Loose Landscapes Sign in

Online watercolour course · four lessons

Paint loose, luminous landscapes.

Follow Nadia Holmquist step by step, hand in a photo of each painting from your phone, and read her notes within 3 working days.

Start lesson 1 freeSee the lessons

Sign in with your email: no password, nothing to download. For adults aged 18 and over.

  1. 1 Washes
  2. 2 Skies
  3. 3 Trees
  4. 4 Water

Finish a lesson and its pan fills with colour.

About 2½ hours in all

Four lessons, four washes

Each lesson is three illustrated steps and one painting to hand in, at your own pace.

  1. Free taster Lesson 1: Materials and first washes Set up your palette and paint the three washes every landscape in this course is built from. 30 min3 steps1 hand-in
  2. Full course Lesson 2: Skies Paint a sunset sky in one wet layer, lift the clouds out with a tissue, and set it over a low hill and shore. 35 min3 steps1 hand-in
  3. Full course Lesson 3: Trees and hedges Build a country lane from three greens, light to dark, and paint a tree that looks like it grows. 40 min3 steps1 hand-in
  4. Full course Lesson 4: Water and reflections Paint a still lake that mirrors the sky, with a reflected tree line and a post standing in the water. 40 min3 steps1 hand-in

The course app

Paint it, hand it in, read the notes

Every lesson opens on its wash, with the steps on paper underneath. Photograph your painting, and Nadia writes back in the margin, Tuesday to Friday.

Lesson 2 of 4 · 35 min

Skies

Stage 2 of the sky: soft clouds lifted out of a wet blue wash

2 of 3

Lift out the clouds

Hard edges mean the paper was too dry: lift a little earlier.

Finished all three steps?

Mark lesson 2 done

A lesson, as it looks on your phone

A learner's small watercolour of a sky, a green hill and a shore, held up in daylight
Notes ready

Lesson 2 · Skies

Handed in 2 days ago, notes ready

  1. Sent
  2. Reviewing
  3. Notes ready

I lifted the clouds with a tissue but the edges came out hard. Did I wait too long?

Nadia's notes

Lovely soft sky, and the green hill sits well under it. The hard edges mean the paper had lost its shine: lift a minute earlier, while it still glints. Your shore is spot on.

Feedback on a hand-in, written for your painting

Two series

Try a lesson, then decide

Lesson 1 is free. The full course is a monthly plan you can stop any time; most people finish in four to six weeks.

Series 1

Taster

Free

  • Lesson 1: materials and first washes
  • Hand in your washes for feedback
Start lesson 1

Series 2

Full course

£12 a month

  • All four lessons: washes, skies, trees, water
  • Written feedback on every lesson's painting
  • Paid monthly through Stripe; stop any time
Join in the course app
A well-used watercolour tin of half pans with four brushes beside it, from above

Before lesson 1

What you need

  • Three colours to start: ultramarine, quinacridone rose and yellow ochre
  • Two brushes: a size 10 round and a 1-inch flat
  • A quarter sheet of cold-press paper, taped down
  • A phone for the photo, in daylight
A teal-green wash in soft bands, light to dark, as in the hedges of lesson 3
Lesson 3 builds the lane from three greens, light to dark.

Start here

Open the tin and start with lesson 1.

Nadia Holmquist has painted the Norfolk coast for 20 years and reads every hand-in herself. Sign in with your email and lesson 1 is yours, free.

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