Watercolor Workshop with Michael Reardon

The Bridge Across the Creek, my 1st day painting

Just before our summer sailing trip I was able to take a watercolor workshop with Michael Reardon. Reardon is teaches many workshops near my location in Northern California and I’d heard taught architectural rendering in w/c. In fact, I thought that was what the workshop was going to be about.

The workshop was hosted on a Friday and Saturday by the California Watercolor Association at the California State East Bay campus in Concord. I thought crossing the Benicia Bridge on Friday might tough, but there was really no problem traffic. There are also several different routes to get to Ygnacio Valley Road from Hwy 680, so many options to get there with the bonus of several Starbucks along the route.

Michael liked to to a demo in the morning and then have us work on our own paintings for the rest of the day. My only issues were 1) we received poor guidance on which reference images to bring, and 2) there were too many students for such a short workshop. I had many more appropriate references had I known what he would demo. Once I started on an image, it took a long time for Michael to get back to me. I felt my painting on the last day failed because I couldn’t get enough help.

That said, I would still highly recommend a Reardon workshop because this may just be the information I needed to take the next step in my watercolors. I don’t know if I’ve heard this information enough times that I’m finally getting it, or whether the way he explained things just clicked. Either way, I’m excited that I may be able to actually paint what I envision rather than end up with disappointments . I have his book with me also, and I can recommend it highly also.
Images from the workshop