Urban Watercolour: Streets, Buildings & City Scenes

Explore the city through watercolour.

Join us for a relaxed, hands-on watercolour workshop inspired by the urban landscape. We’ll look at the shapes, textures, light and atmosphere that make our streets and buildings so interesting to paint.

You’ll learn how to turn everyday urban scenes into expressive watercolour paintings, whether you’re drawn to grand architecture, quiet laneways, cosy shopfronts, old buildings or the organised chaos of the city.

We’ll explore techniques including:

• Creating simple architectural forms and perspective without getting bogged down in technical drawing
• Using washes to suggest skies, walls, streets and reflections
• Building texture and detail with confident brushwork
• Working with light and shadow to give buildings dimension
• Suggesting windows, doors, signs and street details with minimal marks
• Using colour to capture atmosphere rather than simply reproducing what you see
• Adding people, cars, trees and other details to bring a scene to life
• Loosening up your approach and embracing the happy accidents of watercolour

You’ll work from a selection of urban reference images and be encouraged to develop your own interpretation rather than simply copying a photograph.

No previous watercolour experience is required. Whether you’re a complete beginner or looking to loosen up and develop your existing practice, you’ll leave with new techniques, ideas and a collection of urban-inspired studies to continue exploring.

Come paint the places we pass every day; and discover how much magic there is in an ordinary street.