November / December Meetings

At our November meeting, Marjorie Cutting introduced the  her father, Henry Thomas Gleson as the artist of the month. Marjorie had many examples of his beautiful work. 
We will continue our “Artist of the Month” in January.

During our December meeting we painted a “Quilt Painting” for Sue Conner which we will send to her along with a copy of the directory. Hopefully this will help her to remember her many painting friends as she continues in her recovery. It was a fun lesson in painting what you see such as shape, color and value because you only saw the small portion of the flower photo that you were to paint. The painting turned out beautiful. I’m sure Sue will love it.

 

We also enjoyed our “Trading Card Exchange”. It’s always fun to try to guess the artist of  paintings.

 

  

Finally the members were asked to bring in simple Christmas card ideas that they might have to share with the other members . We enjoyed working on their many creative ideas throughout the afternoon.

October Meeting

Once again members will be making trading cards for the Dec.15 meeting. Original designed cards should be 2 ¼ by 3 ½ .  Do not sign them as they will be displayed to determine the artist and then distributed to others and can be signed at that time.

Pat Scofield introduced the artist of the month. Pedro E Guerrero is a renown, contemporary photographer.


Char Olson presented ideas for a form of abstract art working with shapes and colors.  This will be the technique for the November 17th meeting.  Bring your regular painting supplies.  Also bring some magazines, calendar  pictures, or other visuals for ideas.  The process involves taking small areas of a picture which can be enlarged to find shapes, and developed with color.

I demonstrated ideas for developing  grape/leaf designs enhanced with color and texturing. We used a variety of leaves brought in by Lynda Barganz and myself. Members continued this exercise after lunch.

Sharon Rork will be doing a portrait drawing/painting class in Reedsburg, Jan 5, 2012. Contact her if interested.

August / September Meetings

Artist of the month in August was presented by Janice Matol who was drawn to the Impressionists. She read us a story describing the life of Pierre Auguste Renoir.
 
For our Sept. meeting we met at Char Olson’s home in Merrimac. She lives on  Lake Wisconsin which gave us an opportunity to get some nice photographs for future paintings.

Char shared information about Artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).


Some of our members stayed and enjoyed an afternoon of plein air painting.

This month we welcome new members---Pat Scofeld, Yvonne Notbohm, Jill Miluinas, Mary Lien and Joan Konyn.

June/July Meetings

In June a group of us made a trip to Art Fair on the Square where we enjoyed viewing the artwork from artist across the country. We stopped by to visit Luci Shirek who had her paintings on display. It was an great and inspiring time.
The Art Fair on the Square is in Baraboo on August 12^th , 13^th and 14^th where some of our members will be showing at the Al Ringling Theater. Please come visit the show even if you are not displaying.

At our June meeting I shared thoughts about Ann Blockley, an artist who has influenced some of my painting techniques. Ann paints in watercolor with an emphasis on texturing backgrounds. She creates this texture in the backgrounds by using a variety of techniques such as sanding water color pencils, granulating mediums, scratching out when using a gesso base, masking fluid, feathers, lamb’s wool, etc.
I had the group prepare gesso based pieces for our July meeting so the could try some a few of the techniques. You can use almost any object to create texture.

To create grass here, I used the side of a drinking straw.

Color settles in the marks on  the gesso.

Spruce branches will create spruce trees.

These flowers are from pressing into the surface with a pen.

Working on this surfaces give you the freedom to try different ideas knowing you can wipe it off if you don’t like it and try something else.

At our July meeting Eileen Mathis brought in paintings done by an artist who has inspired her. She obtained them when family items were being sorted and given away. Although they are very old, they have found a treasured place in Eileen’s home.
When the family genealogy was being researched, she was to learn that these paintings were done by an aunt. Edith Louise Nufer (1891-1910). In her young years, her talent and mature painting ability was readily seen in her watercolor landscapes. Soft colors, perspective, and innate talent is evident, likely without formal training.

DEVIL'S LAKE FIELD TRIP

  Many of the members met at Devil's Lake last Thursday. We took a trip back in time to investigate the sites of vanished shore-side hotels and buildings. Our leaders were Kenneth Lange, retired Naturalist of Devil's Lake State Park and current Naturalist, Diane Pillsbury.

A few sites still show the remains from where the buildings once stood..

We also enjoyed the opportunity to get some photo's for painting subjects.

Wild Flowers

Flowering Trees

Nesting herons and chicks.

Spring foliage seems to paint itself in the calm lake waters.

Lucy Shireck will be displaying her art at Mt. Horeb on June 10th-12th. All are invited to come view her work.

June 11 - White School House Art Show in Sauk. Artist displaying  their paintings will be Yvonne Jeske, Lynda Barganz, Char Olson, Eileen Mathis and Sue Johnson.

June 18th and 19th _ Civil War Re-enactment in Sauk. Members will be showing paintings that pertain to the war period  at the White School House. There will also be some artist's  plen air painting.

APRIL MEETING

Our April meeting was another great time with the trading cards. 

  

 

  Trading Cards were displayed.  Members were challenged to identify the artist.  Cards were then turned upside down, members drew three cards, and had the artist sign their cards.

 Even the Easter Bunny  had a hard time figuring out who some of the artists were.

Each meeting one member gives a presentation of an artist they admire. Sharon Rork presented information on a favorite artist of hers.  Giambattista Tirpolo, Master of the Oil Sketch.   

The rest of the day was spent working on our paintings.

WELCOME

Welcome to our new blog. Here you will be able to keep up on all the Southern Wisconsin Watercolor Society events and happenings.

Back in December each member brought 3  ( 3 1/2  x  2 1/4 inch) paintings to trade.

Here is a photo of  the group trying to determine who the artist of the trading cards are by seeing if we can recognize their style.  This is what we will be doing at our next meeting in April. Don’t forget to keep then unsigned till they’ve been traded so we can enjoy  figuring out the artist again.

    

This is a photo of all our trading cards.

 

We would also like to welcome new member, Marjorie Cutting of Baraboo. She is a professional costume designer.