Drawing and Painting from Nature

Thursdays from 4:00-6:00 PM, July 31-Aug 21, 2025 with Allison Donohue

Join in-person at our new location, 262 Central Ave, Dover, NH or via zoom

Drawing and Painting from Nature is a four-week class focused on nature illustration techniques, and is appropriate for people at all levels of art experience. Each session will focus on different elements of the natural world, such as leaves, flowers, trees, feathers, or shells, exploring both their structure and expressive potential. Through guided exercises, participants will practice foundational drawing techniques, including contour drawing, shading, and composition, before moving into watercolor and mixed media to add color and texture.

As a teacher, artist, and naturalist, Allison Donohue puts emphasis on deep observation, process, and play over perfection. By the end of the course, you’ll have a collection of sketches and paintings, along with a set of techniques and practices you can carry into your own nature journaling or sketchbook routine.

Materials included!

About the Instructor:

Allison Donohue spends a lot of time wandering through fields, woods, streams and shorelines observing plants and animals. She has a particular obsession with the ocean and the many islands that dot the Maine coastline. In recent years, her work has been increasingly done en plein air, and she has taken paintings on treks up mountains, on hundred mile canoe trips through northern Maine, and on multi-week adventures into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of northern Minnesota.

In addition to her fine art and plein air work, Allison is passionate about connecting people to the natural world through art, and teaches nature journaling and natural science illustration workshops throughout southern Maine. Allison is currently completing the Natural Science Illustration Program through the Yale Peabody Museum. In her spare time, she volunteers as a Maine Master Naturalist.

Allison works in watercolor, acrylics and oils.