Confident Color Mixing for Nature Journaling

Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Time: 9:00 am. – 12:00 p.m.
Location: Fort Missoula Native Plant Garden
Cost: $45 MNHC members/$50 non-members.
Add your MNHC membership to your order when you check out!
Master color mixing with artist Nancy Seiler! Have you been nature journaling for a while and feel a bit overwhelmed when mixing colors? This class is for you!
Nancy will help you understand how to choose colors to match the natural objects that you see. She’ll explain pigments so that you will come away understanding how to obtain bright and dull colors, use complimentary colors, mix grays, and utilize whatever watercolors you have on hand. Nancy will be teaching from the QoR Mini 12-pigment set, so it would benefit you to have this set.
We’ll start with swatching to understand the pigments you have, tricks for blending and layering color, and how values play a big part of helping your drawings pop. The first two hours will be teaching and working with your pigments. The last hour will be color mixing on your own from objects you find on site with Nancy there to help you achieve color matches.
Instructor: Nancy Seiler received her Visual Communications degree from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1981. As a Golden Working Artist for Golden Artist Colors she presents lectures, demonstrations, and workshops in acrylics, watercolors, and oils in Southern California and Montana. She has taught classical botanical illustration and nature journaling since 2003. Her work is represented by Frame of Reference Fine Art in Whitefish and Bigfork, Montana.
Activity level: Easy. We will be sitting at picnic tables and/or folding chairs. Feel free to bring seating that you prefer. The bathrooms are port-a-potties.
What to Bring:
-clothes appropriate for changing Montana weather conditions, layers
-sunscreen, bug spray
-water, snacks
-your watercolor set
-watercolor paper or watercolor/mixed media journal
-#8 round brush or similar
-graphite pencil and eraser and/or micro pen (any size point)
-anything you may need to be comfortable sitting and journaling outside for 3 hours. There are picnic tables, but you may want your own chair, or pillow, or whatever you use when journaling.
FAQs