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| Carla Hedges with "Feather Flowers" |
In this issue
June 13 meeting program
Member news
June PaintOut: Farmers’ Market
Exhibits in Bedford, Terre Haute and Nashville
Inspiration: Carla Hedges
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BWS President Kriste Lindberg with sign announcing organization's presence at The Venue. |
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At the Creative Senior Month show reception, BWS past presidents Jeanne Dutton and Jo Weddle chat with Michelle Colman (right) of The Venue. |
Presidential column
by Kriste Lindberg
Summer has finally arrived!
It's a great time to kick back, relax and do a bit of painting, and go through things - ideas and material items - to share.
We have many painting and related adventures planned for you.
They include one last meeting June 13 before our "summer break," paint outs, preparing our works for the "We Paint Parks!" show and more.
In the meantime, BWS delegates are meeting in Indianapolis to network at the state level to help arts communications between us and beyond. We look forward to their report. It'll be good to share more ideas and have more dialogue in order to strengthen the whole.
Also, be thinking of ways we can share our material goodies with each other through our exchange table. Many of us have items we have accumulated over time. If they're just sitting in a drawer (or perhaps, in a pile on a desk, as I am sometimes guilty of), bring them out and give them a second chance with another.
Whether you’re taking time out to share thoughts or actual tangible objects, it's just nice to know you have a group of paint pals who appreciate them.
Now, pour a cold one and get out and paint!
June 13 program: Painting rocks, pebbles, tree branches and trunks
Jean Vietor, a professional artist since 1969, will teach BWS members how to paint rocks and trees at the June 13 BWS meeting. She will have members playing with texture on both illustration board and hot press watercolor paper.
“I like illustration board because you can create your own textures,” Vietor said. “The surface does not limit you.” BWS will provide the illustration board, but members should bring their own hot press watercolor paper so they can compare the results.
Vietor will also demonstrate how to use acrylic in a transparent manner. “Acrylic is great for texturing because, once dry, it does not pick up,” she said. “You can shade over the texture with acrylic and watercolor washes without smearing it.”
To take full advantage of Vietor’s presentation, bring hot press watercolor paper, watercolor paints, black acrylic (optional), brushes, old toothbrush, sponges (cellulose, elephant ear or any you have with big holes), sand, screen wire (optional), pieces of scrap cardboard cut in strips 1/4" to 3/4", paper towels and scissors. Vietor says members will also make use of their fingers.
Vietor started as a gouache, ink and pastel artist, and then added watercolor, acrylic, mixed media, serigraph, wood cuts and computer art. She was a limited edition print artist with Frame House Gallery of Louisville, Ky., for nine years. She started teaching at the Indianapolis Art Center in the mid '70s, and except for the times she lived elsewhere than Indianapolis, she taught there until the mid 2000s. She began teaching watercolor, then acrylic and finally computer art using Photoshop. Her work may be seen at the Brown County Art Guild in Nashville. She illustrated a garden book authored by Carolyn Harstad and printed by IU Press, "Got Shade” and is now doing illustrations for another book by Harstad called "Got Sun."
The June 13 meeting starts with a brief business meeting at 6 p.m. at the First Christian Church at the corner of Kirkwood Avenue and Washington Street.
News of members near and far
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"Hydrastis" by Gillian Harris |
Gillian will also be going to Kew Gardens in London for the June 28 opening reception of Losing Paradise: Endangered Plants Here and Around the World. This traveling exhibit organized by the American Society of Botanical Artists recently ended its U.S. tour at the Smithsonian Institute (and was featured in the latest issue of the children’s educational magazine Smithsonian in Your Classroom). Gillian’s watercolor of Goldenseal, a native plant suffering from habitat loss and over-collection for its medicinal properties, is part of the exhibit.
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Tricia Wente with "Cousins" |
Tricia Wente’s oil painting, “Cousins” was in the 79th Annual Juried Exhibition of the Indiana Artists Club at the Indiana Museum of Art.
Evidently inspired by Tricia Wente’s May program on portraits, Nina Ost writes from St. Petersburg, Fla., that she has attempted a self-portrait that is “mostly recognizable surrounded by all the stuff I love: cats, puppets, books, NCIS, Gulf of Mexico and, of course, pencil, brush and paints among other strange things.”
Marianne Glick's artwork will be on display at the A to Z Cafe, 4705 E. 96th Street in Indianapolis during the month of June. Marianne is also one of six featured artists at Kuaba Gallery's new location, 1 N. Meridian Street, 2nd Floor. New works can also be seen at the Ann King Gallery in Zionsville.
Two BWS members have paintings hanging at One America Tower Atrium in Indianapolis as part of the Watercolor Society of Indiana’s 2011 Membership Exhibit. Linda Meyer-Wright is showing “When Fish Dream,” and Nancy Davis Metz is showing “Water Pots.” The exhibit is up until June 24.
Two BWS members have paintings hanging at One America Tower Atrium in Indianapolis as part of the Watercolor Society of Indiana’s 2011 Membership Exhibit. Linda Meyer-Wright is showing “When Fish Dream,” and Nancy Davis Metz is showing “Water Pots.” The exhibit is up until June 24.
Bedford’s Wiley Art Center to exhibit Indiana Landmarks photos
A traveling photo exhibit from Indiana Landmarks will be displayed through June 25 at Wiley Art Center, which is at the intersection of 14th and J streets in Bedford. BWS member Mary Jo Cannedy invites all members to attend the reception Friday, June 10, from 5 to 7 p.m. The regular hours for the exhibit are Thursdays and Fridays from 1 to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Explore portraits at Terre Haute’s Swope Art Museum
If Tricia Wente’s May presentation on portraits captured your imagination, you may want to visit the “Exploring Portraiture” exhibition at the Swope Art Museum in Terre Haute this summer. The exhibition of portraits from the Swope collection, many of which haven’t been displayed in years, explores the many ways artists convey personality. Visitors will be able to compare 19th century portraits hung directly next to portraits done by contemporary artists. The exhibition closes Aug. 20. The Swope is at 25 S. Seventh St., Terre Haute. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.
Peggy Brown’s work to be featured in Nashville gallery
Brown County Art Guild will host an opening reception Saturday, June 11, for this month’s Featured Exhibit of mixed media and watercolor artworks by Peggy Brown. The reception will be 5 to 8 p.m.
Call for entries
Owensboro Museum of Fine Art announces juried exhibition
RIVERCOUNTRY REFLECTIONS is a juried exhibition designed to record and celebrate the history and cultural traditions of Northwest Kentucky. Artists are invited to travel the area and interpret through painting and sculpture the region’s “sense of place.”
More than $45,000 in purchase awards will be made with the award-winning works being accessioned into the collection of the Owensboro Medical Health System, a major new medical facility currently under construction.
All entries must be for sale. Commissions will not be taken from purchase awards; however, all other sales will be on a 30 percent museum/70 percent artist basis.
To enter, e-mail digital images to info@omfa.us before Oct. 15.
To download a complete prospectus, go to http://www.omfa.us and click on the River Country 2011 link.
Learn more about art fairs
Martina Celerin will lead a presentation and information exchange on art fairs Tuesday, June 28, in Room 1A of the Monroe County Public Library. The program starts at 7 p.m. and is sponsored by VAGUE – Visual Artists’ Guild United Enterprise. For more information, contact vague@bloomingtonarts.org.
We paint … Parks!
All artists participating in the upcoming Membership Show in November need to be working on their park painting in the coming months. Anyone who has decided not to participate should contact Tricia Wente via e-mail (tricia@wente .com) or call her at 812-824-9578. Prompt notification will allow the site to be officially reassigned to an artist on the wait list.
PaintOut news for May and June
This month’s PaintOut will be June 18 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Bloomington Farmer’s Market, near the intersection of Morton and Sixth streets.
BWS members made a good showing at last month’s PaintOut at the T.C. Steele Festival of Flowers. Jeanne Iler took first place in the adult watercolor division, and honorable mentions were presented to Deborah Rush and Jeanne Dutton. Dutton’s granddaughter, Ellen Willibey, took first place in the kids-under-12 division for her watercolor.
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BWS member Bob Burris presents Catherine Burris Memorial awards to Polina Ermasova and Dylan Quackenbush. The awards honor Bob’s wife, who was an artist and teacher who often brought her students to T.C. Steele PaintOuts. |
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Deborah Rush displays her Honorable Mention ribbon. |
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Ellen Willibey paints with watercolor at T.C. Steele Festival of Flowers. |
Get on the Painters’ Days notification list
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Carla Hedges holds her Zentangle-inspired "Feather Flowers." |
Inspiration:
Carla Hedges’ ‘Zentangled’ art and mind
Anyone who knows Carla Hedges knows her twisted sense of humor and her passion for creative expression. When you attend any art opening, theater production, puppet show, or lecture in town, you may very well run into her. In Bloomington, that makes her a very busy lady.
Still, she finds time to express her own creativity, often combining collage and watercolor.
“I enjoy Linda Meyer-Wright's watercolor classes because she is always cutting-edge with new techniques and introduces us to all sorts of new watercolor techniques,” Carla said. “She also encourages my demented creativity and sense of humor."
One technique Linda recently introduced to her ”Spread Your Wings” watercolor class was "Zentangles," a method of creating art from repeating patterns. “She sent us e-mails from TanglePatterns.com, and we learned about two books by Sandy Steen Bartholomew (Yoga for the Brain: A Zentangle Workout and Totally Tangled),” Carla said.
Zentangles is the key element of Carla’s “Feather Flowers,” which was part of the Waldron’s “Creative Aging” Art Show in May. “I took a simple picture – one of a big flower – outlined it and said to myself, ‘It needs something more,’” Carla explained. The intricate repeating patterns and flowing watercolors draw the viewer into the piece. She started the piece in the mid-day class but continued late into the night until she was finished. This is her usual way of working, she said.
On the day Carla wrote about “Feather Flowers,” she closed with her horoscope for the day because, as she said, it “pretty much sums it up for me.” It said: "You're entering a very busy phase. Ask yourself tough questions (and answer them) for maximum productivity. Somebody appreciates your wild and crazy side."
Tickler file for your calendar
June 10 – Opening reception for traveling exhibit of Indiana Landmarks photographs, 5 to 7 p.m., Wiley Art Center, 14th and J streets, Bedford
June 11 – Reception for Peggy Brown’s exhibit of mixed media and watercolors, 5 to 8 p.m., Brown County Art Guild, Nashville
June 13 – BWS meeting at First Christian Church, corner of Kirkwood and Washington, 6 p.m.
June 18 – Opening of “Garden, Field and Forest” by Gillian Harris at the Monroe County Historical Society
June 18 – BWS PaintOut at Bloomington Farmers’ Market, City Hall parking lot near Morton and Sixth streets, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
June 28 – Martina Celerin’s presentation about art fairs, MCPL Room 1A, 7 p.m.
Oct. 15 – Deadline for submitting digital images to Owensboro Museum of Fine Arts for its RIVERCOUNTRY REFLECTIONS juried exhibition
