Class description: Professional artist, Michael Russel, will guide you in painting a beautiful mountain landscape in oils. Learn how to design your landscape using color values and temperature. As part of this, Mike will expertly teach color mixing techniques using a limited palette. This is your chance to hone your oil painting skills and add to your painting techniques! You won't want to miss this!

Syllabus: Values, color mixing, mountain scene working background to foreground, cooler to warmer colors, faded to vibrant colors. 

Materials: (Although these are the suggested materials, we want to make art classes accessible. You can join in with any materials you already have!) Oil paints: burnt umber, ultramarine blue, turquoise, cadmium yellow, titanium white, alizarin crimson, cadmium red. Small to medium brushes. Plate or paint palette. 

Meet your instructor: Mike served for twenty years in the United States Air Force as an officer and pilot.  His experiences flying large cargo aircraft across the world continue to inspire his artistic work.  Mike’s artistic talents are largely self-taught, but he is grounded in the foundational skills used by the masters.  Mike looks at the world differently.  His sweeping landscapes and broad, colorful strokes are motivated by the Impressionists of the past, Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, and Picasso, viewing the world through the same non-traditional lens.  Mike lives with his wife in his hometown of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where the majestic Pike’s Peak watches overhead.