2026 MMAM Workshop with Nelia Harper French
MMAM Exhibition Opening Weekend
OPM is excited to announce a spring member workshop at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum corresponding with the opening of the Minnesota Plein Air Collective (MPAC) 4th annual traveling exhibition.
Nelia Harper French Workshop
Saturday, May 16
10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Minnesota Marine Art Museum
800 Riverview Drive, Winona, MN 55987
Join Nelia Harper French and learn how to capture the "light effect" in this plein air landscape painting workshop.
Nelia will demonstrate how to "see the landscape" through an artist’s eye while providing attendees with time-honed techniques, tools, and understanding of light in nature. Students are encouraged to paint-along or listen and absorb as Nelia guides participants through creating a painting from start to finish on location. While she will demonstrate in oil paint, the foundational principles of the workshop are used by all media for creating light and atmosphere in landscape painting. This demonstration is a wonderful start for beginning plein air painters while providing tools and resources for advanced painters in any medium or artistic style.
The paint-along demonstration will take place in the MMAM gardens and is open to the public. The event is free for current OPM members. A $25 donation is suggested for non-members, who will also need to pay separate museum admission.
Participants are welcome to paint-along or watch. All skill levels are welcome.
The demonstration will move inside in the event of rain.
Bring your own supplies. Chairs and stools provided.
About the Artist
Nelia Harper French is a classically trained fine artist and instructor whose artwork focuses on the intersection of people and nature. Her diverse subjects range from still life to plein air landscape paintings to portraits and narrative figure work. From small, detailed studies of natural objects to life size figures in the landscape, she chooses from a wide range of abstract shapes, color, texture, edges, line, and mass and the interplay of those forms within space to create realistic and natural impressionistic paintings. While she works primarily in oil paint, she also creates with pastel, gouache, egg tempera and a variety of drawing mediums.
Nelia shares her knowledge in both in-person and online workshops, teaching youth and adults, creating community art projects, and encouraging others in the creation of art for personal and public engagement. She is a grant recipient of the Minnesota State Arts Board and Arrowhead Regional Arts Council and currently an Artist in Residence at Central School in Grand Rapids, MN. Nelia studied at the Great Lakes Academy of Fine Arts in Duluth, MN and holds a Bachelor of Arts from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN. She organizes local plein air paint-outs in her community and is an active Board Member of Outdoor Painters of Minnesota.
Registration
RSVP to reserve your space! You will be taken to the Shopping Cart and will need to Check Out to complete your registration.
MMAM Exhibition Opening Weekend
OPM is excited to announce a spring member workshop at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum corresponding with the opening of the Minnesota Plein Air Collective (MPAC) 4th annual traveling exhibition.
Nelia Harper French Workshop
Saturday, May 16
10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Minnesota Marine Art Museum
800 Riverview Drive, Winona, MN 55987
Join Nelia Harper French and learn how to capture the "light effect" in this plein air landscape painting workshop.
Nelia will demonstrate how to "see the landscape" through an artist’s eye while providing attendees with time-honed techniques, tools, and understanding of light in nature. Students are encouraged to paint-along or listen and absorb as Nelia guides participants through creating a painting from start to finish on location. While she will demonstrate in oil paint, the foundational principles of the workshop are used by all media for creating light and atmosphere in landscape painting. This demonstration is a wonderful start for beginning plein air painters while providing tools and resources for advanced painters in any medium or artistic style.
The paint-along demonstration will take place in the MMAM gardens and is open to the public. The event is free for current OPM members. A $25 donation is suggested for non-members, who will also need to pay separate museum admission.
Participants are welcome to paint-along or watch. All skill levels are welcome.
The demonstration will move inside in the event of rain.
Bring your own supplies. Chairs and stools provided.
About the Artist
Nelia Harper French is a classically trained fine artist and instructor whose artwork focuses on the intersection of people and nature. Her diverse subjects range from still life to plein air landscape paintings to portraits and narrative figure work. From small, detailed studies of natural objects to life size figures in the landscape, she chooses from a wide range of abstract shapes, color, texture, edges, line, and mass and the interplay of those forms within space to create realistic and natural impressionistic paintings. While she works primarily in oil paint, she also creates with pastel, gouache, egg tempera and a variety of drawing mediums.
Nelia shares her knowledge in both in-person and online workshops, teaching youth and adults, creating community art projects, and encouraging others in the creation of art for personal and public engagement. She is a grant recipient of the Minnesota State Arts Board and Arrowhead Regional Arts Council and currently an Artist in Residence at Central School in Grand Rapids, MN. Nelia studied at the Great Lakes Academy of Fine Arts in Duluth, MN and holds a Bachelor of Arts from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN. She organizes local plein air paint-outs in her community and is an active Board Member of Outdoor Painters of Minnesota.
Registration
RSVP to reserve your space! You will be taken to the Shopping Cart and will need to Check Out to complete your registration.