A Day with Grammy

Jenna spent the night with us on Monday, and on Tuesday her first day of summer vacation as a third grader entailed a visit to my digital photography show and a fine juried exhibition of the Western Ohio Watercolor Society (WOWS)at the Town & Country Fine Art Center in Kettering. She loves to look at art and point out what she likes--she has a discerning eye. In her suitcase she had packed a picture she drew over the weekend--a big, juicy apple and a bunch of bananas, life-size and in color. I was astonished. An artist at the gallery recognized her from the watercolor I included in The New Creative Artist>. She's used to that. We ran a few errands, then picked up a kit from JoAnn Fabrics so I could begin teaching her to sew. She made a monkey and named him "Banana-Split."

Trying to think ahead

Planning my Confident Color workshop in Dayton August 19-21. I haven't given one here for a long time, so I'm looking forward to it. The sponsor is Western Ohio Watercolor Society. There are still openings, so c'mon down. It's a bargain. Contact Yuki Hall.

Western Ohio Watercolor Society show

This afternoon I met my class at the Town & Country Fine Art Gallery to view the WOWS spring juried show. We walked the show together and talked about the paintings and why a judge might select this one or that one. On the whole it's a very inclusive show, since there are separate categories for transparent watercolor and mixed watermedia. It was good for my students to see that their work is as good as some of the accepted paintings. I like the show--it's balanced between realism and abstraction with a variety of subject matter, techniques and color treatments. For the most part the class seemed to favor the more realistic, traditional works. They were asked to vote for a "People's Choice" award and when they were discussing their preferences, one remarked that each person had selected something that resembled what they are trying to do in their own work in class--something to aspire to. I think this exposure will have a positive effect on their work in the future.