Two watercolorists in a row?  It's unusual for the Art Guild to have two demonstrators in a row using the same medium, since we try to sample many media, subjects and styles.  But we come each month to see how expert artists work, and to learn what we can from them, whether we use their medium or not.  The insights we pick up from these artists usually transcend any particular medium and find their way into our work, consciously or unconsciously.

 

Cheryl Chapline started with a fine arts degree and advertising jobs in Florida and Georgia, where she picked up many design awards.  After moving to to Waco, she started the art program at the Waco Montessori School and has taught graphic design and photography at TSTC.  She also has her own design business, has been active in the Central Texas Watercolor Society, and has had two one-person shows at the Arboretum.  A few of her past works are show here to give you a sense of what will be in store for you on May 4. 

 

We will meet at the usual time and place, Waco Charter School, 615 N 25th Street, with refreshments and conversation at 1:30, the meeting at 2, and the demonstration soon thereafter.  Please bring one of your works for our monthly contest and sharing.  And bring friends.  They can come once free, or they can join as a regular member for the remainder of the year for only $12.

Cheryl Chapline is an accomplished watercolorist with a degree in Fine Arts. Cheryl started the art program at Waco Montessori School, and is currently an instructor at TSTC. She also teaches an evening class at Vanguard School on Mondays, which she encouraged Art Guild members to attend. Her presentation began with a slide show of her photographs and art works. For photography, she uses a Nikon 40 DX camera as well as a more compact one. She pays careful attention to how light affects the subject, and strives for a wide variation in value in her photographs and her paintings.

Cheryl draws her subjects on plain paper and transfers them onto 140 lb. Arches cold press watercolor paper with graphite. She applies a loose underpainting on all her works, using aurelian yellow, permanent rose, and cobalt blue. She places the paint where she wants that particular color, allowing some colors to blend, and leaving others alone. She often uses a darker shade of the same color for shadows. When she wants a very dark color she blends ultramarine blue and burnt sienna or burnt orange.

For her demo, she worked on a floral for which she had already done an underpainting. She followed lighter shades of red with darker ones. Using many red hues, she achieved great variation in both color and value. She made sure that the flowers had a variety of hard and soft edges. She used a fan brush to pull the color through the subject. The underpainting was left showing in places, which helped achieve a full range of values.

She said that the most important factor in a successful watercolor is good paper, with paint and brush quality secondary. She uses good (and expensive) brushes for her detail work, emphasizing that they need to be tested with water for a good point. She uses less expensive brushes for broad strokes. The paint she prefers is Windsor Newton. She also likes Daniel Smith paint, which contains only pure pigments. She said the newer quinachrodome colors are more brilliant and saturated and are good to work with.  In the photo at the right, you can see the partially finished painting at the end of the demo, in which the darker patch to the left of center is more or less finished.  The rest of the image shows the initial underpainting.

 

Thanks to Cheryl for a great demo, to Martha McKinney, Pete Moffatt, Linda Green, Kathe Tipton, John Twardowski, and Bobbee Watts for bringing refreshments, and to those who brought painting for the monthly contest and sharing.  The winners are shown at the right, and paintings are shown below.

 

 Pat Blackwell    Nancy Cagle      Bill Franklin      Judy Franklin      Larry Garza    Charleen Isbell

                          

 Gloria Meadows   Christine Niekamp     Violet Piper       John Twardowski      Robyn White

Please pick up your art from the Ball Performing Arts Center at MCC, or have someone do it for you, between 2 and 3 p.m. on Wednesday May 7.