Tag: learn to paint

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Monday Morning Art School: why most beginner paintings fail

Inlet, 9X12, oil on archival canvasboard, click on image for details.

Most beginner paintings don’t fail because of lack of hard work. In fact, the problem is often the opposite: too much effort in the wrong places. Careful rendering and earnest attention can’t fix a fundamentally-flawed painting.

Detail is seductive

I’ve only known one painter who could start from a single detail and work outward; even he doesn’t always succeed. Most artists end up floundering when they do that. Of course, when you’re new to painting, detail is seductive; it’s just so much fun to focus on the apple rather than the branch. But when you do that, you’re overwhelmingly likely to put that apple in the wrong spot or use the wrong values. And then, you’ll either get to repaint the whole thing or admit defeat.

There have been times when I’ve been tempted to ignore this rule, for example when storm clouds are rolling in. I have learned from sad experience that this never works.

Eastern Manitoba River, 6X8, oil on archival canvasboard, click on image for details.

Good paintings are built from big shapes, not tiny parts. If the underlying structure isn’t solid, no amount of detail will fix it. And painting any one area to completion without considering its relationship to the whole is a recipe for failure.

Learn the art of aggressive simplification. Use a big brush and don’t pick up its smaller cousin until all your shapes are blocked in. Take your glasses off while looking at your subject, or, if you’re cursed with perfect vision, squint.

Value is king

Color has three facets:

  • Value—how light or dark something is;
  • Hue—the position on the color wheel (i.e., red, blue, yellow, etc.);
  • Chroma—the intensity of the color.
Île d’Orléans waterfront farm, 8X10, oil on archival canvasboard, click on image for details.

You can play fast and loose with hue, but if you don’t have a good value structure, your painting will collapse. Value is the bones of all 2-D art.  

Beginner paintings often suffer from compressing the value range into a narrow band of midtones. The result is flat, muddy, and lifeless. That’s first an observational question, but it’s also an issue of design. The painter hasn’t considered whether there is an interesting pattern of lights and darks.

Start with a sketch limited to just four values. Make sure it’s attractive and interesting before you move on to paint. Then, establish your value range early and stick to it. Work the whole canvas at once, comparing constantly. Ask yourself: should this shape be lighter or darker than the one next to it? That simple question can transform your painting.

Step back frequently. If you can’t do that, use your cellphone to take a picture of your work in progress; that can sometimes give you the necessary distance. If you’re really in doubt, convert that photo to greyscale and see what it tells you.

Grand Canyon at sunset, oil on canvasboard, 9X12, click on image for more details.

You can’t fix a weak painting by adding more paint

No amount of detail or bravura brushwork can salvage a weak composition. Instead, stop and figure out what’s wrong. If you can train yourself to see big shapes first and organize your values with intention, your paintings will immediately improve.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

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Learning to see

Cowpath in Patagonia, 9X12, oil on Baltic birch, click on image for more details.

My husband and I are ramping up our daily hiking mileage in anticipation of Britain’s Cotswold Way next month. It’s my favorite way to visit a new place, and I hike for the same reason I paint: to slow down enough to actually see.

We spend a lot of time on the trail even when we’re not training—4.5 miles a day, through Erickson Fields Preserve and Beech Hill Preserve. (Maine, by the way, has the highest concentration of land trusts per capita of any state.)

Country Path, 14X18, oil on archival canvasboard, click on image for more details.

Being in the woods every day can be miserable, especially in hard winters. Then we complain about the footing, the north wind and the intense cold. But even cold days can be engaging. After more than a decade, I know these preserves intimately, but they are never boring. They demand attention with their uneven footing, the shifting light on the ocean and weather changes. There’s no multitasking and certainly no playing with your phone. If I want to stay upright, I have to watch where I’m going.

There are a thousand small events in the woods, and they require learning to see. Right now, the moss is turning emerald green and the tops of the trees are a warm smudge of swelling buds. Almost all the snow is gone. I look every day for the first shoots of ferns poking out from drifts of pine needles and leaves; it will mean the soil has finally thawed. But with that comes frost heave, which means roots and rocks where there were none before.

Path to the Lake, ~24X36, watercolor on Yupo, framed in museum-grade plexiglass, click on image for more details.

Painting asks for the same attention

In the studio or plein air, painting requires the same attention in learning to see. Painters who start relying on what they think they know end up being caricatures of themselves. Painting isn’t about what you think you see or know; it’s about what’s actually there.

What’s actually there is always deeper and more complex than what we expect. For example, shadows can be a surprising range of cools and warms, the combination of the absence of light and reflected color. Out my window the bare maples are are a million shades of blue-grey, with shifting edges and values in the rising sun. Just like on the trail, when I slow down and really look, the ordinary becomes complex and, more importantly, beautiful.

Slow down, you move too fast

Our brains are wired to be efficient, to compress information. It’s highly useful to recognize “Man-eating tiger” and follow that up with “Run!” That might be a lifesaver but is the enemy of deep looking. Painters constantly fight that biological imperative.

Successful painters resist that first read. They question spatial and value relationships, draw, think, look and draw again. They develop the habit of visual concentration.

Seeing clearly is difficult. We all have blind spots; we all fall back into shorthand. We can spend months or years repeating the same mistakes.

Beauchamp Point, Autumn Leaves, 12X16, oil on archival canvasboard, click on image for more details.

An unbiased eye

Good critique doesn’t tell you what’s wrong; it teaches you how to see differently. It slows you down in the same way a rocky trail does. It forces you to notice what you’ve been skipping over.

If you’re ready to sharpen your eye and start seeing your paintings with more clarity, I invite you to join my Fresh Eyes Critique Zoom class on Tuesday evenings, 6-9 PM on April 14, 21 and 28. After that, you’re on your own for a while, because I’ll be in the Cotswolds, looking.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

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All creativity starts with structure

Downtown Rockport, 14X18, oil on archival canvasboard, for more details click on the image.

On Monday, I reviewed outtakes from Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters, a go-at-your-own-pace painting class for people just starting with oil paint. I was looking for an explanation of the fat-over-lean concept for my current Zoom classes and I figured the easiest solution was to review what I’ve already said on the subject. I came away with two thoughts:

I liked my hair better when it was longer.

OK, given that my hair was wet in the left-hand photo, I still regret cutting it off.

More importantly, watching those videos reminded me of just how hard I worked to master talking to a camera. I can now reel off a short video without breaking a sweat. That wasn’t true when I started.

All creativity starts with structure

Painting and making videos feel like two very different disciplines. At their core, however, they demand the same habits of mind. That’s true of most creative disciplines. I recently showed some students a dress I designed and sewed. “Did you do sculpture in the past?” one asked. Not much, but they demand many of the same skills.

Creativity rests on structure. That’s as much about time management as anything. When we were making the videos, my daughter Laura and I laid out daily work paths. When I’m painting, I lay out a similar map.

An instructional video depends on clear sequencing: what comes first, what can wait, and how each step leads logically to the next. That’s true of painting too. In both cases, you’re guiding a viewer through complexity without letting them feel lost.

Heavy Weather (Ketch Angelique), 24X36, oil on canvas, framed, for more information, click on the image.

Ruthless editing

Laura and I recorded hundreds of hours of video for Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters. I draw relentlessly before I start a painting, and sometimes scrap projects that are going nowhere. If it doesn’t serve the purpose, it has to go—no matter how much time I’ve invested in it.

When we paint, we (hopefully) reduce the chaos of the visible world into shapes, values and color relationships. When I teach painting, I have to distill complicated ideas into digestible pieces. That’s why I ask my students frequently, “does that track?”

Pacing, timing and rhythm

Paintings develop in layers, each stroke building on the last. Move too fast and you mess up; move too slowly, and you lose momentum. Instructional videos demand that same balance. Linger too long on a point and your audience drifts; rush it and they’re confused. I got better at that over time.

The human touch

I haven’t figured out yet how to turn off Gemini’s stupid distillations of my emails. It can’t help being dumb; it’s a machine. Real art and real teaching require humanity and empathy. The painter must anticipate how a viewer will respond.  A teacher must anticipate where a student will stumble. The creator must constantly step outside himself.

Home Port, oil on canvas. 18X24. For more information, click on the image.

Imperfection is not failure

Nothing we do in this world is perfect. Furthermore, nothing ever gets learned by just watching videos or reading. Until you pick up the tools, nothing sticks (which is why there are exercises in Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters).

It’s easier to sit on the couch reading or watching videos about art than making art, because there’s risk in trying. As long as we only imagine ourselves as creators we don’t have to face our inevitable screwups. Yes, our early efforts are clumsy, but that’s not failure; it’s the process.

If you want to study with me

Experienced painters can take my Zoom class Fresh Eyes (Critique), a short, three-week session on Tuesday evenings in April.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

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Two short Zoom painting classes coming soon

Hammerhead cumulonimbus cloud over Posse Grounds Park, 9X12, oil on canvasboard, private collection.

My daughter Laura had convinced me to not teach a short intersession class in late April, but then I realized I’d be away for six weeks total. (I’m off to do my annual hike before the summer season starts in earnest, this time in the Cotswolds.) I’m worried that six weeks is too long; students will want instruction and the camaraderie of a class and I won’t be there to provide it.

I’ve only got three weeks available so I’ve chosen two subjects that are suitable for a shorter session.

Fog over Whiteface Mountain, 11X14, click on image for more details.

Monday evenings, April 13-27, 6-9 PM: Painting clouds

Clouds are ephemeral, constantly shifting, and yet governed by perspective and structure. In this focused Zoom class, we’ll break clouds down in terms of value, color temperature, atmosphere, edges and movement.

You’ll learn how clouds form in the sky and how that affects how they look from the ground. We’ll concentrate on simplifying their complex shapes and building subtle transitions that give clouds weight and light. We’ll talk about how weather, time of day and perspective change what you see, and how to translate that into paint without fussing it to death.

This is not formulaic painting. It’s based on observing patterns in nature, editing, and confident brushwork. As always, you’ll get direct feedback, practical demonstrations and the benefit of working alongside a thoughtful, supportive group of your painter peers. All media are welcome and all sessions are recorded so you can revisit them anytime.

This short, 3-session class is designed to be a low-pressure way to sharpen your eye. Because of the shorter format, it’s also the perfect opportunity to give weekly Zoom classes a try.

If skies have been your sticking point, this is your way forward.

Sign up now and start painting clouds with clarity and purpose.

Teslin Lake, 8X10, oil on archival canvasboard, click on image for more details.

Tuesday evenings, April 14-28, 6-9 PM: Critique

Every artist eventually hits a wall where they can no longer see their own work clearly. Formal critique is the most effective tool we have to break through those plateaus—it isn’t about subjective likes or dislikes, but about the disciplined, systematic analysis of a painting.

In this Zoom critique class, you’ll bring your finished work and we’ll look at it together with fresh, objective eyes. We’ll cut through the noise and get to the core issues: composition, value structure, color relationships, and intent.

More importantly, you’ll learn to critique your own work in progress, rather than work yourself into a state of frustration because ‘something isn’t right.’

You’ll learn just as much from others’ work as your own. Seeing how different painters solve (or create) problems sharpens your judgment far faster than working in isolation. It’s a collaborative, thoughtful environment where honest feedback moves everyone forward.

Dawn along Upper Red Rock Loop Road, Sedona, 20X24 oil on canvas, click on image for more details.

Critique, by the way, is never about tearing work down. It’s about building your ability to assess, edit, and strengthen your paintings with confidence.

Students will bring work they’ve done on their own for analysis within the group. If you’ve never experienced a formal critique, this 3-session series is the perfect entry point. As a group, we’ll put our minds to the problems you’ve been struggling to solve alone. This shorter format is also an ideal way to test-drive a Zoom-based class.

Reserve your spot now and start seeing your work the way it really is—and what it can become.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

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Am I being selfish?

The Pine Tree State, 6X8, oil on archival canvasboard, $348 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Am I being selfish?

I hope you’re all sitting quietly amid the remnants of Christmas and Hanukkah. I’m always glad to celebrate with my loved ones (and almost as glad to be done with it). This year, however, I’m on a mad rush to paint the rooms in my daughter’s first house so they can move in this weekend.

There’s a nagging little voice that I’d like to stomp out whenever it shows up in my life. It sounds practical, even virtuous. Isn’t this selfish? Shouldn’t I be spending this money and time on something more useful? I know that voice well; it torments me by telling me to do administrative tasks before painting. For others, it’s particularly loud when they consider signing up for a painting workshop.

I’ve spent my life hearing how art is secondary to the serious pursuits of math, science, history and economics. We tend to treat art education as optional, but scores of studies point to its importance both for the developing mind and for adults.  That moves it up in priority, from something you earn only after all responsibilities are met to something that’s vital for health and happiness.

No other discipline is framed this way. Nobody suggests that continuing education for engineers, teachers, or physicians is selfish. In those fields, learning is understood as maintenance. Painting is no different. If you care about your work, you need input—fresh eyes, structured guidance, and time to think deeply about what you’re doing.

The Late Bus, oil on archival canvasboard, 6X8, $435.00 framed, includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Self-indulgence or stewardship?

When you enroll in a painting workshop or online class, you’re hardly buying a luxury object. You’re investing in skill, clarity, and confidence. These are durable goods. They don’t wear out. They compound. A single breakthrough in understanding composition, value structure, or color harmony can quietly reshape every painting you make going forward. That’s not selfish; that’s efficient.

The Road to Seward, 6X8, oil on archival canvasboard, $348 includes shipping and handling in the continental US.

At a good painting workshop, you’re no longer guessing in isolation. You see how other painters solve problems. You learn why certain approaches fail and others succeed. Most importantly, you learn how to look. That’s the real product of art education, and it can’t be downloaded from a quick video or absorbed by osmosis.

Most painters don’t lack ability; they lack time and space. A workshop gives you sanctioned time to focus on your practice without apology. For caretakers, professionals, and anyone used to putting themselves last, this can feel transgressive. But it’s precisely why it matters. When you invest in your creative life, you model seriousness—about art, about learning, and about your own inner life.

From a practical standpoint, workshops often save time and money in the long run. How many years have you spent circling the same problems? Muddy color. Weak focal points. Paintings that never quite resolve. A few days of clear instruction can untangle issues that have stalled progress for a decade. That’s not extravagance; it’s problem-solving.

Last light at Cobequid Bay, 6X8, oil on archival canvasboard, $348 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

But wait, there’s more

Art isn’t just something you produce. It’s something that shapes how you think. Painting teaches patience, discernment and restraint. It trains you to make choices, live with them, and revise intelligently. Those skills don’t stay in the studio. They ripple outward into how you handle uncertainty everywhere else.

Investing in a painting workshop isn’t selfish; it’s a vote of confidence in your capacity to grow. And that’s one of the most responsible choices an artist can make.

I’d love to have you join me for Trust the Process (making technique tell the story you want to tell), my live Zoom class designed to help you build a dependable, joyful, repeatable painting practice. (It’ll give you something to focus on besides the bleak midwinter.) We’ll dig into technique, creative decision-making and the mindset that frees you to paint with confidence. We meet Monday nights, 6-9 PM EST, starting on January 5, 2026. It’s suitable for all levels and all media. You can learn more here.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

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Why care about composition?

Forgotten Man, 1937, Maynard Dixon, courtesy Brigham Young University Museum of Art

Composition is the quiet engine of a successful painting. It’s the part viewers feel before they start thinking rationally. It’s also the part painters often skip past too quickly. I’m busy writing my upcoming Zoom class, Trust the Process (making technique tell the story you want to tell), and of course composition is a big part of that.

Rouen Cathedral, Full Sunlight, 1894, Claude Monet, courtesy Musée d’Orsay

The first pillar of composition is harmony

Harmony in notan is about space cutting—the abstract division of the picture into dark and light shapes. This is not strict value modeling or chiaroscuro. It’s closer to pattern and rhythm. When Whistler painted Symphony in White, No. 2, he wasn’t describing light so much as arranging shapes.

Harmony in line is about the boundaries between shapes and the relationships between those boundaries and the surrounding space. The Charioteer of Delphi is a masterclass in this. Even in stillness, the interlocking lines guide the eye with clarity and restraint. Strong line harmony keeps a painting readable from across the room.

Harmony in color depends on hue, saturation, and value working together. Monet’s Rouen Cathedral series shows how disciplined color harmony can create vastly different moods using the same motif. Color isn’t decoration; it’s structure.

Vitruvian Man, c. 1490, Leonardo da Vinci, courtesy Gallerie dell’Accademia

What’s my number one rule?

If you’ve taken any of my classes, you’ve probably already answered, “Don’t be boring!” All rules can be broken, but only once you know what they are. Jacques Henri Lartigue’s Cousin Bichonnade works precisely because it bends expectations with confidence. Predictability is the real enemy, and that means being unpredictable even to yourself.

Dividing the frame in interesting ways helps avoid that trap. The rule of thirds is just the very beginning. There’s no law that says you can’t put the subject smack dab in the center of your composition. Look no farther than Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man to see the power of symmetry and geometry in design.

Maynard Dixon’s Forgotten Man and Abandoned Ranch demonstrate how restraint, scale, and placement create emotional gravity. Both tell the story of the Great Depression indirectly, yet powerfully. Which brings us to focal points, which are different from the subject of a painting. Know what and where they are before you paint. Use contrast and line to support them—and never park them on the edge of the canvas.

Before the Race, 1882–1884, Edgar Degas, courtesy The Walters Art Museum

Finally, consider the motive line, or kinetic line. It’s tied to the major area of focus, divides contrasting values, and must be complex and intentional. Edgar Degas and Winslow Homer both used motive line to energize still scenes, guiding the viewer through the painting with quiet authority.

Want to learn more about this? I’d love to have you join me for Trust the Process (making technique tell the story you want to tell), my live Zoom class designed to help you build a dependable, joyful, repeatable painting practice. We’ll dig into technique, creative decision-making and the mindset that frees you to paint with confidence. We meet Monday nights, 6-9 PM EST, starting on January 5, 2026. It’s suitable for all levels and all media. You can learn more here.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

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Two new Zoom classes for January

Possum, 6X8, oil on archival canvasboard, $435 includes shipping in continental US.

Careful readers of this blog know that I completely mangled Wednesday’s post about upcoming workshops. I was in Boston with my husband for a medical procedure, feeling oh, so smug about my efficiency in the face of stress, and then, bam, I created a mess that took Laura half a day to fix.

I rather like these reminders that none of us are endlessly elastic; we’re all subject to human limitation.

Here are my new classes for January. I am very excited about them both, since they’re a deeper dive into painting than simple “learn to paint.” The Monday class is about making room for the narrative, symbolic part of painting, by letting process guide the mechanical part. The Tuesday class is an exploration of the movements in art that have come before us, so that you, as a painter, can make informed choices about where you fit in the bigger world of painting.

If you have questions, feel free to email me.

Tin Foil Hat, 6X8, oil on archival canvasboard, $435 includes shipping in continental US.

Trust the Process: making technique tell the story you want to tell

Monday evenings, 6-9 PM
January 5, 12, 19, 26
February 2, 9

In Trust the Process, we focus on building a painting practice that supports your ideas instead of getting in their way. This class is about finding repeatable methods that make painting feel fluid, approachable, and reliable. You can stop wrestling with technique and start communicating clearly through your work.

Each session guides you through a structured but flexible approach: a way of working that you can return to again and again. You’ll learn to set up a process that’s both efficient and freeing. That starts with how you begin a painting, to how you develop layers, to when you know it’s time to stop. The goal isn’t to make every painting the same, but to create a foundation that lets your ideas move easily from imagination to finished painting.

We’ll experiment with systems that encourage consistency, including color palettes that simplify decisions, brush techniques that build confidence and layering methods that create depth without overworking. By repeating certain moves and sequences, you’ll find that the how of painting becomes second nature, freeing your attention for the why.

You’ll leave with a repeatable workflow you can adapt to any subject or idea, and the assurance that your practice can sustain momentum over time.

Trust the Process is designed for painters who want to stop flailing around and work smarter, not harder. By refining your process, you’ll discover that creativity doesn’t require chaos. It just needs a dependable path — one you can walk every day, confident that your technique will always rise to meet your ideas. To register, click here.

Toy Monkey and Candy, oil on archival canvasboard, $435 framed.

Where Do I Fit In?

Tuesday evenings, 6-9 PM
Jan 6, 13, 20, 27
February 3, 10

Ever wonder where your art belongs in the grand conversation of art history? This class invites you to explore your creative identity through the lens of the great movements that shaped the visual world.

Together, we’ll look at how artists have defined, challenged, and redefined what it means to make art. After a 30–45-minute guided discussion, we’ll move on to your paintings for the week, as you experiment with materials, methods and ideas inspired by each movement, discovering which resonate most deeply with your own artistic voice. You’ll begin to see how your work connects or pushes against historical traditions.

This isn’t about imitation; it’s about insight. By the end of the class, you’ll have a stronger understanding of your own style, an appreciation of the lineage you’re part of, and a body of work that reflects your evolving sense of place in the art world. Come ready to explore, question, and create — and find out where you fit in. To register, click here.

(Class requirement: some painting experience and a lot of intellectual curiosity.)

Stuffed animal in a bowl, with Saran Wrap. 6X8, oil on archival canvasboard, $435.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

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Learn to Paint in 2026: Plein Air Painting Workshops with Carol L. Douglas

Carol L. Douglas painting at Acadia National Park
Carol L. Douglas painting at Acadia National Park
Carol L. Douglas teaching painting at Schoodic Point, Acadia National Park. Courtesy Sharron Prairie.

If you’ve ever dreamed of learning to paint outdoors — to capture light, color, and atmosphere right from life — 2026 is your year. Join me, Carol L. Douglas, for a new season of plein air painting workshops across some of America’s most inspiring landscapes: coastal Maine, the Berkshires, and the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona.

Whether you’re a beginner wanting to learn to paint from scratch, or an experienced artist ready to refine your technique, these workshops are designed to help you paint with confidence, structure, and joy.

Carol L. Douglas painting at Acadia National Park
Cassie Sano’s painting of Undermountain Farm’s Victorian barn from the Berkshire workshop.

What you’ll learn

Each workshop combines plein air painting, focused demos, and individual coaching. Together we’ll explore:

  • Composition and design — how to simplify complex scenes into strong, readable paintings.
  • Color theory — how to mix vibrant, believable color for light, shadow, and atmosphere.
  • Value control — understanding contrast to bring structure to your work.
  • Mark-making and brushwork — developing an expressive, personal style.
  • On-location problem-solving — painting outdoors in changing light and weather.

These workshops are about learning to see what’s in front of you and translating that into paint.

2026 Plein Air Workshop Schedule

Canyon Color for the Painter – Sedona, AZ, March 9–13, 2026
Explore the vivid palette of Sedona’s red rocks. This Arizona plein air painting workshop emphasizes bold color, composition, capturing the heat and glow of desert light. Click here to learn more.

Carol L. Douglas painting at Acadia National Park
Sunlight and shadows (Sedona, AZ), Carol L. Douglas, oil on birch, 14X18, private collection.

Advanced Plein Air Painting – Rockport, ME, July 13-17, 2026
Back home on the coast of Maine, this session focuses on strengthening structure, value, and visual storytelling. Ideal for returning students ready to deepen their plein air practice. (If I don’t know you, I need to see a portfolio before you’re admitted. This is my only workshop that’s limited to advanced painters.) Click here to learn more.

Sea & Sky – Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park, ME, August 2–7, 2026
A week painting the wild, wind-swept beauty of Acadia. Learn to handle shifting light and ocean atmosphere in oils, acrylics, or watercolor. Click here to learn more.

Find Your Authentic Voice in Plein Air – Berkshires (Lenox), MA, August 10–14, 2026
This Massachusetts painting workshop blends landscape study with artistic self-discovery. Perfect if you want to strengthen both your technical and expressive skills. Click here to learn more.

Carol L. Douglas painting workshops 2026
Larky Morning at Rockport Harbor, 11X14, on linen, $869 unframed includes shipping in continental US.

NEW! Color Clinic 2026 – NEW! Color Clinic 2026 – Rockport, ME, October 3-4, 2026
A focused color workshop exploring temperature, harmony, and color design. Learn to mix with purpose and paint with emotion. Click here to learn more.

NEW! Composition Week 2026 – Rockport, ME, October 5-9, 2026
Strong composition is the backbone of every great painting. This studio-based week dives deep into structure, rhythm, and creating balance on the canvas. Click here to learn more.

Who should attend

These plein air painting workshops are for artists of all levels (including beginners) who want to:

  • Build stronger foundations in drawing, value, and color.
  • Push past pretty to create meaningful, well-composed paintings.
  • Work outdoors with confidence — even when the light changes.
  • Join a supportive community of painters who love learning.

What you’ll take home

By the end of your workshop, you’ll leave with:

  • Finished plein air studies and field sketches.
  • A clear process for approaching any subject.
  • More confidence in color mixing and decision-making.
  • A refreshed, inspired outlook on your painting practice.

Why learn to paint outdoors

Plein air is simply the best training for artists. It teaches editing, observation and adaptability, which are skills that improve every kind of painting. When you paint from life, you stop copying and start interpreting. You learn to trust your eyes, your brush and your intuition.

Learning to paint isn’t about talent. It’s about curiosity, practice and guidance. My workshops give you all three.

Ready to join us?

Workshops fill quickly. View the full schedule and register here.

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Monday Morning Art School: six things that matter in painting

Deadwood, oil on linen, 30X40, $5072.00 framed, includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Painting is not magic, it’s craft. No matter whether you’re working through studio oil painting techniques, watercolor experiments or exploring plein air painting, mastering these six essentials will improve your work.

See accurately

Before a brush ever touches canvas, train your eye. Accurate seeing underpins strong painting.

Downtown Rockport, 14X18, oil on archival canvasboard, framed, $1594 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Learn to handle materials with confidence

  • Technical fluency frees you to focus on expression.
  • Know the proper ground for the medium you’ve chosen and the difference between good and mediocre papers, canvases and panels.
  • The only way to know your brushes is to experiment with them. That means use different types of brushes and strokes. It also means you should experiment with other ways to move paint, such as palette knifes, silicone chisels, credit cards or rag rollers.
  • Clean color mixing is a skill that takes a while to learn, but understanding how pigments and paints behave is the only way to avoid muddy results.
  • Understanding how solvents, oils, gels and retarders impact your paint is fundamental.

Compose with intention

Great paintings are designed, not accidental.

  • Draw, baby, draw: work it out in advance in your sketchbook before committing to paint. Those minutes you spend will save you hours down the road.
  • Establish clear focal points and build your painting around them.
  • Apply the design principles of balance, rhythm, unity, variety and movement.
  • Decide at the beginning what to include and what to leave out. Composition is about editing as much as drawing.

Work from life

Plein air painting teaches you to simplify, to respond to changing light, to see values and forms quickly, and to lay the image in without perseverating over the details.

Working from life teaches more than working from photos ever will. Even if you ultimately end up working from photo references, painting from life is invaluable for training your observation skills. The more practice you have painting from life, the less chained you are to photo references and the more you can draw from your internal vision.

Victoria Street, 16X20, oil on linen in a hard maple frame, $2029 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Solve problems creatively

Every painting I’ve ever done started off brilliantly (in my head) and eventually reached an ‘oh, dang’ moment when its shortcomings became obvious. The difference between success and failure was in how I responded.

  • Step back and analyze objectively.
  • Make bold corrections rather than fussing endlessly over details.
  • Quit noodling.

Build a sustained practice

This is the least-glamorous part of life as an artist.

  • Paint regularly—even when uninspired—to build consistency and skill.
  • Learn to critique your own work on the fly.
  • Learn some art history; you’re part of a many-thousands-year-old tradition, after all.
Camden Harbor from Curtis Island, oil on canvas, $2782 unframed includes shipping and handling in continental United States.

Bonus for those pursuing painting as professionals

  • Good presentation supports your credibility. At a minimum, that means a website, business cards, and a resume.
  • Develop your personal voice through repetition and reflection.
  • Understand the art market: galleries, pricing, marketing are part of the professional painter’s toolkit.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

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Monday Morning Art School: 5 simple things you can do to instantly improve your paintings

American Eagle in Drydock, 12X16, $1159 unframed includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Improvement doesn’t necessarily come from grand gestures like buying new brushes. The biggest leaps come from simple, repeatable, immediate actions. These are things you can do today to make tomorrow’s paintings stronger. Here are five that never fail.

Skylarking, 24X36, oil on canvas, $3985 framed includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Take off your glasses or squint

I’m nearsighted; I paint with my glasses on a string around my neck and they’re there only because I need them to drive home. Some of you were unfortunately born with perfect eyesight. For you there’s only one remedy: squint.

Blurriness simplifies the world. It mutes unnecessary detail and helps you see big shapes, value relationships and underlying design. Paintings fall apart when we chase every detail without considering how they fit into the whole. Before you touch your brush, remove your glasses or squint until you see only three or four major value shapes. Then paint those. Detail is for the end of a painting, and it’s not always necessary.

Breaking Storm, oil on linen, 30X48, $5579 framed includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Stop buying more paint

You don’t need three trays of watercolors or 40 tubes of oil paint to make great color. In fact, that just stops you from learning color theory. That’s why I suggest paired primaries, which are just a warm and cool version of each primary. I augment them with a few earth pigments because they’re cheap and versatile, and (in solid media) white. Mixing within them teaches you, whereas buying lots of paint just impoverishes you.

Buying more paint can be a form of flailing around. It can be displacement behavior; it’s simply easier than buckling down, especially when what’s on your easel isn’t going well.

Step back and look

There’s a maxim that a painting should compel from thirty feet, three feet, and three inches. That just means it needs to draw you in from across the room and hold your interest once you’re close. It’s amazing how different a painting looks from a few feet away. Up close, a passage can look and feel like a struggle to the death. From a distance, it’s just a patch of color in either the right or wrong place.

Make stepping back part of your rhythm. If, say, you’re standing on a cliff and you can’t back up, take a photo on your phone. That creates an emotional distance that’s almost as useful.

Camden Harbor, Midsummer, oil on canvas, 24X36 $3188 includes shipping in continental US.

Simplify, simplify

Every painting ought to be a distillation of a truth, not a transcript of an event. Ask yourself, what is the story? Then edit out the extraneous detail that doesn’t support it. If your painting is about an old house, don’t get lost in the weeds. If your painting is about those blackberry brambles, don’t get lost in the house’s trim.

Those are decisions that should be made in the composition phase. Everything irrelevant should be subservient to the point you’re trying to convey.

Paint more

Skill doesn’t arrive like a thunderclap. It grows, one session at a time. You can read, talk, and think about art all day long, but there’s no substitute for time in front of a canvas. Twenty minutes of focused drawing or painting will move you forward faster than hours of browsing. Set your alarm early tomorrow and paint something small. You’ll surprise yourself. That’s why daily paint challenges are so helpful; they get us moving even when we don’t feel like it.

Improving as a painter isn’t about waiting for inspiration or reinventing your technique. It’s about building better habits, right now, with what you already have.

So go ahead—squint, simplify, mix from a smaller palette, step back, and paint more often. Those five small choices will do more for your art than any magic brush ever could.