An online watercolour course
Find Your Inner Watercolour Artist
An online painting course to help you paint loose, intuitive, living horses and other animals in watercolour.
Welcome
Welcome to the studio
This is your place, and yours only. A place to try, to explore, to mess up, and surprise yourself.
There's no pressure here, no expert looking over your shoulder, no red pen. Just you, a brush, and a little more room to breathe than you've probably given yourself in a while.
So, what's inside?
The whole process, not just the technique
In this course, I want to show you how I actually work. What materials I use, how I prepare my space and canvas for watercolour, where I find inspiration, how I sketch living horses, how I paint abstract and figurative paintings, how I deal with insecurities, how I finish and present my work, really everything I've learned over the years.
And you don't have to copy me, I'm not going to tell you how you should paint. You can invent your own way. You're just free to borrow whatever's useful from my experience, if you want to. I will teach you how to find your own style and become an artist yourself.
There are endless watercolour tutorials online already. What's missing is someone walking you through the whole process, not just technique, but the mindset that actually gets you to a finished piece you're proud of, to grow closer to the artist you actually want to become.
May this academy feel like
your grandfather's studio
I grew up in my grandfather's studio, painting since I was three. It was my safe space, room to experiment with whatever materials I wanted. Watercolour became my favourite and he taught me every technique there was. My grandfather was a teacher at the academy himself, but he let me find my own style, without rules. He encouraged me, he was my biggest fan, proud enough to tell everyone I had more talent than he did. He told me I could do something. I still hear him say “You are an artist”. And I believed him.
When he died, I lost a piece of myself as well. My safe haven. I still had so many questions about running an art business, questions I now had to find out alone. I went looking for that same warmth somewhere else, a community, a place to belong, but all I found were school-ish institutions that never felt like home.
You don't have to do it alone.
I want my academy to be your grandfather's studio. A place where you can be yourself, where you're encouraged, where you're allowed to play, and where someone is genuinely proud of you. Because we need that fire. I want to light yours by inspiring you, and I need your fire too. We can lift each other up, in a safe, positive space.
It's not about doing it “right.” It's about discovering your creativity, and I'm here to help you when you're stuck.
Enjoying what you're doing is what makes you successful.
So you can grow a little more into whatever you want to become.
35 years of painting, in 9 modules
Thirty-five years of experience, poured into 9 modules
Everything I've learned in 35 years of painting is poured into these 9 modules. It's an enormous amount of value. And all of it is built on genuine real, hard-won experience: the exact techniques I actually use to sell paintings for up to €6,500.
Watch what you like, in any order
You don't have to follow the modules in sequence. Start wherever you're curious, pick what you enjoy, and build your own path through the course.
Short, bite-sized videos
Every module holds several short films, most between 3 and 10 minutes. No long, rambling videos that eat your whole afternoon, just clear, digestible pieces you can actually finish.
Built on real experience
Nothing theoretical. It's all drawn from a working life as a professional artist, the way I really paint and really sell.
I know how busy life gets, and how little time you feel you have for a course like this. But here's the thing: the less time you have, the more you should be carving out for yourself. I'm a busy mum too, running my own business, with a little one who doesn't go to daycare, and even I manage to make time for myself. So you can too.
This is for you if
- you've been carrying that feeling for a while now, the one that says you'd love to paint, but don't know where to start
- you keep whispering to yourself that you're probably not talented enough
- your paintbrush has been sitting in a drawer, gathering dust, while your job, your to-do list, everything else, keeps demanding to be more important
- you used to paint, maybe as a kid, and somewhere along the way, you stopped
- you feel a bit burned out, and you're craving a creative outlet that's yours
- you love loose, expressive watercolour, not stiff, photorealistic copying
- you freeze up before starting and you're scared to ruin your painting
- your paintings feel forced and you want to paint horses, or any animal, in a way that feels alive
- you want to learn how to paint with watercolour on canvas
This isn't for you if
- You want an exhaustive, technical deep-dive into every watercolour technique that exists.
- Or you only want tightly controlled, hyper-realistic work, with strict rules and one "correct" way of doing things.
- You don't want to invest time for yourself and this course.
You don't have to figure this out alone
Hi, I'm Marjo.
I've been painting since I was three, in my grandfather's studio. Sold my first painting at twelve. Never went to art academy, built everything I know by trying, failing, and watching. Today my work hangs with collectors across Europe, the US, Australia and Dubai, I've exhibited internationally, and I paint watercolour on large canvas, in a style that took me years to find.
I used to be an equine veterinarian. Now, I am myself.
This is the most direct I've ever been about how I actually paint, not the polished version, the real one.
One word for this course: freedom.
What painters are saying
Loved by the people who paint with me
“I'd told myself for years I wasn't talented enough. Two modules in, I finished a painting I was actually proud of. That feeling is worth the whole course.”
“The short videos are perfect. Ten minutes here and there, and suddenly I'm painting again. No pressure, no rules, just Marjo showing you how she really works.”
“It's the mindset part that changed everything for me. I stopped freezing before I started. Now I just paint, and I love it.”
What you get inside the course
Everything you need to finish a painting you're proud of
- 01Getting started & materials: my favourite materials and why I use them, making your creative space, your first assignment
- 02Sketching: choosing your subject and reference without losing hours, sketching freehand, prevent a sketch from feeling stiff, getting the proportions right, tools that make it easier, making your first sketches
- 03Watercolour techniques: preparing your surface, watercolour on canvas, colour theory, the watercolour techniques everyone talks about, glazing, masking, fixing mistakes and many more to play with
- 04Catching the gaze: painting the eyes, make a portrait feel alive
- 05Find your own style: testing different media, how to find your style and discovering your artistic voice
- 06The voices in your head: working on our mindset through fear, perfectionism and failure
- 07Let's go bigger: everything comes together on big canvas
- 08Finishing & presenting: knowing when to stop, finishing, framing, hanging, presenting and sharing your work
- 09You are an artist: closing the circle and what comes next
- ★Bonus: a complete painting, start to finish, filmed live and explained every step
Questions
FAQ
Do I need experience?
No. This is a watercolour course for every kind of artist. Whether you're a beginner who has never painted before, or a professional who wants to learn how to watercolour on canvas and work on mindset, this course is well worth it for anyone willing to put the effort in.
Is there any time pressure? I'm really busy at the moment.
The best transformations come when you put time in regularly, but that's entirely up to you. You do this course in your own time, at your own pace. Whether that's an hour every day or ten minutes a week, it's all fine. There are no deadlines and no schedule to follow. You can binge-watch every module in a week, or spread the course over months and come back to it next year, because it keeps growing. I update the course over time, and you'll always have the newest version, at no extra cost.
Do I get lifetime access?
Yes. Once you're in, you're in, for good, including every future update.
Do I have to paint horses?
No. I paint horses, but every technique in this course applies to whatever subject you love, whether that's animals, flowers, landscapes or abstracts. The main goal is to find your inner watercolour artist, and to discover what that means for you.
Can I paint abstract instead of figurative?
Yes. All modules work for any style, including fully abstract. There are a few lessons you can skip, when we dive into proportions, for example, but the main idea of this course is letting go of detail and painting loose, from intuition.
What materials do I need to get started?
Module 1 walks you through exactly what I use, why, and where to buy it, including budget-friendly alternatives. You don't need anything expensive to start.
What language is the course in?
Video and text are in English. You can switch the video subtitles to your own language, so you can follow the complete course in any language YouTube offers. You won't miss a thing.
I've painted before, but never with watercolour. Is this still for me?
Yes, this is especially for you. If you've worked in another medium, acrylic, oils, pencil, this course shows you how watercolour works differently, and how to bring what you already know into it.
How much time will this course take me?
There's up to ten hours of video lessons, but you take as much time as you want with the assignments. This is a course that can accompany you for years. Give yourself the time to experiment and learn, painting takes the time it takes.
"Everyone is an artist and so are you."
Picasso said every child is an artist. The problem is staying one once we grow up. So that's what we're doing here, going in search of the artist in you that got lost somewhere along the way.
In my studio, there are no rules. In my world, everything is art, and for every kind of art, there's a market too. This course isn't about doing it right, it's about discovering your creativity. Life's a party, and you hang the lights and the discoballs.
Right now
Early bird, first group only
This is my first time running this course as an online program, so I'm not going to pretend I have it all perfectly figured out yet. The first group gets it at this early bird price, in exchange for your honest feedback along the way, I genuinely want to know what worked, what didn't, and what you needed more of. You'll be helping me build this into something even better, and I won't forget that.
Sometimes a gift to yourself is a coffee out, or a new pair of shoes. Sometimes it's a few hours with a brush in your hand, finding out who you are underneath everything else. That's this course.
Come paint with me.