Since I’m moving off Instagram, I decided to make a list of the artists I most enjoy following and find other ways to find them online. I carefully picked through my Instagram follows, blog RSS reader, Youtube subscriptions, and bookmarks to bring you these gems.
Some quite notes on this page:
- Illustrations in this top section are my own paintings done in their classes.
- This post contains many outside links to other artists’ websites and Youtube accounts. I intentionally did not include Instagram or Facebook since those are the social sites I’m moving away from.
- Artists’ names link to their personal website.
- Every link called “Palette Profile” is a post by me.
- All links to books from Amazon are my affiliate links, which help support this blog.
Top Teachers
Claire Giordano
Hiker, adventurer, and friendly, enthusiastic teacher
- Website: Claire’s Wanderings
- Travel & art videos: The Art of Hiking on Youtube
- Subscription service: Adventure Art Academy (monthly tutorials, community zooms, discord, no extra cost access to most classes)
- Classes: Adventure Art Academy; Art Toolkit Workshops
- My Artist Palette Profile of her palette
- My ode to her classes upon taking a break from Adventure Art Academy (I later rejoined)
Kolbie Blume
Art classes for recovering perfectionists
- Free video tutorials: Thiswritingdesk on Youtube
- Website: This Writing Desk
- Email newsletter
- Subscription service: Artist Cooperative (monthly tutorials, community zooms, discord)
- Books:
- My Artist Palette Profile of her palette
Maria Coryell-Martin
Naturalist, climate change documenter, and Art Toolkit creator
- Website: Expeditionary Art
- Runs Art Toolkit
- Email newsletter monthly
- Classes: Art Toolkit Workshops
- My Artist Palette Profile of her palette
Shelby Thayne
Layered mountains and night skies with accessible, beginner-oriented classes.
- Website: Penn and Light
- Email newsletter
- Classes available for replay
More Watercolor Artists
- Kal Anderson, Boston watercolor, oil, and acrylic artist and leatherworker
- Lee Angold, Ontario botanical illustrator [Palette Profile]
- Poppy Balser, celebrated Nova Scotia oceanscapist
- Julia Bausenhardt, German nature journaler
- Emily Beaudoin, Alberta mountains
- Shari Blaukopf, Montreal urban sketches, desert retreats, author of Working with Color [Palette Profile]
- Jane Blundell, Sydney Australia pigment expert and teacher [Palette Profile]
- Marie Boudon (Tribulations de Marie), French artist and teacher, author of Paysages a l’aquarelle [Youtube]
- Stephanie Bower (Drawing Perspectives), Seattle architectural artist, author of Understanding Perspective and 101 Sketching Tips
- Brienne Brown, upstate NY rural scenes
- Geethu Chandramohan (Colourful Mystique), author of Vibrant Watercolor [Skillshare]
- Mike Daikubara, urban sketcher, author of Sketch Now, Think Later and Color First, Ink Later [Palette Profile]
- Samantha Dion Baker, everyday journaling, author of Draw Your World and Draw Your Adventures
- Kim Everhard, realistic plein air of American west
- Leslie Fehling, rural PA, everyday journaling, florals
- Nikki Frumkin (Drawn to High Places), colorful mountains [Palette Profile]
- Jill Gustavis, Berkshires MA artist [Palette Profile]
- Molly Hashimoto, PNW watercolorist and block printer, author of Colors of the West and Trees of the West [Palette Profile]
- Joyce Hicks, author of Painting Beautiful Watercolor Landscapes [Palette Profile]
- Lisa Jordan (Kyr Creates), Seattle sky painter, power lines and crows series
- Kazuo Kasai, amazing timelapse Youtube videos [Youtube]
- Leslie Lambert (Leslie Redhead), author of Watercolor 365
- Barbara Luel, Belgian urban sketcher, spring florals [Palette Profiles]
- Tobias Liljeborg, Swedish minimalist and muted landscapes
- Kalliopi Lyviaki, Greek tattoo artist and Youtuber [Youtube]
- Jean Mackay (Drawn In), upstate NY nature journaler, author of The Nature Explorer’s Sketchbook
- Brooke Morales, 365 skies
- Rachael Mae Moyles, author of Stunning Watercolor Skies [Skillshare]
- John Muir Laws, nature journaler, author of The Laws Guide to Nature Journaling [Palette Profile]
- Zaneena Nabeel (Aurora by Z), intensely colorful, author of Bold and Beautiful Watercolor Skies
- Painted by Natalia, Munich artist and creator of Landscape Art Club
- Jay Nathan, English paint enthusiast [Youtube]
- Shelley Prior, celebrated Ontario watercolorist, realistic still lifes and skies
- Sable Rae, PNW foggy scenes [Etsy]
- Mimi Robinson, author of Local Color [Palette Profile]
- Max Romey (Trailbound Sketches), Alaska hiker and videographer
- Nilam Roy, Bangalore sunset enthusiast and teacher [Youtube | Skillshare]
- Harumichi Shibasaki, entertaining Youtube teacher [Youtube]
- Maria Smirnova (Magrish), Paris skies, author of Sublimez vos paysage à l’aquarelle [Skillshare | Palette Profile]
- Denise Soden (In Liquid Color), pigments and animals [Youtube]
- Lisa Spangler (Sideoats), western US national parks; great mailing list [Palette Profile]
- Liz Steel, Sydney Australia urban sketcher, pigment expert, classes [Palette Profile]
- Leslie Stroz, UK teacher, tiny landscapes [Youtube]
- Anna Syperek, Nova Scotia “poetic realism”
- Azuma Syunda, Japanese impressionist landscape artist and teacher
- Keiko Tanabe, Japanese loose realism artist and teacher
- Marc Taro Holmes (Citizen Sketcher), Montreal urban sketcher, direct watercolor, author of The Urban Sketcher
- Ryohei Toyonaga, light-filled landscapes and florals
- Katie Woodward (Rambling Artist), NYC urban sketcher, author of Understanding Light [Palette Profile]
- Liron Yanconsky, Youtuber [Youtube]
- Teoh Yi Chie (Parka Blogs), Singapore sketcher, traditional & digital, product reviews
- Takumi Yokooka, startlingly realistic yet somehow Ghibli-esque street and nature scenes
Gouache Artists
- Kate Avery (Plein Heir), exuberant landscapes with florals
- Guan Baoying, illustrative florals and meadows
- Sarah Burns, Scotland plein air gouache
- Jess Chung, Australian landscape teacher [Youtube | Skillshare]
- Maryellen Hackett (Here and Farther), plein air National Parks landscapes
- Kelley Vivian, National Parks especially Acadia [Youtube | Palette Profile]
- Ruth Wilshaw, modern and fantastical illustration
Artists in Other Mediums
- Margaret Babbitt, Connecticut acrylic painter of marshes and wetlands
- Kelly Corbett, British Columbia nature scene acrylics
- Mark Grantham, Nova Scotia acrylic painter
- Brigitte Granton, Ontario nature acrylic painter
- James Gurney, light and color master, multimedia (including watercolor), author of Dinotopia, Imaginative Realism, and Color and Light
- Phee Hudson, Vancouver Island mountain acrylic painter
- Mary Jo Hughes, Galiano Island, BC oil painter
- Emma Kelley, oils of the American west
- Jeremy Miranda, Maine oil painter; glowing skies
That was quite a list! Who are your very favorite artists to follow online?
ooh, thanks for the list! I see a few cross-overs with my favourites in watercolour and gouache (I LOVE SARAH BURNS), but so many that I don’t know. I’m looking forward to checking them out.
btw, fantastic blog! It is in my top list along with Jane Blundell (I could get lost there forever). I found your blog via the Google a few months ago, as I have been attempting to get into a “learn watercolours habit” for the past few years. Adulting full time with a job, husband and many cats is hard on the creative time, but I do get some endorphin hits from reading and watching others swatch and paint. (*cries a bit and plans for some swatching this afternoon*)