Color Harmony Painting Workshop w/ Colleen Howe Cheney

3-day Color Painting Workshop

Thursday and Friday from 6-9 p.m AND Saturday 12-4 pm

Cost: $325 for 3 days of instruction and critique. 35% goes to support BDAC programming.

This workshop will focus on providing students with skills and tools to mix any color desired and

understand the mechanics of color harmony. All skill levels are welcome, but some painting experience

will be helpful in this workshop, particularly understanding basic color theory. 

Students will provide their own painting equipment and supplies (see supply list).

Colleen K Howe, PSA, AWA, will share 25 years of experience with plein air and studio painting, use of

color and how to achieve color harmony. Colleen has taught workshops in MT, UT, AZ, NM, IL, and

Provence, France. Her work has been featured in landscape painting books and magazines (most

recently The Pastel Journal, January 2024.) Colleen is known for her successful teaching and will work individually with each student. Each day the class will have demonstrations, work projects and critiques.

Thursday –

Introduction to color theory and more advanced techniques and ideas. Discussion and work with warm

and cool colors and how to balance them in painting. How to sense transitions between one color and

the one next to it.

Friday –

How to achieve color harmony from your initial idea using related color and complimentary color. We

will work to create colorful grays using complimentary color and how certain colors can “sing” when put

next to these grays.

Saturday –

We will create paintings using value (monochrome) with small amounts of color. We will also create

paintings using full color spectrum and how to minimize/maximize and balance color.

View Colleen’s paintings at: www.colleenkhowe.com

Supply List

Easel (Standing or sitting. If we are doing plein air, standing is preferred, but not required.)

All media is acceptable. Colleen will be working in water soluble oil paint by Cobra. Regular oil, acrylic, gouache and watercolor in the following colors: Cad Yellow Light, Cad Yellow Deep, Cad Red Light, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue and Pthalo Blue. There are cadmium free versions of these colors (Utrecht). What is necessary for color work is that you have a warm and a cool of each primary color. Titanium White.

Good brush assortment of flat and round brushes. Hog bristle or white nylon or mix of both. Cotton rags, paper towels, turp or water container. Apron. Color wheel. Hat. Trash bag. Water bottle.

Pastels (large assortment such as Rembrandt 90 pc. ½ sticks), chamois cloth, 1/2'” bristle brush. Sanded paper mounted onto gator foam with 3” border. WC or acrylic paint for washes over light paper. Have 6 prepared boards, 9”x12” paper size. 

15”x18” gator foam base. Use Super 77 spray adhesive.

For oil and acrylic: canvas boards, gessoed MDF board, oil paper, etc. 9”x12” size – 6 total.

Sketch book, pencils, white eraser. View Finder. 12” ruler.

Small folding table or tv tray.

Painting knives and mixing knives.

There are many supply options on Dick Blick.com. If you don’t see what you prefer to use on this list, please contact Colleen to make sure your option will work.

We will have opportunities to work in studio and outdoors. If you would rather not do plein air painting, no worries. You can work in the studio area. NO CELL PHONES during class time. We will take regular breaks and you can check for messages then.  We will always be close to a rest room. Critiques will be held each day at the end of the day. If you have ANY questions about this supply list, please contact Colleen via phone, text or email. Phone: 406-925-9434 Email: colleenhowecheney@gmail.com.