Painting the Cottage Water View

Online classes

Master water’s dance on canvas with artist Alanna Peters. Translate your cottage vistas into luminous studies of light and motion, blending glazing techniques with bold brushwork. For oil and acrylic painters ready to bridge abstraction and realism while capturing liquid poetry.

This four-week virtual course, led by Alanna Peters, focuses on painting water—its movement, reflections, and shifting light. Alanna’s personal practice is deeply rooted in the connection between water and movement, and in this course, she shares techniques to help students develop their own approach to capturing water’s complexity.

Using personal cottage views or water scenes as a starting point, students will explore how to break down water’s shapes, colours, and textures to create compelling compositions. Through a mix of layering, glazing, and expressive brushwork, students will experiment with ways to depict depth, translucence, and the ever-changing surface of water, open to oil and acrylic painters.

The course will also look at how light and atmosphere interact with water, studying elements such as reflections, movement, and the play of colour in different conditions. While painting is the primary focus, sketching and compositional studies will help refine ideas before bringing them to canvas.

This course offers a space to study and interpret water in a personal way, helping students develop confidence in both technique and creative decision-making.

Explore different ways to represent water, considering form, movement, and reflection.
Experiment with layering, glazing, and brushwork to create depth and light effects.
Develop compositions that balance abstraction and realism, drawing from personal water views.
Study how colour and atmosphere shift in water scenes, refining the use of tone and contrast.
Use sketching and compositional studies to guide painting decisions.
Complete a series of water-focused paintings, applying techniques learned throughout the course.

Solvents:

Please bring linseed oil or walnut alkyd medium or stand oil and a solvent.

Personal recommendations: Chelsea Classical Studio LEAN and FAT medium or a combo of non yellowing linseed oil (gamblin or Chelsea Classical) with either Citrus thinner from Eco-House or Lavender Spike from Chelsea Classical

Please do not bring Liquin as it makes the paint sticky and less moveable.

Brushes:

You are welcome to bring any brushes you like but please bring the following

- #10 or #12 filbert for glazing

- #2 and #4 filbert

- #0 and #1 pointed rounds for details

Recommendation: Mundy blending brushes to soften the edges of my line. Available through

Rosemary and Co.

https://www.rosemaryandco.com/brush-sets/for-oils/mundy-bristle-blender-set

Varnish:

Gamvar by Gamblin is recommended

Support:

Please bring a pad of oil painting paper. Example : https://www.deserres.ca/products/canvas-pad?variant=40128113115269

We will use the paper sheet to do colour theory and small works

You are welcome to bring any surface you wish. Stretched canvas, cradled wood panel or canvas board. Please make sue it is pre gessoed and ready to paint

My preference is for Artfex aluminium panels as they are a hard surface yet lightweight.

Sizes: 8”x10” or 11”x14” or 16”x18” depending on your comfort level

Gesso:

If your support is already gessoed then great. Recommended to use unprimed panels and

gesso with 2-6 coats of liquitex white or grey gesso.

Paints:

You are welcome to bring any oil paints you like to use. I use a variety of Windsor and Newton,

Gamblin, Micheal Harding, Vasari and Williamsburg.

Please bring the following colours: