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
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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.
What You'll Learn
- 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.
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
. 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.
FLO: A Biography of Frederick Law Olmsted
My First Summer in the Sierra
The Secret Knowledge of Water
Challenge of the Big Trees
The Earth Speaks: An Acclimatization Journal
Sierra Nevada Natural History: An Illustrated Handbook.
Desert Solitaire
Westering ManL The Life of Joseph Walker
The Star Thrower
The Invention of Nature; Alexander Von Humboldt's New World.
The Geologic Story of Yosemite National Park
Galen Clark: Yosemite Guardian
Oaks of California
Field Guide to Birds of North America
Nature’s Army: When Soldiers Fought for Yosemite
Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada
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
Mountains Without Handrails: Reflections on the National Parks
They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush
Sierra Nevada Wildflowers
The Wild Muir: Twenty-two of John Muir’s Greatest Adventures.
Short stories from John Muir that creates an understanding of John Muir.
A Sierra Club Naturalist's Guide to the Sierra Nevada
Sisters of the Earth
A Sand County Almanac
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.
A Journal of Ramblings Through the High Sierra of California by the University Excursion Party
The Incomparable Valley: a Geologic Interpretation of the Yosemite.
High Odyssey: The First Solo Winter Assault of Mt. Whitney and the Muir Trail Area
Garden of the Sun: A History of the San Joaquin Valley: 1772-1939.
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.
Secrets of the Oak Woodlands; Plants and Animals Among California's Oaks
Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds.
Gloryland: A Novel
Salt: A World History
William Neill Blog
The Wild Muir: Twenty-two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures
The Journey Home
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite’s Half Dome
The Geologic Story of Yosemite National Park.
Geologic History of Yosemite
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.
Up and Down California in 1860-1864: The Journal of William H Brewer
Touch the Earth: A Self-Portrait of the Indian Existence
The Photographer's Guide to Yosemite
www.michaelfrye.com
The Land of Little Rain
Conifers of California
Flowering Shrubs of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada
"Ansel Adams and the American Landscape"
An Illustrated Flora of Yosemite National Park
An Illustrated Flora of Yosemite National Park. El Portal, California:
Assembling California
A Field Guide to Mammals
Uncertain Path; A Search for the Future of National Parks
The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American
The San Joaquin – A River Betrayed
Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water
On the Loose
Mountain Sage
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
The Hour of Land; A Personal Topography of America's National Parks.
Black Elk Speaks
History of the Sierra Nevada
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.
Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World
The Education of Little Tree
Wildflowers of the Sierra Nevada and the Central Valley
Winter WorldL The Ingenuity of Animal Survival
Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West
Shaping the Sierra: Nature, Culture, and Conflict in the Changing West
Meals
15 Meals
5 Breakfasts
5 Lunches
5 Dinners
The following choices may be available when requested in advance: Low Fat, Low Salt, Vegetarian, Gluten Free
Lodging
Lodgings may differ by date. Select a date to see the lodgings specific to that date.
Display
- Oct 20, 2024 - Oct 25, 2024
- Oct 20, 2024 - Oct 25, 2024
- Apr 27, 2025 - May 02, 2025
- May 04, 2025 - May 09, 2025
- Oct 19, 2025 - Oct 24, 2025
5 nights
Oakhurst
Set amid 160 lovely acres of forested oaks, incense cedar and ponderosa pine, the two ECCO lodges used by Road Scholar participants — Sanford Lodge and Beardsley Lodge — are split-level with ground-floor parking and an entrance at each level. The dining room features a full wraparound deck overlooking a pond populated by mallards, egrets, herons and one mute swan. There is a casual relaxation room for socializing, with plenty of novels to borrow. Good to know: No TVs in rooms but one in common area. Wi-Fi is available throughout. Housekeeping once a week. We will serve wine on the arrival night during the social hour afterward wine or beer is not provided or sold at ECCO. You are welcome to bring your own and we will provide corkage and glassware at no additional cost. Most meals served buffet-style; bus own table.
5 nights
Oakhurst
Set amid 160 lovely acres of forested oaks, incense cedar and ponderosa pine, the two ECCO lodges used by Road Scholar participants — Sanford Lodge and Beardsley Lodge — are split-level with ground-floor parking and an entrance at each level. The dining room features a full wraparound deck overlooking a pond populated by mallards, egrets, herons and one mute swan. There is a casual relaxation room for socializing, with plenty of novels to borrow. Good to know: No TVs in rooms but one in common area. Wi-Fi is available throughout. Housekeeping once a week. We will serve wine on the arrival night during the social hour afterward wine or beer is not provided or sold at ECCO. You are welcome to bring your own and we will provide corkage and glassware at no additional cost. Most meals served buffet-style; bus own table.
5 nights
Oakhurst
Set amid 160 lovely acres of forested oaks, incense cedar and ponderosa pine, the two ECCO lodges used by Road Scholar participants — Sanford Lodge and Beardsley Lodge — are split-level with ground-floor parking and an entrance at each level. The dining room features a full wraparound deck overlooking a pond populated by mallards, egrets, herons and one mute swan. There is a casual relaxation room for socializing, with plenty of novels to borrow. Good to know: No TVs in rooms but one in common area. Wi-Fi is available throughout. Housekeeping once a week. We will serve wine on the arrival night during the social hour afterward wine or beer is not provided or sold at ECCO. You are welcome to bring your own and we will provide corkage and glassware at no additional cost. Most meals served buffet-style; bus own table.
5 nights
Oakhurst
Set amid 160 lovely acres of forested oaks, incense cedar and ponderosa pine, the two ECCO lodges used by Road Scholar participants — Sanford Lodge and Beardsley Lodge — are split-level with ground-floor parking and an entrance at each level. The dining room features a full wraparound deck overlooking a pond populated by mallards, egrets, herons and one mute swan. There is a casual relaxation room for socializing, with plenty of novels to borrow. Good to know: No TVs in rooms but one in common area. Wi-Fi is available throughout. Housekeeping once a week. We will serve wine on the arrival night during the social hour afterward wine or beer is not provided or sold at ECCO. You are welcome to bring your own and we will provide corkage and glassware at no additional cost. Most meals served buffet-style; bus own table.
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