Shari Blaukopf
September 8-13, 2024
Landscapes, Towns and Villages in Watercolour
Shari Blaukopf, a Montreal-based painter, teacher, author and art blogger joins the Big Sky Art team of Tutors in 2024, and we is best known for her urban scenes in watercolour. She has a BFA from Concordia University with a specialisation in graphic design, but her true love has always been watercolour painting. Her work is held in corporate, government and private collections in North America and abroad, and she has been featured in many books on urban sketching. She travels widely to paint and to share her distinctive approach in sold-out workshops devoted to sketching and painting en plein air.
Shari is a correspondent for UrbanSketchers.org, co-founder of Urban Sketchers Montreal, and signature member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. You can find her online courses at Learn.ShariBlaukopf.com and Craftsy.com. Her book, The Urban Sketching Handbook: Working with Color, was published in 2019 by Quarry Books. She has led many watercolour workshops both on her own and through the Urban Sketchers Workshop Program in North America, Europe and Asia.
Says Shari: I was fortunate to spend some summers in Maine studying with Edgar A. Whitney, and I don't think I could talk about painting in watercolour without giving a nod to this great master. The elements and principles of design that he taught — in his entertaining and often emphatic way — come back to me every time I compose a painting or a sketch. That's the mark of a truly remarkable teacher, and a model that I try to emulate when I give my own workshops.
I am absolutely delighted to be giving my first workshop with Big Sky Art. I’ve always preferred to work en plein air, when every sense is totally engaged. For this workshop, I will be demonstrating how a sketchbook can enhance every travel experience. In my own travels, I sketch all the time, and expect to return home with a sketchbook positively bursting with landscapes, architecture, watercraft, portraits and vignettes. These sketches are not necessarily studies toward are larger work — although sometimes they do turn out to be exactly that. Rather, they are rapid impressions and thoughts that convey the wonder and excitement I feel in each new place.
As a tutor, I begin each day with a plein air demo, and then circulate among the workshop participants. My goal is to help each participant to strengthen their way of seeing and sketching — to enable their individual style to shine through. And, of course, to return home with a sketchbook bursting with memories.
