Putting Art as Tai Chi into Practice

Join us for a relaxed, hands-on painting workshop where we'll learn to paint loose, expressive landscapes one step at a time. Using short video lessons, we'll watch, paint for about 15 minutes, discuss our work, and then move on to the next stage together.

We'll explore color, brushwork, texture, atmosphere, and simple landscape techniques while building confidence and developing a more intuitive painting style. Whether you're new to painting or have years of experience, this class is about letting go of perfection, trusting the process, and having fun with paint.

Painting cheat sheet

Paint loose • Paint simple • Have fun

What you'll need

• A size 4 or 6 filbert brush

• Palette paper

• A 5 × 7 canvas board

1. Set up your palette

Think of your palette like a piano: bass (low notes) on the left, treble (high notes) on the right. From left to right:

1. Black

2. Purple

3. Dark blue

4. Light blue

5. Green

6. Brown

7. Red

8. Yellow

9. White, kept separate, with about twice as much as the other colors

Tip: Keep white by itself. You'll use a lot of it.

2. Hold the brush correctly

Do

• Hold the brush farther back.

• Keep your hand loose and open.

• Hold it more like a chopstick than a pencil.

• Let the brush dance across the canvas.

Don't

• Choke up on the brush.

• Grip it like a pencil.

• Over-control every stroke.

Nature is loose and imperfect. Your brushwork should be too.