watercolor and drawing classes

Yay! In-person workshops are back! Stay healthy and take care. Wishing you all the best! Happy Painting! ~ Patty

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WATER CONTROL TECHNIQUES for WATERCOLOR

10 am - 4 pm, Saturday, September 27, 2025

Currents Back Door Studio, McMinnville, Oregon
Tuition: $125 (
includes pre-printed water control exercise paper, contact paper, and Magic Eraser)
To REGISTER and for more workshop information (scroll down the class page)

With step-by-step instruction, learn how to control water and pigment to achieve better results in your watercolor paintings with these essential techniques.  How to paint a smooth, flat watercolor wash and paint the background around a shape protected with masking fluid. Also practice exercises on lifting techniques to lighten watercolor or rescue a shape in a painted area. Additional tips will be provided on using masking fluid effectively and caring for watercolor brushes, helping artists of all levels improve their watercolor skills.  Please join us!

WATERCOLOR MINGLING and GLAZING

10 am - 4 pm, Saturday & Sunday, October 25 & 26, 2025

Currents Back Door Studio, McMinnville, Oregon
Tuition: $225 (
includes drawing to transfer, pre-printed mingling paper, and step-by-step handouts)
To REGISTER and for more workshop information (scroll down the class page)

Immerse yourself in discovering the beautiful way watercolor uniquely captures the luminous glow of sunlight in this two-day workshop. Guided by step-by-step instruction, learn how watercolor delightfully mingles together in this wet into wet method to create the transparent glow on our subject of grapes. Bring your subject to life by crafting the illusion of light on surrounding leaves by painting a grisaille foundation followed by layers of various yellow and green washes. Complete your practice painting with the magical technique of wispy spider webs.  Please join us!

MISTY FOG in WATERCOLOR

10 am - 4 pm, Saturday, November 15, 2025

Currents Back Door Studio, McMinnville, Oregon
Tuition: $125 (
includes fog photo, values exercise, tree practice sheet, and step-by-step handouts)
To REGISTER and for more workshop information (scroll down the class page)

Transform how you see and paint by concentrating on effective values. Paint a reference value scale and learn how to paint layers of trees on a preprinted practice sheet. With step-by-step instruction, focus on values by glazing with multiple watercolor layers of Paynes Gray to create your misty fog practice painting. Have fun lifting out wispy fog in the hills, trees and shoreline. Then glaze more layers of water ripples to complete your painting. Please join us!  

Patricia Schmidt

has been painting with watercolor for over thirty years and is known for her hyper-realistic paintings alive with color and drenched with light.

She is a signature member of the Northwest Watercolor Society and the Watercolor Society of Oregon; a charter member of the Colored Pencil Society of America, a member of the Oregon Chapter of the Colored Pencil Society, the Oregon Society of Artists and SPLASH, a professional artist group. Her paintings are included in the watercolor books “Splash Retrospective: 20 years of Contemporary Watercolor Excellence“ (2013), “Splash 14: Light and Color” (2013), “Splash 12: Celebrating Artistic Vision” (2011) and the Winter 2005 “Watercolor“ magazine. To view her paintings, please visit the Portland Art Museum’s Rental Sales Gallery at 1237 SW 10th Avenue, Portland, Oregon.

Patricia has taught watercolor, drawing and colored pencil classes as adjunct faculty for several colleges as well as classes at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the Oregon Coast.

She has illustrated a children’s book “A Dolphin Named Destiny” (2024) with watercolored pen & ink drawings. She has also illustrated greeting cards for six greeting card companies and pen & ink designs for a rubber stamp company.