This is a class designed to help create a looser approach to watercolors, enable a student to feel more capable with the paints, and end “tight” painting. The workshop focuses on working with water, learning how to mix colors, understanding paper, and understanding the strengths (and weaknesses) of the medium. Within the 4½ hours (1/2 hour for lunch), we’ll work with a “wet-on-wet” approach for much of the time using many different surfaces and methods. Students will work with several pieces and might not finish any of them (because they’ll have to dry). However, the point of this class is not to have you walk out with a completed painting but, rather, with a new “box of tools” to compliment your painting style. For students who are familiar with watercolors or repeating the class, this is a great opportunity to try something different or use it on a project you’re already working on.

Masks will be required for all indoor, outdoor and plein air workshops at PAAM, regardless of vaccination status.

Lisa Goren was born in California and raised in NYC. And yet she has dreamed of Polar landscapes since she was in her teens. Her first trip took her to Antarctica where she was inspired and captivated by the landscape. Later travels to Iceland, Alaska, increased her love for the Polar Regions. Her watercolors show an unfamiliar landscape in a new light. By using vibrant colors and taking risks with different surfaces, she makes the viewer reevaluate their understanding of both these landscapes and their beliefs in the potential of the medium. Her works create questions about the nature of abstraction and our planet as many of her pieces are representations of unfamiliar, threatened terrains.

Lisa’s work can be found in personal collections worldwide, from Australia to Iceland, and the United States. Her place on the 2013 Arctic Circle Residency was chronicled in an article she wrote for the New York Times and led her to her next phase of her Polar work. She had two pieces in “Gaia – Les femmes et l’ecologie” in Paris to coincide with the COP21 Climate talks. Recently, her Google Talk gave her a larger platform to discuss her travels, art, and the Polar regions.

Lisa has been working out of Boston, Massachusetts for the past 25 years and is Vice-President of the National Association of Women Artists (Mass. Chapter). During the Pandemic, she has been working on smaller paintings of Animals Taking Over during the Quarantine as well as portraits of health care workers.