This is my entry for the Columbus Artists’ Guild 2013 Exhibition. The opening reception is on June 8, from 6:00-8:00, at the Illges Gallery, inside the Corn Center for the Visual Arts, part of CSU’s River Park Campus, corner of Dillingham Street and Front Avenue. Public is welcome and the reception is free. My painting, “Southern Magnolia” was inspired by a fresh palette of colors; Cerulean, Antwerp, Cobalt and Ultramarine blues, Aureolin, Winsor and Gamboge yellows, and Permanent Rose, Scarlet Lake and Winsor reds. With this primary palette, I mixed all of my greens and browns. I simplified the shapes in my composition and did a value study before starting. This planning allows me the pleasure of spontaneous experimentation during the painting process.

All of my watercolor and drawing students know they have a standing invitation to any Columbus Artists’ Guild meeting as my guest. Monthly meetings are on third Thursdays. Tonight at 6:00 at the Columbus Main Library on Macon Road (in the Synovus Meeting Room) we will start with light refreshments, followed by a brief meeting and then the scheduled program. Yuriy Totskiy will do a demonstration of his 3-D Paper Portraits. To learn more, visit http://www.columbusartistsguild.org.

This painting is a new subject for my beginning watercolor students. The class is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, 12:30-4:30 each day. I am looking forward to this eight hour workshop because I will have more time to give to each student, more time for demonstrations, more time for detailed instructions than my usual four hour “Watercolor Crash Course” permits.

Thursdays, 6:00-8:00, CSU – “Beginning Watercolor” (4 two hour classes = 8 hours total).

Artbeat of Columbus; a two week celebration of the arts in the Uptown Columbus area – March 14 – 31. Art Exhibitions, Theater productions, Music in the streets and Concerts, just to name a few of the many opportunities taking place. The Columbus Artists’ Guild and the Joseph House Art Gallery will have a Plein Air Art Show and Sale, opening reception on March 23 (5:00-7:00) at the CSU Bookstore next to the Rankin Arts Photography Center on Broadway. All artists who have participated in the plein air experience from March 14 -19 will have paintings of uptown Columbus displayed for the reception. The exhibition will be up until March 30. For more information visit columbusartistsguild.org, josephhouseartgallery.org, and artbeatcolumbus.org. What a great opportunity for artists and art lovers in our community!

Intermediate Watercolor-Technique (Tuesdays 6:00-9:00, Feb.12 – Mar.5              Columbus State

This little painting was Kenny’s birthday gift. It is just an interesting barn in the middle of a cotton field we happened to pass on a recent trip through south Georgia. I had the idea to use masking fluid, which I rarely do, to keep the cotton dry while I painted the brown field. It was then I discovered the masking fluid was hard as concrete in the jar. So, I thought, what else can I use? Wax. That’s logical, right? Makes me sound like McGyver…. how do you make cotton?….all I need is a candle, a match and a toothpick. It was a little tedious, but I’m a stubborn person and soon I had lots of little wax dots on the paper. When I finished the painting I removed the wax by scraping it off, which left the white of the paper, unblemished. ta da…..cotton.

“Watercolor Crash Course” students produced these small paintings on a recent Saturday at Art Works in Pine Mountain. It always surprises the class that the paintings are so  different because they are all using the same paint, paper and brushes and following the same instructions.