The French Impressionist Way

For artist and art educator Vian Borchert who has been creating artwork professionally for 30 years along teaching art classes in painting and drawing to adults for 2 decades in the DMV area - Borchert finds that the most influential of all historic art movements is the French impressionist. With its bohemian artists, the painterly movement went on to shape as well as redefine what paintings look like for generations to come. Borchert expresses that if she has to pinpoint a specific artist who has influenced her the most, then it would have to be the French Impressionists, and especially Claude Monet. Through Borchert's education and studies of master artists' biographies, she believes that Monet is the artist whom she feels most deeply connected to, both in spirit and in character. Borchert feels that her approach to the natural world is very similar to Monet where nature for both is a great source from which art blossoms onto the canvas. This Winter term, Borchert will be offering a one-day workshop at The Yellow Barn Studio at Glen Echo Park on Saturday February 21, 2026 from 10AM-1PM on that subject matter. The onsite and in-person studio class is open for all levels of students.

Workshop Title: "After the French Impressionists, A Painting Adventure Workshop"
On: Saturday Feb 21, 2026
From: 10AM - 1PM
At: The Yellow Barn Studio, Glen Echo Park at: 7300 MacArthur Blvd, Glen Echo, MD 20812

Registration link:

https://reg126.imperisoft.com/glenechopark/ProgramDetail/3536393538/Registration.aspx

Workshop Description:

Making an artwork through the eyes of master French impressionist, Claude Monet where the class will study one of Monet's artwork and create in acrylic their own version of it. Borchert will guide the students of all levels via demonstration to bring the artwork to a completion.

* Beyond Vian Borchert's art classes offerings in painting and drawing, Borchert currently has one of her signature famed painting "Two Happy Clouds" on exhibit and view at the Watergate Gallery located within the iconic Watergate complex's lower floor by the shops and the modern fountain.

Borchert's large abstracted skyscape landscape painting depicting movement and formations of clouds is part of the ongoing "Beyond the Horizon" group art exhibition that showcases stellar artists from the DC area.

Borchert aimed in "Two Happy Clouds" to evoke the vast openness of the sky beyond the horizon and the graceful interplay of clouds engaged in a quiet rhythmic dance. For Borchert, clouds have for a long time been a great source of inspiration. As an artist and a dreamer she feels that by looking up at the ever changing cloudscapes, her imagination gets ignited. The painting is a poetic meditation on the emotional connection of what Borchert feels our shared presence. Albeit abstract in its visual appeal, yet two distinct clouds appear to float in dialogue rather than isolation. Through atmosphere, movement, and tonal interplay, the work conveys joy, companionship as well as a gentle harmony. The “happiness” within the clouds is an ode to looking beyond the horizon with optimism where Borchert invites the viewer into a blue skyscape that offers a moment of balance, ease, and transcendence beyond the weight of the everyday.

The ongoing "Beyond the Horizon" exhibition continues till February 28, 2026.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Friday: 11am - 6pm, Saturday: 12pm - 5pm

Watergate Gallery's address: 2552 Virginia Avenue NW, Washington DC 20037

For more about Borchert, visit: https://www.vianborchert.com/c...