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Sue Archer In Person workshop details

We are offering an in person, 3-day, watercolor COMMANDING COLOR, a COLOR THEORY WORKSHOP with award winning artist SUE ARCHER, NWS, AWS, TWSA, FWS

A course designed to inspire your creativity by learning to “see” and experience some of the different aspects of color theory and painting light on objects. Color is one of the elements of design!

“My goal as an instructor is to present you with information about COLOR THEORY to add to your core of knowledge regardless of your medium. I believe in the power of planning and understanding the basics. The objective here is not to change you, but to take you to another level. Then it is up to you to take this  knowledge and apply it to the medium, genre, style and subject matter that suits you.”

In this workshop watercolor-painters will be exposed to the importance of pigment quality, the importance of considering the white paper as a “color”, and how to achieve darks. All medium-painters will be exposed to   all other aspects of color theory for painters.

Topics to be discussed: Color Theory – Achieving colorful darks – Pigment quality – Psychology of color –Importance of value and shape – Unity – Saving white paper – Intent – Showing strong light on objects.

Her award-winning paintings are exhibited in national, regional, and state competitions and hang in numerous corporate and private collections throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and South America. She has won over 200 state and national awards in outdoor shows and indoor competitive exhibitions.

For more insight into her workshop, visit:  https://sue-archer-watercolors.com/site/workshops/

Cheap JOe’s interview with Sue Archer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvjqoZGXcrE&t=333s

Location of workshop: Hopper Academy, 1101 Pine Ave., Sanford, Fla. 32771

Dates: March 7th,8th, 9th 2022   Hours: 9am. to 4pm.

Fee: $300.00 early bird, for members, before Sunday Jan. 23rd, 2022

$325.00 for members, after January 23rd ,2022 –  .

Non-Members $400.00

For more information about the benefits of being a CFWS member and our online membership registration, go to our Membership Registration.

Space is limited, act now!

CLICK ON THE WORKSHOPS TAB ON THE HOME PAGE TO FILL OUT THE REGISTER FORM.
Workshop participants will receive list of supplies, to prepare for the workshop. Students bring their own photos, for any subject, printed out at approximately 8×10. Make sure references have side light on the subject.

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Watercolor workshops, from French Escapade

French Escapade – painting workshops and plein air to hone your skills

For our artists who are  interested… here are some opportunities to take some very good workshops from renowned artists like :

Carrie Waller, Sept. 9 -12, Ginkgo Tea

Michael Reardon, Sept. 27 & 28, Surf, sand and Paris

Caro Carter, Oct. 2 & 3, Blue Mood

Keiko Tanabe, Oct. 11 & 12, Boats in Asian Landscape

Laurie Warren Goldstein, Nov. 3 & 4, Art glass in watercolor

and many many more!

French Escapade has many online workshops for you to enjoy more painting with master artists. They also offer plein air painting vacations for fun and travel.

Check them out:    https://frenchescapade.com

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Don Andrews workshop recap-in case you missed it


We had a wonderful workshop experience with Don Andrews during our February Workshop. He taught us a lot of things, starting with setting up our palettes like a color wheel. Cerulean blue, Scarlet red and Lemon yellow were some of his true primaries, while Ultramarine blue , Permanent magenta and Burnt sienna were his dark primaries. You can build an entire painting with these colors.


Don demonstrated how to granulate colors by using a wet into wet technique and painting in the 3 primaries and letting them mix on the paper for a beautiful effect. The goal is to make a colorful page in harmony.

There are 4 basic design plans for a painting:  

  1. Light surrounded by dark or middle values, like the Spanish mission he did in the dome on Sunday.
  2. Dark surrounded by middle and light.
  3. Light/dark surrounded by middle.
  4. Alternation of lighter area next to darker area next to lighter area and so on.


Don’t copy reality. Painting is not brush strokes but planning and design. No art is real, it is better than real. Like a real bumble bee compared to the musical “Flight of the Bumblebee”.

Take a series of photos and integrate them into a painting composition. Think like an artist, not a reporter.

Saving whites in paintings can be stark so put light washes over them, or add shadows or people.


Simplify patterns, one way is to overlap things to create an interesting pattern rather than paint one thing net to another. Patterns make unity and tie things together. Make one or two things darker to bring it forward. For instance, geometrics are boring so overlap and make them oblique.


To help move the eye through a scene use what Ed Whitney called “Papa, Momma, baby bear” shapes – moving from one to another, papa place in the middle of the other two. Uneven groupings provide interest. Contrast attracts the eye as well as hard edges.


When putting figures in landscapes he never paints feet or fingers. A good rule of thumb is that the head should occupy 10%, the torso is 50% and the legs are 40%. Tie the figure to the ground with a shadow.

As far as equipment goes, he likes to use Robert Simmons white sable synthetic brushes, in number 10 and 12 and mix colors in a traditional butcher plate or two.


It was exhausting and exhilarating. Thank you so much to the hard workings students who learned and had fun in a stress-free environment.


Thank you to McRae Art studios for providing the light filled atmosphere in a beautiful studio setting. And Don Andrews who taught us with humor, examples and lots of demos! For those who missed it he has a new “Designing Nature” course through his website. We all came away with many plans for our next paintings.