do so.
Please be advised that we are not requiring participants to wear a mask at this time.
