Explore your creativity, learn a new skill, and create art with watercolor painting in this free workshop presented in partnership with the Frist Art Museum at East Recreation Center.
Guided by teaching artist Susanna Chapman, participants will explore watercolor painting skills and develop new forms of creative expression using watercolor. The class will focus on new skills each week and gain tools for creative expression while developing community and engaging with the Frist’s exhibitions and programs.
The workshop consists of eight ninety-minute art-making sessions, with a culminating reception and celebration on week nine. Participants also receive a complimentary one-year membership to the Frist Art Museum. All materials are provided, and there is no charge for the class.
To register, contact Jessica Anderson at 615.862.8448 or Jessica.Anderson@Nashville.gov
About the Instructor
Susanna Chapman is an award-winning children’s book illustrator who uses watercolor in her work. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 2009 with a degree in illustration, she has a certificate in botanical illustration (which will inform several of our botanical assignments) from the Morton Arboretum outside of Chicago, and she worked as a book designer for ten years before going rogue as an independent illustrator. Some of the picture books she illustrated include The Girl Who Ran, which received a Gold Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Award; Howdy! Welcome to the Grand Ole Opry; Dragonflies of Glass; Covered in Color; The Fastest Drummer; and most recently, We Are Mighty, which was published in spring 2026. She also paints murals around Nashville, such as the one for Baked on 8th!
Both structure and freedom will imbue our watercolor expeditions in class. Susanna’s strongest hope is that you can joyfully surrender to the unruly power of watercolor! Beginning with brief building blocks of color theory and a few helpful design principles (balance, symmetry/asymmetry, hierarchy, scale, contrast, and negative space) we’ll practice watercolor through weekly in-class studies that focus on a single watercolor concept. Each week will also feature examples from a watercolor master (from the 1100s CE to contemporary artists) to augment the principles we explore. By the end of the class, each student will have gained comfort and friendship with watercolor, as well as respect for its bold, defiant noncompliance.
Supported by
