I was very excited to sign up for a winter plein air class this year taught by Walt Bartman at the yellow barn in Glen Echo Maryland. I was looking forward to braving the elements and having great stories to tell of painting under challenging winter conditions. So far we've had two classes and both were on sunny days with the temperatures in the 50s and 60s! Hopefully we'll get some snow someday soon. The first class was held at Glen Echo. Most of the class gathered around Mi

Painting en plein air is a phrase borrowed from the French equivalent meaning "open (in full) air". Today the Potomac Valley Watercolorists met at the US Botanical Gardens on the mall in DC. So while we were not technically outside it was still pretty close to the same experience. The only real difference was it wasn't 20° like it was outside! There were 12 of us scattered throughout the building painting and then we got together for lunch and to look at each other's paintin