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Cheryle is back for what is at least her third presentation for the Art Guild. We have her back because she is such a good artist and teacher. This time, she will conduct an actual workshop, that is, rather than watch her at work, we will actually create some miniature masterpieces. The idea is to create small works of art for gifts. Bookmarks, ornaments, frameable art, pre-matted creations, miniature booklets, and journals are all possibilities.

 

Please bring supplies! Like a covered dish lunch, bring more than you expect to use of what you bring. Since people will bring different things, you can share some with others, and they can share some with you. Don't try to bring everything, just what you have at hand. Useful materials include: plastic or paper sheets to cover the tables, reference photos of seasonal scenes, holiday wrapping, paints and brushes, regular scissors, craft scissors with deckle edges, paper punches, thin twine or string or ribbons, heavy duty sewing needles, invitation size envelopes and paper or cards, metal rulers, T-squares, markers, crayons, colored pencils, pastels and fixing spray, Exacto knives or box cutters, Saran wrap, glue sticks, rubber cement or white glue, disks or star shapes for ornaments, or whatever else you can think of. Let's have some fun, and take home something we can give to special friends.

 

We will meet at 1:30 for refreshments and conversation, and put Cheryle on after brief business at 2. As usual, we will meet at the Waco Charter School, 615 N 25th Street, and as usual, bring friends and some recent work for Show and Tell.

Cheryle showed how to make small paintings for cards or gifts. The intent was to have us do our own, but that didn't happen, in part because we got a late start after a last minute switch to the central library. We still got a fine demo. She started by showing us how she creates evergreen trees using a pump spray bottle filled with water to spray on dry watercolor paper. She then drops in green paint, which she mixes using cobalt blue and aurelian yellow, varying the hues. As the paint mixes with the water droplets, it creates a lacy effect. She lets that dry before working further with the painting.

 

She added a vignette effect to two paintings by adding darker washes in the corners. One was a painting of a cactus flower and the other was of a parrot.  She wanted to create a darker oval around the edges of the painting, while letting her underpainting show through. For the parrot, she used a soft violet, created by mixing permanent rose and cobalt blue, which softened and darkened the edges. That made the background recede, and helped to bring the emphasis to the parrot.

 

Since Cheryle paints mostly with watercolor on paper, she can makes miniatures by cutting up a painting into small parts. This is a great way to make use of a painting that has good parts, but doesn't make a very satisfactory whole. But often, she makes very small paintings for gifts. She showed us some that were inserted in glass coasters. These she made with many images on a sheet and cut them apart. She deckled the edges by cutting them apart with deckled scissors, then wetting and abrading the edges to get a softer look. She also showed us how to tear an edge along a ruler to get a similar effect.

 

Finally, she painted a floral scene, explaining some of her techniques as she worked. She uses two brushes at the same time; one for water only, the other one for paint. For her underpainting she wets the paper, uses her base colors of cobalt blue, permanent rose, and aurelian yellow. placing the colors where she sees them and letting them diffuse on the wet paper. At the upper left, yellow is added over the pencil sketch. At the upper right, cobalt blue is added over the yellow. At the lower left, rose is added, and at the lower right, the underpainting is almost complete. Whites are saved with miskit. After the underpainting dries, she works in her detail. Most of her paintings are done with the base colors, layering them to get other colors. She occasionally adds ultramarine blue, burnt orange, cerulean blue, alizerin crimson, and burnt sienna.

 

We thank Cheryle for the many good ideas she showed us. You will also want to see her one person show at the Arboretum, which starts with a reception February 28 at 2 p.m. Thanks also to Rose Jacobson, Ellen Foster, John and Saundra Vasek, Kathe Tipton, Thomas Godby, and Pat Blackwell, who brought refreshments and Valentine decorations, and to Thomas Godby, Christine Niekamp, Rose Jacobson, Judy Franklin, and Bill Franklin who brought paintings for show and tell. Those are shown below.

 

                                      

 Bill Franklin         Judy Franklin       Thomas Godby       Rose Jacobson    Christine Niekamp