California
The Beauty of Yosemite and the Joy of Watercolor
Program No. 2317RJ
Find your inspiration in the idyllic setting of Yosemite, where you’ll learn about watercolor techniques, practice plein air painting and enjoy daily lessons from expert instructors.
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Protecting the Environment
We offset a portion of the emissions created by your travel. Learn more
6 days
5 nights
15 meals
5B 5L 5D
2
First Water Coloring Class
Oakhurst
4
Yosemite National Park, Free Time
Oakhurst
5
More Painting in Yosemite
Oakhurst
6
Program Concludes
Oakhurst
At a Glance
Join us in exploring new ways to be creative. Our delightful instructor teaches you how to render outdoor elements with ease, sharing secrets of color systems, brush-stroke techniques and water use. View nature from an artist's perspective during field trips to Yosemite National Park. Experience painting "in the wild," learning to paint mountains, trees and waterfalls in the field.
Activity Level
Easy Going
Walking up to one mile over varied terrain on field trips. Distances between lodging, dining hall and classrooms can exceed 1,000 feet to and from. Elevations of 3,100-6,000 feet.
Small Group
Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.
Best of all, you’ll…
- Embark on a bus excursion to some of the Yosemite Valley’s most beautiful sites, including Tunnel View, Bridalveil Fall and Sentinel Bridge.
- Delight in an opportunity to paint “en plein air” in the heart of Yosemite.
- Paint daily and improve your watercolor technique with the help of an art instructor who offers tips on composition, color and more.
General Notes
The Retreat Difference: This unique, often basic and no-frills experience at a Road Scholar Retreat includes opportunities for early morning exercise, interaction with the local community for insight into local life, an authentic farm-to-table or locally sourced meal, and a live performance or event. Basic art supplies are furnished. Participants may bring their own supplies to supplement if they wish.
Featured Expert
All trip experts
Judy Nightingale Person
Judy Nightingale Person's artwork has been shown in exhibitions at various venues throughout the Bay Area and Santa Cruz since 2009. While studying for a career in psychotherapy, Judy pursued college art classes. She credits the Santa Clara Watercolor Society, the Yosemite Conservancy, Bay Area Creatives, and the local Santa Cruz art scene for pointing her to art instructors who have been instrumental in deepening her skill level in watercolor and mixed media. Judy has volunteered in Yosemite and worked as an adult art instructor.
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Casey Chuevront
View biography
Casey Cheuvront studied drawing, painting, sculpture, and ceramics at CSUF California. Her work is informed not only by formal study but also by her ongoing plein air habit and lifelong appreciation of the natural world, established through a "feet-on-the trail" connection over many years. Her outdoor education began at a young age when she accompanied her father on long treks, fishing, hiking, bow hunting, archery exhibitions, and professional competitive archery shoots. Cheuvront’s pieces reveal an ongoing fascination with the Western and Southwestern wilderness and wildlife.
Rosemay Cameron
View biography
Rosemay Cameron fell in love with the “Crown Jewel of California,” Yosemite, during her first visit in 1974. That trip sparked a lifelong passion for the mountains. She has conquered landmarks like Half Dome and Yosemite Falls, and completed the challenging 21-mile Valley Floor hike. She now assists in leading Road Scholar trips to Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks. A graduate of Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA, she balanced a career as a CFO with raising three boys with her husband.
Judy Nightingale Person
View biography
Judy Nightingale Person's artwork has been shown in exhibitions at various venues throughout the Bay Area and Santa Cruz since 2009. While studying for a career in psychotherapy, Judy pursued college art classes. She credits the Santa Clara Watercolor Society, the Yosemite Conservancy, Bay Area Creatives, and the local Santa Cruz art scene for pointing her to art instructors who have been instrumental in deepening her skill level in watercolor and mixed media. Judy has volunteered in Yosemite and worked as an adult art instructor.
Suggested Reading List
(69 books)
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
The Beauty of Yosemite and the Joy of Watercolor
Program Number: 2317
FLO: A Biography of Frederick Law Olmsted
Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World
Garden of the Sun: A History of the San Joaquin Valley: 1772-1939.
A Sierra Club Naturalist’s Guide to the Sierra Nevada.
. Stephen Whitney has taken most of the University of California Press guides and books and done an excellent job of condensing a wide range of biotic and abiotic topics. I highly recommend this guide to anyone interested in the Sierra Nevada, whether a teacher, backpacker, student, or amateur naturalist.
William Neill Blog
The San Joaquin – A River Betrayed
On the Loose
The Secret Knowledge of Water
Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds.
Salt: A World History
My First Summer in the Sierra
The first of John Muir's books. This inspirational book allows the reader to understand John Muir's desire to protect and preserve Yosemite.
The Invention of Nature; Alexander Von Humboldt's New World.
Touch the Earth: A Self-Portrait of the Indian Existence
Black Elk Speaks
Gloryland: A Novel
Mountains Without Handrails: Reflections on the National Parks
. Gloryland: A Novel.
This books is roughly based on the life of his great-grandfather who was a buffalo soldier and one of those who patrolled Yosemite NP around the turn of the century to protect it from poachers, loggers, miners, etc.
Born on Emancipation Day, 1863, to a sharecropping family of African and Indian blood, Elijah Yancy never lived as a slave, but his self-image as a free person is at war with his surroundings: Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the Reconstructed South.
Shelton Johnson is an interpretive ranger for Yosemite National Park. His area of expertise is the Buffalo Soldiers and their influence on the early history of Yosemite and the west.
Flowering Shrubs of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada.
While the trees of Yosemite thrill visitors and the wildflowers often steal the show, every year the blue elderberry, the snowberry, the American dogwood, and dozens of other shrubs bloom in a glory all their own. This lovely volume, with inspired watercolors showing the fruit, flowers, and foliage of the plants, pays these shrubs full homage. Complete with useful information for plant identification, this book serves as a welcome and needed introduction to some of Yosemite's wildflowers.
Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada
High Odyssey: The First Solo Winter Assault of Mt. Whitney and the Muir Trail Area.
Anyone who loves mountains, and especially the Sierra Nevada, will find this a great addition to the library. It documents the little known winter solo ski trip over the entire John Muir trail, from Mt. Whitney to Yosemite, by Orland Bartholemew in 1928-29. The author expertly crafts the story from old notes and a diary.
The Wild Muir: Twenty-two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures
Winter WorldL The Ingenuity of Animal Survival
A Sierra Club Naturalist's Guide to the Sierra Nevada
The Wild Muir: Twenty-two of John Muir’s Greatest Adventures.
Short stories from John Muir that creates an understanding of John Muir.
The Hour of Land; A Personal Topography of America's National Parks.
An Illustrated Flora of Yosemite National Park
An Illustrated Flora of Yosemite National Park. El Portal, California:
Westering ManL The Life of Joseph Walker
The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American
The Photographer's Guide to Yosemite
www.michaelfrye.com
A Field Guide to Mammals
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite’s Half Dome
The Incomparable Valley: a Geologic Interpretation of the Yosemite.
The Earth Speaks: An Acclimatization Journal
A Journal of Ramblings Through the High Sierra of California by the University Excursion Party
Oaks of California
A Sand County Almanac
Challenge of the Big Trees
The Geologic Story of Yosemite National Park.
Geologic History of Yosemite
Field Guide to Birds of North America
Secrets of the Oak Woodlands; Plants and Animals Among California's Oaks
My First Summer in the Sierra
High Odyssey: The First Solo Winter Assault of Mt. Whitney and the Muir Trail Area
Mountain Sage
Conifers of California
Galen Clark: Yosemite Guardian
Flowering Shrubs of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada
"Ansel Adams and the American Landscape"
The Land of Little Rain
Yosemite: Volume One
Our expert instructor highly recommends William Neill's blog and ebook. Find the blog at www.williamneill.com/blog/ and Find his ebook at www.williamneill.com/store/ebooks/yosemite-volume1/index.html
The Journey Home
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Sierra Nevada Wildflowers
Desert Solitaire
Assembling California
They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush
The Education of Little Tree
Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West
Nature’s Army: When Soldiers Fought for Yosemite
Wildflowers of the Sierra Nevada and the Central Valley
Uncertain Path; A Search for the Future of National Parks
Up and Down California in 1860-1864: The Journal of William H Brewer
Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water
Shaping the Sierra: Nature, Culture, and Conflict in the Changing West
Sierra Nevada Natural History: An Illustrated Handbook.
The Star Thrower
The Geologic Story of Yosemite National Park
History of the Sierra Nevada
Sisters of the Earth