Watercolour Painting for Beginners - Southwell Library - Adult Learning

Southwell Library, Southwell

Date	14 January - 11 February 2026
Sessions	Wednesdays: 10am - 12pm
No. sessions	5
Venue	Southwell Library, Southwell View venue details
For ages	19+
Group size	5 - 8
Cost	FREE - £40

About this course

Step into the world of watercolor and discover the joy of painting flowers and plants in a relaxed, expressive style. This course is designed to help you explore the beauty of nature through watercolor, focusing on both foundational techniques and loose, intuitive brushwork. It combines foundational watercolour techniques with observational drawing and expressive painting, helping learners build confidence and creativity while connecting with nature.

Throughout the course, you'll learn how to paint a variety of floral and botanical subjects, explore color mixing, layering, loose brush stroke styles and texture techniques, Each week builds on the last, guiding you through the process of creating soft, flowing, and expressive botanical art.

This course is suitable for both beginners and intermediate painters wanting to explore watercolour techniques.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

- Identify and apply at least four watercolour techniques in floral and botanical painting.

- Paint a variety of botanical elements, including different types if leaves and flowers, with attention to shape and colour and use simplified shapes and gestural brushwork, without relying on detailed outlines.

- Mix and apply naturalistic colour palettes using primary, secondary and tertiary colours to reflect real-life botanical tones.

- Experiment with both loose and detailed watercolour styles to express different moods and aesthetics in floral painting.

- Reflect on their creative growth by identifying at least two areas of improvement and two favourite techniques or styles.

What you will need to bring to the course:

a pencil

a putty rubber

a selection of different paintbrushes – flat brushes & round tipped brushes in different sizes.

A4 sized watercolour paper 140lbs/300gsm

watercolour paints – such as Windsor & Newton, Cotman, Derwent

a palette with wells

paper towel

masking tape, washi tape or scotch tape

Optional:

masking fluid

wax resist crayon (white)

Booking your place and fee information

If you receive certain benefits you will be offered the course for free, however if you have a financial barrier which may prevent you from enrolling on the course, please visit our funding page for further information.

Residency in England

To book and enrol on one of our courses, you must be living in England permanently and live outside of the devolved areas listed below or live within the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) devolved area (Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire).

Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Greater London
Greater Manchester
Liverpool City Region
Newcastle Upon Tyne, North Tyneside and Northumberland
Tees Valley
West of England
West Midlands
West Yorkshire

Residency Eligibility – other criteria

If you are living in the UK on a visa we will require evidence of this in order to be funded for the course, you can upload this evidence when you apply for the course. (completion of a questionnaire will be required).

Some exceptions may apply for example

Your visa expiry date must be beyond the end of your course
Asylum seekers must have lived in the UK for 6 months or longer while their claim is being considered by the Home Office
You are receiving local authority support under section 23C or section 23CA of the Children Act 1989 or the Care Act 2014