In this introduction, Kathleen shares her “cross-training” philosophy of artistic development, explaining how the four targeted practice exercises you’ll learn — Design & Composition, Timed Quick Study, Paint-Over Study, and Focused Study — will help you break through plateaus and develop confidence in your painting. Each exercise addresses specific artistic challenges and helps you build skills systematically, similarly to how musicians practice scales to master more complex pieces.

Learn Kathleen’s practical approach to plein air preparation that makes outdoor painting more enjoyable and productive. She shares her field-tested tips for what to pack and how to organize your supplies so you can focus on painting rather than logistics. You’ll discover how to travel light while still having everything you need, avoiding common mistakes that lead to frustration on location. This efficient approach to plein air setup will save you time and energy, allowing you to maximize your actual painting time when the light and conditions are perfect.

Discover Kathleen’s surprisingly simple limited palette approach using just 3 colors + white (and 2 “cheater colors”) that creates remarkably realistic color in any landscape. Learn how premixing colors provides a valuable transition into “art mode” while keeping your brushes clean and your palette organized. Kathleen demonstrates how this streamlined approach allows for more accurate and personal color mixing without relying on countless tube colors. You’ll see how this simplified palette is especially valuable when painting outdoors, giving you consistent results with less equipment to carry.

Join Kathleen at the historic Douglas Flat School House, where she demonstrates how to create compelling compositions that express your unique emotional connection to a scene. Learn to see beyond the obvious “postcard scene” by using gray marker sketches to explore multiple compositional possibilities quickly. Kathleen shares her approach to simplifying overwhelming landscapes by focusing on what truly speaks to you, using contrast to draw the eye, overlapping shapes to show depth, and creating a focal path that guides viewers through your painting. Discover why “the most interesting designs are usually the ones that don’t fit into a standard format.” 

Experience Kathleen’s transformative “Paint small and paint fast” approach at beautiful Mosquito Lake. Learn how working within the constraint of timed sessions (three 20-minute segments) develops decisive brushwork and prevents overworking. Kathleen demonstrates her complete process — establishing the “bones” of the painting with basic shapes and values, developing depth and relationships in the middle stage, and completing the study with attention to edges and focal paths. You’ll discover how this method helps capture fleeting light conditions while training your artistic reflexes to work efficiently and confidently.

Liberate your brushwork with Kathleen’s experimental paint-over technique that creates rich texture and expressive mark-making. In this playful demonstration, you’ll learn to paint over an old canvas (turned upside down to minimize distraction) with thicker paint and more expressive brushwork. This approach forces you out of tight painting habits, encouraging you to “work without a net” while developing your artistic instincts. Discover how this method creates interesting surfaces with both literal and visual depth, helps avoid muddy color, and encourages the freedom to ask, “I wonder what would happen if...” without fear of failure.

Join Kathleen at Pebble Beach, where she demonstrates how to master challenging elements by focusing practice on specific aspects of the landscape. Rather than attempting a complete painting, Kathleen shows how to zero in on elements you might typically struggle with — in this case, the light and shadow values of coastal rocks against the ocean. Learn how this targeted approach builds confidence with difficult subjects by removing the pressure of creating a finished painting. Kathleen shares her insight that “spending the day doing a few focused studies will get you further toward success than spending the day on a painting.” 

Meet Kathleen Dunphy, a signature member of Plein Air Painters of America whose paintings have been acquired by prestigious museums. In this introduction, Kathleen shares her approach to studio landscape painting, emphasizing that her goal is to create works that maintain the excitement and spontaneity of plein air paintings rather than simply copying field studies onto larger canvases. You’ll get a glimpse of what’s to come in this comprehensive studio demonstration featuring her beautiful Eastern Sierra lake scene.

Discover Kathleen’s streamlined approach to studio setup and her surprisingly simple limited palette using just 3 colors + white (and 2 “cheater colors”). Learn how this limited palette allows for remarkably realistic color regardless of the subject matter while simplifying the mixing process. Kathleen demonstrates how premixing colors provides a valuable transition into “art mode” while keeping brushes clean and the palette organized. This approach to color mixing creates harmony throughout the painting and makes it easier to maintain consistency, especially when you need to remix a color.

Learn Kathleen’s approach to working from reference materials in a way that maintains creative engagement and emotional connection. Rather than simply copying a plein air study, Kathleen demonstrates how to combine multiple sources — field studies, sketches, and photographs from her Eastern Sierra trip — to create something entirely new. Through thumbnail sketches, she explores compositional options to find what truly resonates, focusing on creating a clear focal path that will guide viewers through the painting. As Kathleen explains, “My goal is to tell the viewer how it FELT out there — not how it looked out there.” 

Join Kathleen as she mixes the specific colors needed for this Eastern Sierra lake scene. Learn her techniques for creating realistic colors that show water’s depth, how to mix subtle variations for shadows and highlights, and how to establish relationships between colors in light versus shadow. This focused mixing session establishes the palette for the entire painting, ensuring harmony and consistency throughout the work while giving you the skills to mix accurate colors for any landscape subject.

Discover Kathleen’s techniques for creating convincing, natural-looking landscape elements. Learn how to establish variety and a roadmap for land masses, using “placeholder” dark values before developing more detailed elements. Kathleen shares her approach to suggesting rocks and terrain without overpainting — “never insult the intelligence of the viewer” — by painting just enough detail for the viewer to understand what they’re seeing. Master how to create organic shapes through “painting around” rather than painting shapes directly, how to avoid unnatural geometric forms, and how to lead the viewer’s eye through the composition.

Master the art of creating believable water and reflections in your landscape paintings. Kathleen reveals why “water moves no matter how still you think it is” and shares techniques to make it look realistic. Learn why painting an upside-down pine tree is not the correct approach to creating reflections, how to establish proper value relationships between objects and their reflections, and techniques for creating the appearance of transparency in water. Discover Kathleen’s brushwork approaches specific to water surfaces and how to establish a full range of values that serves as your “keyboard” for the rest of the painting.

Experience Kathleen’s thoughtful, analytical approach to refining the painting. Learn to slow down at this stage, adding defining highlights while paying attention to variety in values and temperatures for more realistic results. Discover how to create a variety of beautiful marks with a limited number of brushes, how to bring excitement into shadows with reflected light, and how to add elegance and interest to your painting through subtle touches. Kathleen shares her philosophy on representing complex elements: “I’m going to make the viewer believe there are 472 rocks without painting every one of them,” demonstrating how suggestion often works better than detailed rendering.

Follow Kathleen’s deliberate process of making small, incremental adjustments that transform the painting. She emphasizes her guiding principle at this stage: “Perfect is the enemy of good,” warning that “I have ruined more paintings than I’d like to admit to by working too much on them.” Learn essential techniques for softening edges without blending colors, avoiding mud, and adding convincing water reflections. Discover how to measure for accurate reflections, create rippled effects on moving water, and paint objects both on and below the water’s surface — all skills that will bring natural authenticity to your landscape paintings.

Return to the painting with Kathleen after a break and learn how to objectively analyze your work. Discover her clever technique for creating an appearance of looseness and confidence in a painting that may have become too tight. See how she adds vibrancy through color shifts and makes compositional adjustments with fresh perspective. This chapter teaches you the critical skill of self-assessment that will elevate the quality of all your future paintings.

Complete the painting journey as Kathleen demonstrates how to make every brushstroke count with intentional, confident marks. Learn how subtle background adjustments and thoughtful water refinements create harmony throughout the composition. Discover Kathleen’s approach to determining when a painting is truly finished and her practice of setting work aside before making final decisions. These finishing techniques will give your paintings that professional polish that captivates viewers.