Drawing, watercolor, natural pigment making, professional feedback/guidance.

I have a few slots open for private lessons, in-person (in the Los Angeles area) or on ZOOM. We will explore your goals, resolve the things that you are struggling with, and focus on the projects that interest you most - on a schedule that works for you.

In-person lessons at your home are $125/hour

Zoom lessons are $75/hour

For more info, email me.

Sunday, June 7, 2026
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Location: Private home in Mt. Washington, Los Angeles

$130 includes all materials

Explore the alchemy of botanical ink making using seasonal, locally foraged materials. In this workshop, you’ll learn to create two distinct natural inks: a traditional oak gall ink and a plant-based ink derived from flower petals.

Oak gall ink produces deep, rich tones through a time-honored process of extracting pigment from natural tannins. In contrast, flower petals offer soft, shifting colors that feel immediate and expressive. Together, they reveal two very different approaches to working with natural color.

In this hands-on workshop, you’ll make both inks from scratch and explore drawing and mark-making with each, discovering how differently natural materials can behave on paper. During the drawing portion, the experience will be accompanied by live harp music by Heather Freed of Velvet Empress, creating a meditative, immersive atmosphere for sensory exploration and reflection.

In this workshop, you’ll:
• Learn how to identify and work with seasonal, locally sourced natural materials for ink making
• Create two natural inks using simple, accessible methods
• Learn how to process materials to extract pigment
• Explore how pH modifiers can shift and expand color
• Experiment with mark-making using your handmade inks
• Take home your inks and recipes for future use

Participants are asked to bring a mallet, small hammer, or rolling pin for smashing the oak galls, two 8 oz (or larger) clean jars with tight-fitting lids for making ink, and a cup (or more) of flower petals from a plant of their choice. Reusing empty food jars is encouraged. We recommend dressing in clothing you are comfortable getting messy.

Image credit: Art Institure of Chicago

This is a critique and feedback course only - no instruction. Perfect for anyone who is working independantly and appreciates feedback on their work, or for those who sign up for one of my pre-recorded courses and would like feedback on course projects (see AVAILABLE ANYTIME listings).

Tuesdays from 11:00 - 12:30 pm Pacific Time starting May 19 through July 13.

$120 for all 8 sessions if you are working on independant projects

$75 for up to 8 sessions in conjunction with a pre-recorded course (see AVAILABLE ANYTIME listings)

Or $20/session “ala carte” - attend when you wish

Limited to 8 participants each session. Those who register for all 8 session have priority.

Image credit: Lynn van Schilfgaarde, student

You will receive 8 weekly pre-recorded video lessons that you can watch on your own time. SIgn up for Open Feedback Sessions to receive interactive feedback on your work with Kim Russo and other fun students.

You'll paint from photographed natural forms such as leaves, flowers, rocks, and fruit. We'll improve our ability to slow down and observe - to see value, shape, form, texture, light, and space in the living world and translate our experience into watercolor with awareness and sensitivity. Color mixing, paint application and brushwork will be highlighted.

8 pre-recorded video sessions:  $95 (videos only, no feedback)

Add eight Open Feedback Sessions on Tuesdays from 11-12:30 Pacific Time, May 19 through July 13, for $75 more or $170 total.

Or add Open Feedback Sessions ala carte for $20 each.

Add 30 minute private Zoom feedback sessions with Kim for $30 each.

This course is best suited for beginning students who have taken an introductory watercolor course and want to continue to build their skills.

Image credit: Melinda Howell, student

You will receive 7 weekly pre-recorded video lessons that you can watch on your own time. SIgn up for Open Feedback Sessions to receive interactive feedback on your work with Kim Russo and other fun students.

This experimental and explorative watercolor course is appropriate for any level of watercolor experience. You'll work with a variety of materials in addition to watercolor: ink, graphite, watercolor pencils, frisket, opaque paint, oil pastel, and collage. Each week a new material will be introduced, and techniques for mixing it with watercolor will be demonstrated. You’ll choose your own photos - or work from life - to put each technique into practice.

7 pre-recorded video sessions:  $85 (videos only, no feedback)

Add eight open feedback sessions on Tuesdays from 11-12:30, May 19 through July 13, for $75 more or $160 total.

Or add Open Feedback Sessions ala carte for $20 each.

Add 30 minute private Zoom feedback sessions with Kim for $30 each.

This course is appropriate for beginning through advanced students.

Image credit: Connie Woodhead, student (after WIlliam Turner)

You will receive 8 weekly pre-recorded video lessons that you can watch on your own time. SIgn up for Open Feedback Sessions to receive interactive feedback on your work with Kim Russo and other fun students.

In this course, which is appropriate for intermediate and advanced students, you will study the watercolor paintings of three important artists - William Turner, Berthe Morisot and David Hockney -  to build a foundation of artistic techniques that will inspire your future work. During the first six weeks of this course, you will practice the watercolor techniques of each of the three artists. Sessions will include a little art history, observations about each artist’s approach and the creation of a direct copy of their work. Along the way you will expand your brushwork, color mixing, and paint application skills. In the final two weeks you will choose your own image to paint, and you’ll create three versions in the “style” of each painter.  

8 pre-recorded video sessions:  $95 (videos only, no feedback)

Add eight open feedback sessions on Tuesdays from 11-12:30, May 19 through July 13, for $75 more or $170 total.

Or add Open Feedback Sessions ala carte for $20 each.

Add 30 minute private Zoom feedback sessions with Kim for $30 each.

This is not a beginning course; previous experience with watercolor and a curiosity about art history are necessary. 

This one day workshop is for you if you want to learn how to create a focal point, or area of main interest, in your watercolor paintings, along with tips on how to lead the viewer’s eye around a composition.

We’ll work from still life objects.  During the first two hours, we will talk about eight different ways to create focal points in paintings, and you’ll draw a line drawing from a detail of the still life onto two sheets of watercolor paper.  After a break, you’ll create two paintings of the same detail, but you’ll use a different focal point idea in each. I’ll work with you individually on ideas for leading the viewer’s eye around your composition. We will reserve time at the end of the workshop to look at everyone’s work and discuss the results. 

Image credit: Cynthia Nalbach, student

We’ll meet at a beautiful location to paint from life using ink and watercolor. Instruction on two ways to combine ink and watercolor will be demonstrated.

ENDED

Join as we familiarize ourselves with oak galls, the growths created when a gall wasp lays her eggs in the branch of an oak tree.

Explore the surprising alchemy of making natural pigments from locally sourced materials. In this workshop we will make oak gall ink, a purple-black or brown-black ink made from iron salts mixed with the tannic acid from oak galls.

This type of ink was the standard ink formulation used between the 5th and 19th centuries. Leonardo da Vinci used it as his drawing ink, and oak gall ink was used to write the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

At the end of the workshop we’ll use oak gall ink to make drawings of acorns from close observation.

Image credit: Ling Bailey, student

ENDED

Each week I will demonstrate watercolor techniques that we will practice in class. Then, between classes, you will paint a subject of your choice in which you will use the techniques we practiced that week. In other words, this course is a deep dive into watercolor techniques and it provides an opportunity to put those techniques to use in your own work. I will provide a Google folder of images that you can paint from - but you can also use/find your own. I will provide feedback on your paintings at the beginning of each Zoom session.