Janet Pedersen & Susan Greenstein – Strengthening Your Plein Air Practice During the Winter Months (Online); Tuesdays, January 20 & 27, 2026

Mediums: Open to all mediums
Level: All
Class Dates: Tuesdays, January 20 & 27, 2026
Class Times:
• noon-2:00 pm Pacific Time
• 3:00 pm-5:00 pm Eastern Time
• 8:00 pm-10:00 pm UK Time

This live online workshop focuses on extending plein air and travel-based work into the studio. Through demonstrations, guided exercises, and group discussion, students will learn practical strategies for developing stronger, more confident paintings.

Day 1

• Discussing plein air painting and ways to get ready for painting this way

  We will be discussing what excites both Janet and Susan in their plein air practice. What has made their plein air practice approachable and enjoyable?

• Simplifying complex scenes and establishing strong structure

             How can we find the essence, the most important shapes and values to begin a strong painting.                             How can we find these?

• Looking at artists that simplify complex scenes
• Observing and translating natural light and color relationships

We will discuss color relationships and tips that can help to make color work well in your   compositions.

• Demonstration and guided exercises

             We will demonstrate how we begin a plein air painting and how we look for big shapes and look for the value relationships.

• Group discussion

We will have time to discuss all aspects of what was covered this session as well as the prompt we will give for the following session.

Day 2

• Looking art work by artists that create inside/outside paintings
• Looking art work of each participant and discuss. 

  What was challenging? What discoveries were made?

Demonstration

Janet and Susan will demonstrate how to build upon the first steps they began last week and show how to build upon that without losing the fresh and spontaneous qualities.

• Continuing and resolving paintings in the studio

How can we continue to work on paintings started as plein air paintings in our studios (or kitchen table) and hold on to the freshness we developed initially?

• Strengthening composition, color, and edges

We will discuss each aspect as we look at work created by participants.

Working from travel sketches and photos without losing spontaneity

How can we capture the essentials and eliminate the unimportant or distracting details?

• Streamlining materials and creating an efficient, travel-ready set up

Janet and Susan will share how they have pared down their plein air set up for maximum efficiency and readiness for any plain air experience.

• Feedback, and wrap-up discussion

We will have time to discuss all aspects of what was covered this session