You’ll go over how to choose a subject, how to edit details you see before you, helping you decide what to include in your painting. There will be a demo by the instructor, and you will be invited to paint along. All this will help you arrive at good composition, and help you create a great final painting.
Instructor
Mike Simpson – Using watercolors for their transparency and loose suggestive qualities or oil paints for their opacity, texture and quality of brush stroke, I paint the people, places and things of small town, rural America. From the towering peaks of the Rocky Mountains, to the towering grain silos of Kansas or the small adobe casas of New Mexico, to the fishing boats in a marina on the Northern British Columbia coast, the cowboys of Montana, the bewhiskered bikers of Sturgis or the girls on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, they all have a story. With my painting kit I travel the backroads and by-ways of the West, often on my motorcycle seeking out the character of my subjects and capture it using the effect of light, shadow, shape and value. I get the information I need from roadside sketches or photographs and use those studies for more complex work back in my studio.
Details
Class: Painting with Oils en Plein Air
Instructor: Mike Simpson
Supplies: Bring what you already paint with and we’ll make that work. Paints, canvas/panel nothing bigger 11×14, bug spray, sun hat, sun screen, water, paper towels to wipe brushes on, brush pot for cleaning the brushes, portable easel, chair?
Date: June 4, 2026
Registration cutoff: May 29, 2026
Hours: 9:00am-4:00pm
Maximum number of students: 12
Suggested minimum age: Adults only
Fee: $60.00
Notes: Meet in the parking lot at the Ute Indian Museum. Bring your own lunch or step away for lunch. Plan for inclement weather: wind, sun, rain, etc.
Venue: Montrose Center for Arts
Ute Indian Museum
17253 Chipeta Rd, Montrose, CO 81403
