April Plein Air with Laura Wooten at Portaferry Farm in Batesville

April 8, 15, 22, and 29, 2026 4 days /$450 FULL, waitlist available.

Immerse yourself in the seasonal changes and rural beauty of Albemarle County as we paint outdoors at historic Portaferry Farm in Batesville, VA. Working from observation, we will build foundational skills while exploring color, light, shape, composition, and mark-making. The beauty and complexity of nature will be our muse as we learn to simplify forms, untangle the parts from the whole, and create dynamic paintings that reflect a powerful and personalized visual language. Students will learn a framework for observational painting that is independent of style, allowing for the discovery of their own artistic temperament and authentic interpretation of the natural world.

General Schedule:

• 8:30 AM: Studio opens for arrival and set up

• 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM: Lessons, demos, and guided practice

• Noon – 1:00: Lunch Break & Conversation, Bring a bag lunch.

• 1:00 – 3:45 Painting and individual coaching. Allow time for clean-up.

• 4:00 PM Departure

Week 1: LIGHT & COLOR

• Mixing a Color Matrix for Landscape

• Value: Range of Light to Dark

• Temperature: Range of Warm to Cool

• Intensity or Saturation: Range of Bright to Neutral

Week 2: COMPOSITION & SPACE

• Point of View & Dynamic Composition

• Cropping to Engage Edges

• Movement & Circulation through Space

• Push & Pull of Color creates Near & Far

Week 3: SHAPE & FORM

• Positive & Negative Shapes

• Creating Form with Color & Light

• Handling Edges: crisp to soft

• Simplifying & Merging for Clarity of Form

Week 4: MARK & SURFACE

• Gesture & Mark: Finding your “hand”

• Experimenting with tools

• Directionality, Harmony & Variation of marks

• Building a surface through edits & layers

FROM LAURA:

Through a close observation of the natural world, with layers of memory and invention, I create artwork that values our human connection to the landscape.

My current work reflects my interest in painting the landscape of my daily experience: the fields and meadows of central Virginia, views to the distant Blue Ridge Mountains from my hilltop neighborhood, and the way trees mark the passing of time in my own backyard. My paintings explore the places they represent, as well as the inner landscape of my experience and how it might be shared. Color, shape, and mark fall in service to the perception of an emotional presence in the land that is both highly personal and universally human. The landscape painting becomes a mirror into our own histories, reveries, and associations.

I earned my undergraduate degree in Art and Architecture at the University of Virginia and continued on at UVA as an Aunspaugh Post-Baccalaureate Fellow in Studio Art before earning my MFA from American University. During graduate school, I attended a summer program in Perugia, Italy, at the Accademia de Belle Arti Pietro Vannucci, where the panoramic Mediterranean landscape took hold of my imagination. My landscape paintings have been exhibited across the East Coast, including juried exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover, Delaware, the Bowery Gallery in New York City and the Mosesian Center for the Arts in Boston. Recent solo exhibitions in Charlottesville include “Spirit of Place: Landscapes Real & Imagined” at Chroma Projects in 2019 and “View from the Ridge” at Second Street Gallery in 2020/21.

I’m an artist, a mom, and a co-owner of Orzo Kitchen & Wine Bar in Charlottesville, Virginia with my husband and two dear friends. Our travels throughout the Mediterranean have cultivated an on-going passion for the food, wine, landscapes, and culture of this region. Whether I am cooking for my family with local produce at home, or sharing a special meal while traveling abroad, I cherish the connections between landscape, culture, and family that shape our food traditions, our sense of place, and our feelings of belonging.

Inquiries and pre-registration: lisa@phaetongallery. Please note: class is full, waitlist is being accepted.