Guest Workshops at Bluebird Hill Retreat
Anne Blair Brown and guest artists from around the U.S. host day-long and mutli-day painting workshops at our beautiful venue.
To view our 2024 and 2025 list of guest instructors, please scroll down.
Interested in taking a course with Anne Blair Brown? Check out in-person sessions and online workshops on Anne’s website.
Interested in hosting your own workshop or retreat? Reach out to Anne for booking details and availability.
Anne Blair Brown
The Color of Light
4 Days – May 1–4, 2024
9:30am–4pm
$875
A deposit of $250 will reserve your spot.
THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL. TO GET ON THE WAITLIST, PLEASE CONTACT:
Rachel Blair rachelblair1144@gmail.com or 615/504-7201.
“It’s not just about what you see…but how you see it.”
In this color-focused workshop, Anne will show you various ways to mix and apply color that will make the light sing and the shadows dance!
Anne will discuss and demonstrate:
•Finding your own color voice
•Surefire methods for creating color harmony
•Creating color vibration & light effects
•Exploring how underpainting influences color
•The freedom of the limited palette
•Using color as a means of expression
Other topics will include solid design, nailing your values, and getting looser and more expressive with your brushwork!
Joe Gyurcsak
Capturing Light & Atmosphere
3 Days – May 8-10, 2024
9:00am–4pm
Skill Level Beginner to Advanced
Mediums Oil, Acrylic and Watercolor / Gouache mediums are welcome
$695
A deposit of $200 will reserve your spot.
*To register, please click the button below. Questions? Contact Rachel Blair rachelblair1144@gmail.com or 615/504-7201.
If you missed out last year, you have a second chance! Joe returns in 2024 with his amazing teaching abilities!
This workshop’s main objective is to teach artists how to see and paint with more confidence, to learn how to create wonderfully energized plein air paintings which capture the unique light and atmosphere the artist envisioned from the moment of their inspiration.
Each day will include a demo, short lecture, AM painting scene, PM painting scene, solid individual guidance and valuable critiques, group critique optional.
Drawing, Composition, Value, Color, Edges and Paint and Surface Manipulation will be covered.
Joe is a master of color mixing and is proficient in all mediums. Joe will focus on giving his students the tools to paint more efficiently and with more confidence. He will guide students with tips for adding more energy into their plein air paintings and teach them how to accurately portray the light and atmosphere of their chosen scene.
Joe is a generous instructor and we are delighted to have back here to teach!
Anne Blair Brown
Brushwork & Color: Make Your Mark!
September 18-21, 2024
9:30 am - 4 pm daily
Intermediate to Advanced
(basic plein air experience required)
$875
$250 deposit holds your spot
*To register, please click the button below.
Questions? Contact Rachel Blair rachelblair1144@gmail.com or 615/504-7201
In this plein air color and brushwork focused workshop, Anne will show you how to put a little YOU in your artwork.
Anne will break down the painting process into a series of approachable, digestible steps that will help you quickly nail your design and values. Next, she will focus on what she believes is the key to finding your own style or voice: color & brushwork.
Through demonstrations and exercises, you will learn to mix harmonious color and apply paint in a spontaneous and impressionistic manner. Anne will show you how to use your palette and brushes to express rather than copy.
Anton Nowels
Fall Colors: React and Reflect
4 Days – October 16–19, 2024
9:30am–4pm
Skill Level: All levels
Mediums: All 2-D mediums welcome (instructor will teach in oil)
$650
A deposit of $200 will reserve your spot.
*To register, please click the button below.
Questions? Contact Rachel Blair rachelblair1144@gmail.com or 615/504-7201
In this workshop you will move between representation and abstraction under the guidance of this award-winning instructor. He will help you attain an understanding of how to integrate “color notes” collected en plein air with both representation and abstraction in the studio. Artists will discover that using memory in the painting process allows for more inventive painting. Anton will demonstrate both landscape painting en plein air and representational abstraction in the studio.
Day 1: Plein Air - Color Notes and Form
Day 2: Plein Air - Harmony and Design
Day 3: Studio - Memory and Deconstruction
Day 4: Studio - How to know when a painting is finished
Anton is a signature member of OPA and AIS. Recent awards include Honorable Mention for Landscape at the OPA National Exhibition at the Steamboat Art Museum. Anton is currently in a Artists in Residency Exhibition at the Brinton Museum in Big Horn, WY and teaches at Scottsdale Artist School and Winslow Art Center.
Ann Larsen
Light & Color: Capturing the Moment
May 1- 3, 2025 (New Dates!)
Cost: $595
**Registration opens May of 2024**
Please make sure you subscribe to our mailing list to stay in the loop!
Any medium is acceptable.
Ann will teach primarily in oil and perhaps acrylic.
This workshop is designed to help students have a bold and fearless approach to their blank canvas, and to loosen their style while capturing the emotional moment in their paintings. Emphasis will be placed on concept, composition, value, color and edges. We will focus on building texture, large mass simplification, seeing color and color temperature and how to mix the right color. The use of thick paint and brushwork to make a dynamic statement will be practiced and reinforced. Each afternoon will end with a helpful critique of the day’s paintings.
“Students always bring a wealth of information to my workshops, and we always enjoy lively exchanges of ideas and knowledge about painting, art history and the art life in general.”
Impressionism: “A style or movement in painting characterized by a concern with depicting the visual impression of the moment, especially in terms of the shifting effect of light and color. Seeking to capture a feeling or experience rather than to achieve accurate depiction.”
The beginning painter, as well as the more advanced painter, will benefit from the understanding of how light, color, edges and brushwork are used in creating paintings that speak to you and your viewers.
Haidee-Jo Summers
Haidee-Jo is returning for an encore workshop!
Painting the Light– Plein Air
4 Days – September 17-20, 2025
9:30am–4pm
$975
A deposit of $300 will reserve your spot.
**Registration opens Sept. of 2024**Please make sure you subscribe to our mailing list to stay in the loop!
A light filled painting is a delight to behold, making our spirits soar. What tools can we use as painters to portray a convincing sense of light in our work? Using these tools effectively not only gives our paintings a believable three dimensionality and impact, but can also allow us to elevate an ordinary everyday subject into something approaching a spiritual experience.
In this workshop we’ll explore ways to use shape, value, colour, brushmarks and edges to our advantage in creating compelling, light filled paintings.