Celestial Watercolors: Painting the Night Sky

Please join us at the Bushwick Inlet Park Community Center for an afternoon of painting with watercolors.

“Environmental Science + Art” FBIP 2024 Saturday class series:

We will consider how light from urban buildings affects birds and other animals, the value of a park as a bird safe haven and effects of satellites circling the planet.

As the days start to get longer, we still have plenty of opportunity to view the night sky which has fascinated people since the beginning of time. The ancients saw mythological beasts, gods, and goddesses; mariners once navigated using the constellations as their guide; and today we look to the future of humanity with space tourism and experiments with astrobotany.

There’ll be a short astronomy presentation to inform and inspire you for a fun afternoon of celestial watercolor painting.

Guided projects include painting a sunset or the night sky with stars, the Milkyway, and nebulae in either a rectangular or one-point perspective (a circle). A third option will be a moon painting.

Skills we’ll cover are wet in wet and wet on dry watercolor, one-point perspective, using liquid frisket (masking fluid), color layering, and other watercolor basics. Beginners to advanced welcome.

Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park will provide art supplies, but feel free to bring your own (if you have!) for this guided art project for beginners and artists of all levels. Materials provided will include include paper, watercolors, colored pencils, and other basic drawing supplies.

If you’d like to bring your own, we recommend:

• multimedia or watercolor paper
• watercolor paints
• pencil, eraser, ruler, tape (for masking edges)
• colored pencils, markers, or pens

No experience necessary.

Instructor Monica Schroeder is a professional scientific illustrator. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, countless textbooks, natural history museum exhibitions, and on the TV Show Jeopardy.

She has been an adult art instructor since 2018. monbertkayak@gmail.com

* Registration required.

* Please register only if you plan to actually attend. The class size is small to ensure an intimate hands on learning experience.

Children 14 and over (high school students) are welcome but must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.