Pre-tax total cost of workshop: $520 (includes $25 registration fee), 30% deposit: $156
Dates: Friday October 30 – Sunday, November 1, 2026 (9am – 4pm)
Location: *Off-Site* Mike Wise’s Studio, 560 Hill Valley Dr Coupeville
Materials: Wise- Supply List.pdf
Level: Some experience painting and color mixing is required
Medium: For oil, acrylic

Lakes, Streams, Waterfalls: Capturing the movement and reflective quality of water in the landscape

Join Mike in his studio for a intense information packed workshop. Mike will demonstrate in oil his painting techniques from initial concept, blocking in, middleground modeling, top layer impasto finishwork. All workshops follow a similar flow with an equal balance of demonstrations and student painting time. Mike will demonstrate both in the morning and after noon each day his complete approach to painting, from white canvas to finished picture. He will cover everything from the basic to advanced techniques. Mike’s demonstrations will cover values, massing, edges, drawing, paint handling, mediums, tools, supports and anything else that goes into painting. For oil, acrylic.

In addition to the above this class will have special emphasis on water, reflections, transparency, and movement. Water has a moderating effect on everything it touches, specifically transparent water with reflections has this effect and can be difficult to achieve. Mike will take you though this and his other processes to paint water in various states, everything from highly reflective, transparent, still, and moving. Painting convincing water relies heavily on edges and transparency of paint.

Students will learn:

• How to paint realistic underwater elements i.e. rocks logs, etc.
• How to control values and transparency to achieve depth in water
• Using edges in suggesting moving water
• How to achieve realistic reflections with the power of suggestion
• How water effects color, value, and temperature
• How to use water as a compositional element
• Exaggeration for impact including impasto and totally lost edges

Level: Some experience painting and color mixing is required
Acrylic painters should note Mike does not demonstrate in acrylic. While the demonstrations are in oil many of the same principles apply. If you are painting in acrylic it is up to you to know the specific nuances of the medium .i.e. drying times, etc.

Instructor Bio: Mike Wise vividly remembers his 9-year-old self being mesmerized by the half-hour PBS series “The Joy of Painting,” which debuted in early 1983. Wise also marveled at works that had been painted by his grandfather, a grade-school art teacher in the family’s hometown of Marysville, Washington, who passed away when Wise was 12. He only began to study painting seriously at age 23, becoming a full-time fine artist 10 years later. Advised by his wife Megan, he began wearing protective gloves while painting which freed him up to use his hands, paper towels, palette knives, and brushes to put his thumbs and fingers on the oil paint, softening edges as he makes marks that tell his story.