Stephen Berry Art Workshop - June 23rd, 2025

I remember that moment when I first re-discovered watercolors as an adult. I was in my early 30's, taking a class at a local junior college. The paper was very wet, and I was dropping color in with my brush. Just playing. I watched, chuckling under my breath, as the pigment bloomed across the paper, dancing to the invisible laws of water and gravity, over and over again, each and every time. Damn... That was sexy. There was no learning to like it. It was an easy joy to find, right from the get go!

Paying attention and being whole-heartedly engaged in what you are doing is a simple, undervalued pleasure, and painting is a tool which encourages me to do so. That’s why I began to paint and it’s why I continue to do so. I like the joy and focus I find while painting. I like playing with water, and seeing what it does. I like experimenting. I like the challenge of control, and the freedom that comes from letting go and teaming up with an elemental process. Little discoveries happen along the way, and you must decide how you’ll respond. It’s a relationship and a dance.

Each painting is the record of a certain point in time. Things are literally moving and drying. Water and sediment are reacting to gravity. The artist is making marks and corralling the elements. What makes that story interesting, what makes art interesting, isn’t perfection, but that humans are making it- that we are paying attention and making marks.

Bio-

I paint in a loose, expressive manner that approaches realism while simultaneously playing with water, gravity, and pigment. Currently based out of Vallejo, CA, I was born and raised in Northern California, and have a deep love for the rolling woodlands, tawny slopes, and stark, bold shorelines this area has to offer. I am a member of the Benicia Plein Air Gallery and The Gardener gallery, where you can see my work in person. I teach studio and plein air workshops.