A great way to expand your intellectual and emotional horizons is to take a class.  In my case, I was interested in a refresher class in water color painting (my last class was in 1981....just a few years back!).  REDUX Contemporary Art Center, located in a funky little warehouse on St. Philip St., met my needs, and then some.   Offering many types of art classes, taught by talented artists, REDUX also has an art gallery and artist studio space.
I signed up for the One Night Watercolor Workshop,  taught by C of C Fine Arts grad Camela Guevara.  The 3 hour workshop, taught last Tuesday night, was both fun and informative.  We began with color washes, then progressed to brush strokes and brush handling styles.  It was fun to experiment with colors, both blends and gradients.  We moved on to dry and wet brush treatments, outline and fill-ins, color bands, dab and stab & twist techniques.
"Cami" Guevara encouraged us, showed examples of watercolor artwork and offered us a variety of watercolor mediums to work with.  Beginning with 100 wt paper, and moving on to 140 wt paper, we practiced with tube and crayon type watercolors, as well as gouache color.  She demonstrated how the same brush size can create very different effects, depending on how the brush is held.  We were also allowed to be creative, trying different brush strokes and color combinations within the guided format.  Our large practice/work sheets were sent home, enabling me to make a watercolor style flip chart to refer to when I paint.  The class was fun, informative and most important to me, encouraging.  I'm looking forward to more classroom time at REDUX!