Tallahassee Watercolor Society September/October 2023 Newsletter

Mary O. Smith

Mary O. Smith has won an Honorable Mention for her painting, Death Row, in the 2023 Georgia Watercolor Society Members Show in Thomasville, Ga.

She also is one of the host artists in watercolor for Pines & Palms's High Cotton plein air paint-out in Thomasville, Ga., October 4-7. She will be teaching a pre-event workshop October 3, 2023. Information and sign up for the event contact www.pinesandpalms.org or email goartists@painesandpalms.org for more info.

Chip Townsend

Here is my recent watercolor of the historic Knott House on E. Park Ave.

It was built in 1843 by G. Proctor, and later taken over by the Knott family in 1928.

My painting was done starting with a graphite tracing off a photo, then multi-color washes in the main areas for color fill.

When dry, the details were drawn in with a Micron pen, then more paint. The street in front is a HB pencil rubbing with a water over wash.

Nancy Murphree Davis

Nancy Murphree Davis was awarded the Kim Minichiello award for her watercolor, Between Acts, in the Florida Watercolor Society’s 52nd Annual Exhibition

Opportunity to Get More Involved

Tallahassee Memorial Hospital Rehabilitation Center

The next art change out at the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital Rehabilitation Center is scheduled for Friday October 6 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM.

The address is 1609 Medical Dr in Tallahassee. Enter through the downstairs door on the side closest to Centerville Rd.

Artists with work currently on display may pick their items up during this time. Those with new items to display should try and arrive between 2:00 and 3:00.

This show is not juried. It is open to all Tallahassee Watercolor Society members. Those wishing to display/offer for sale watermedia paintings should send the following information to Jennifer Lange at jenlange@comcast.net by Friday September 29:

• Title of painting
• Name of artist
• Email or phone number of artist
• Media
• Price (or indicate not for sale)

Paintings must be framed (acrylic preferred) and need to have a wire attached to the back at least five inches across to accommodate the hanging system.

There is typically space for one to three art pieces per participating artist.

When sales are made via this venue, artists pay a 20% donation to the TMH Foundation.

Note regarding the TMH Cancer Center space. TMH is currently using that space for other displays. We anticipate being able to use the space again beginning in November. More information will be provided as it becomes available.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact Jennifer Lange at jenlange@comcast.net

Thank you so much for considering participating in these events. This provides an important community service by bringing joy to the patients, families and staff while giving members an opportunity to display and sell their art.

Watercolor & More!

Presented by LeMoyne Arts at LeMoyne Arts New Education Center, Tallahassee FL

Join artist Nina Freeman in a watercolor painting class!

September 19 - November 7

This is an eight-week class for anyone, beginner or more experienced, who wants to learn more about painting techniques using either watercolor or fluid acrylic on paper.​Demonstrations will be provided each class and students will work on their own projects. instruction in brush techniques, color mixing, composition and more will be provided.

Registration is available now via our website. We ask you register prior to the class as spots are limited.

Tuition: $165 for members/$175 for non-members

Supplies: Not Included, recommended supplies can be found on our website

Contact: (850) 222-8800

Email: education@lemoyne.org

Don Weller: Of Horses and Humans

Some ranchers today may round up cattle using four-wheelers, but in the world of Utah artist Don Weller, you’ll find plenty of cowboys on horseback. His watercolor paintings are proof, each one energized with sparkling color and a dynamic composition. “I was raised in the American West, and it’s what I know,” he says. He grew up in Pullman, Wash., in the eastern part of the state, surrounded by wheat fields, rolling hills and the Palouse River.

It was in that bucolic setting that Weller’s affinity for cowboys and horses was born. “Once my brother and I were old enough to go to the Saturday matinees alone to watch Westerns, I began my search for cowboys,” he says. He drew the humans and horses on paper and longed to experience life in the saddle firsthand. “My whining to my parents finally paid off,” he notes, “when I got my own horse.”

Exploring the western terrain on horseback was an exhilarating adventure, one that enabled Weller to experience the symbiotic bond between rider and horse, as well as to develop a deep appreciation for the beauty of the rugged outdoors. He’d often sketch while in the saddle. Weller’s ongoing fascination with horses eventually led him to the worlds of calf roping and rodeo competitions in high school and young adulthood. Today, at the age of 86, one of Weller’s favorite activities is working his three “cutting” horses—horses that are adept at splitting off a single cow from the herd.

So, how did Weller go from riding horses to a successful career depicting those four-legged creatures and their hardworking riders in artwork? Like most stories told around the campfire, it was a circuitous route for the hero.

Weller attended Washington State University without a clear idea of what he wanted to do. An elective class in life drawing changed that. “My major was fine art, which in those days meant Abstract Expressionism,” he says. “What stuck was the knowledge that ideas could be important—and how to draw and stretch watercolor paper.” He went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in fine art.

After a stint with the Air National Guard, in Texas, Weller went looking for work in Los Angeles. There, he learned the business of graphic design by working with a number of design studios. He eventually opened his own one-man shop and for decades did graphic design and illustration, enjoying relationships with clients such as TIME magazine, the National Football League and the U.S. Postal Service, for which he designed five stamps.

During this time, Weller also taught art part-time – three years at UCLA beginning in 1967 – where he met his wife, Chikako “Cha Cha” Matsubayashi, and 11 years at the ArtCenter College of Design. In 1984, realizing he had seen all the cement and palm trees he could stand, he and Cha Cha moved to Utah, where he taught at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah; he retired from teaching about 15 years ago.

The move to Utah, just east of Salt Lake City and at the edge of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, freed Weller from the city and was a literal breath of fresh air. “The rural West with mountains, sagebrush and cowboys—it was still there, just as I had left it so long ago,” he says.

Weller once again found himself traversing the American West, this time painting lyrically romantic works featuring Native Americans and cowboys, horses and cows, rodeos and rough-stock, bronc riding and roping, barrel racing and branding, bulls and buffalo, and more.

A Studio Built for Two (Media)

The couple built their Utah house in 1994, and it features a large studio. Weller, who served as the architect,

says, “My dad had been an architect, so I knew how to do the drawings the old-fashioned way, with tracing paper and pencils.” The property includes a barn with several stalls for the all-important horses, as well as a garage, which houses his second-floor studio with two distinct areas: one for his work in watercolor; the other for oil painting, which he recently has picked up again. “I try to keep the two media separate,” he says, “because oils are so messy, take forever to dry and ruin my clothes.”

For his watercolor practice, Weller has set up a drafting table that can be tilted to help him control paint washes. Additionally, he has flat files for paper and finished works, as well as an abundance of flat surfaces for watercolor palettes, brushes and cans. “Visually, it’s a mess,” he says of the much-used working space. While the studio offers natural light conducive to painting in both media, Weller has supplemented it with more artificial light sources over time to compensate for his worsening eyesight from macular degeneration.

Blazing the Artistic Trail

Although Weller has spent a lifetime filling sketchbooks on-site, these days he prefers to work from printed photos. When out looking for subject matter on horseback, he often takes along a camera housed in a special padded camera bag that fits on the saddle. Other times, he’ll just rely on his smartphone to capture a scene or image for reference.

Back in the studio, Weller peruses the photos and then selects one as his reference. If he determines that the composition is complex, he simplifies it by making a small grayscale pencil sketch, fine-tuning the design as he draws. Next, he tapes down a sheet of 90- or 140-lb. Arches cold-pressed watercolor paper, usually a half-sheet, on which to draw the scene. He may use tracing paper to transfer a more accurate likeness of the sketch. “The drawing shows me the important edges,” he notes.

Unlike many watercolorists, Weller doesn’t wet and stretch the paper prior to painting. “I don’t ever remember wetting paper except when I was in college,” he says. He doesn’t worry about the paper buckling, because he knows he can flatten it later in a dry-mount press. Dry paper, he notes, erases more easily—an important factor since, after lightly penciling in his design, he erases the lines as he paints.

Weller begins painting the areas that are most difficult, usually the faces of horses and humans. He then works on the areas where value contrast is greatest. “I sometimes do a little sketch in pencil if where I’m going is complicated,” he says, “but mostly I have it solid in my head, and that’s enough.” Simultaneously, he concerns himself with color, but doesn’t necessarily stick to those he sees in the photo. “People say that subject and color are what get a painting sold, but for me, I’m painting what I want and using colors I like, so I don’t worry about selling,” he says. “If the colors match the couch, it’s just pure luck.”

As he works, Weller tries to lay down each wash “right” the first time. If he’s uncertain, he errs on the lighter side, knowing he can layer more color later. If he wants to change color in an area, he dries part of that area and then drops the new color into the still-wet portion. Weller relies on the slope of his drafting table and a hair dryer to direct the color where it’s needed. He uses any means necessary to ensure that the color is strong and bright. “Because it’s important that the paintings look fresh,” he says, “I’m willing to wad them up and toss them out if they start to look overworked.”

Even after a lifetime of painting, Weller isn’t fixated on any particular brand of brush or paint. He has the usual assortment of brushes—tiny to large, chisel-edge to pointed. His workhorse flat edge is a 3/4-inch brush, although he sometimes uses a Japanese brush. For painting grass and horse tails, he uses fan brushes up to 1.5 inches wide.

As a watercolor purist, Weller doesn’t use white paint, preferring instead to preserve the paper’s white for lights. Unlike many purists, however, if he can’t find the exact hue he wants in a tube, he mixes color as needed. And instead of mixing paints to stand in for black, he reaches for a tube of actual black.

From Artist to Author

Weller not only lives in and paints the American West, but he explores it through the written word, too. In the spirit of embracing change, he’s now writing modern Western novels, scaling the font size large enough on the computer so he can see it clearly. Sunrise Surprise, (Don Weller Western Art, 2023), the second in his murder mystery series featuring Jake Oar, a Utah rancher and cutting horse trainer, was released last spring; it’s available on Amazon.

Weller maintains a passion for writing about art, too, as in his award-winning Don Weller Tracks, A Visual Memoir (The Weller Institute for the Cure of Design, 2022). He also recently worked with his wife and partner, Cha Cha, and watercolorist Marlin Rotach to publish The River Flows: Watercolors of the American West (The Weller Institute, 2020). The 200-page book explores two centuries of Western works by 41 watercolorists, from George Catlin (American, 1796–1872) to today’s artists.

Tricks of the Trade

A Weller painting usually features three recognizable trademarks: a sweeping backdrop, descriptive textural strokes and subtle gestural movement.

Background: In some cases, the backgrounds in Weller’s paintings serve as a simple backdrop of flat color, but in others, such as Cowboy Church, they’re part of the story and offer depth and complexity. “Sometimes, I can tell the story I want without backgrounds,” the artist says, “but usually, they set the scene and contribute to the image.” Many of the backgrounds featuring flat color have a silk-screened look. To achieve this effect, Weller uses white gouache mixed with watercolor and a little water. “If I do this, it’s usually because the painting was getting a busy surface and seemed to ask for some visually quiet places. It can also be used to cover a mistake, but that alone isn’t a good reason for it.”

Texture: “I’m drawn to a brushstroke that looks like a ‘happy accident’—a stroke that suggests a thousand acres of sagebrush, a horse’s mane or a cloud in the sky,” Weller says. “I treasure a cloud like that over a well-rendered one.” Depending on the surface, he may make the stroke first and then blend it into another area while it’s still wet. He practices these strokes—what he calls his “trick shots”—on scraps of watercolor paper first.

Movement: Weller learned to capture the gesture and movement of a figure quickly while in school. He gives as an example a model that stands contrapposto, in which the weight is put on one leg while relaxing the other leg. This shifts the hips and shoulders, introducing a graceful curve into the spine. “It’s the same whether the pose is of a standing cowboy or a horse’s stance,” Weller says. “I try to exaggerate curves and positions, but I only exaggerate a little—too much, and it gets cartoonish; no exaggeration, and I’m just duplicating the photo.”

Embracing Change

Watercolor has, until recently, been Weller’s primary medium, but because of his failing eyesight, he has been drawn to oils. His watercolor paintings require a certain amount of tight detail, which he now finds more difficult to achieve. “I’m working bigger and looser in oil,” he says, “which works better with the macular degeneration.”

What does this mean for Weller and his art going forward? “I think an artist is growing when he’s changing,” he says. “An artist can only do the same thing over and over for so long before it begins to feel stale, so I’m trying to embrace change. “If you’re in art to get rich, the odds are against it,” the artist says. “Better, I think, is to paint to please yourself and let the chips fall where they may.”

On the Trail

When it comes to the peripatetic nature of his life, consider this Weller quote from Don Weller Tracks, A Visual Memoir, which is replete with his drawings, watercolors and oils, as well as self-penned mini-essays about his life:

“I started out drawing and painting cowboys and had some complicated, but interesting, detours. … The progression of projects outside the normal realm of Western art, and what I learned from them, help give my paintings their uniqueness and personality.”

– Don Weller

These are words of wisdom for those of us who may feel that life has taken us down the wrong trail. Maybe it isn’t the wrong one, after all.

About the Author

Michael Chesley Johnson is an artist, workshop instructor and author of the book, Beautiful Landscape Painting Outdoors: Mastering Plein Air.

Flip the Script on Sargent and Sorolla

By Stewart White

To keep my skills sharp in the cold winter months — when it’s a challenge to paint en plein air with watercolor — I like to make my versions of paintings by masters like Joaquín Sorolla and John Singer Sargent. (A good practice no matter what subjects you like to paint.) The twist is I copy oil paintings in watercolor and watercolors in oil.

For example, I love this work of Sorolla called Child in the Water — a masterclass in lost and found edges. I try not to spend more than 30 to 40 minutes per study. The point is to capture the major impact of the work, not the colors or details. Sorolla was great at simplicity and focus.

Lesson learned: See where “the big moves” are. In this case, it’s the white blouse catching the bright beach sun, echoed in the froth of the waves. These lights come forward and all else recedes. The trick is to spot these relationships in nature and express them in your own way.

This iconic masterpiece by Sargent called Fumee d’ambre Gris is an excellent study in cool and warm. It’s a terrible copy on my part, but the main thing is the play of light throughout the composition to capture the sense of light coming through fabric. This will be a handy lesson to remember when it’s warm enough to paint sailboats.

Lesson learned: This is actually quite colorful without using a broad spectrum of color. By keying everything down to a white family of values and temperatures, the viewer becomes more nuanced in his viewing. Subtle variations become more apparent. I want to look for this same problem. It is magical when a painter is able to suggest light bouncing off the opposite side of fabric as in a sail or sheets of laundry on a line.

Continuing with Sargent, I chose a painting with a full range of tones, from very dark to white. I experimented with a paintable watercolor ground from Daniel Smith on Masonite panels, which feels like painting on plaster at first but becomes more receptive as the layers dry. I like it for its color saturation. In general, I keep these studies very loose and small — no more than 6 x 8 -inch panels.

Lessons learned: By copying work like this I become attuned to Sargent’s decision making. I am aware of his attention to nuanced passages in the study and also where he merely indicates a texture or shape. I learned from my copy that I have a tendency to use more chroma than I actually see — not a bad thing, just something to keep in mind. Also, I came to the conclusion that I may want to use the look of a sanded surface in a plein air piece some time. Next chance I get, I’ll bring a few of these panels along just in case I see an old weathered wall with an angel standing nearby. (wink)

Portraits don’t rely on good weather; only a model is required, but when none is available who better to copy than Sargent? A good portrait demands a level of precision that is so elusive in watercolor, but it didn’t stop me from trying my hand at copy of his Head of a Capri Girl.

Lessons learned: This exercise helped me see where edges are hard or soft, to apply color wet-into-wet at the right time so as not to create disturbing “blooms,” and to successfully hint at flesh and bone beneath the surface of the skin. As if that wasn’t challenging enough, it was important to create a believable head, where both eyes belong to the same face and then to add a believable expression. Again, my copy isn’t very accurate, but the point was to learn how to craft volume with watercolor in a quick and gestural way. There is more power in the way the pupil of the eye disappears into the shadow of the eye socket than if I tried to paint every little eyelash and fold of skin.

I’ll often make several of these studies every evening, copying maybe three or four of my favorite master works, and then choosing a “not so favorite” and learn why the artist was interested in a particular play of light or composition.

Lessons learned: This small study by Sorolla called Beach in Biarritz is a lesson in connections. Detail and texture take a back seat to the interactive nature of cool grays. We see form and volume, and we can almost sense texture, but in fact that is mostly taking place in our own heads. Careful inspection shows us that none of that is present. Sorolla has, in a sense, made us co-painters with him, and that to me is the most satisfying of aspect of his paintings. I am transported to a moment in time. My imagination comes alive, and I live in Spain a century or more ago — miraculous when I consider it’s just a few spots of color artfully arranged!

In this example by Sargent, we have big, simple shapes and a play of cool and warm blues and whites. While working on the copy, I asked myself, what did Sargent see when he set up his easel? What did he learn while painting? Was he happy with the result? He seemed to be fascinated with the temperature changes in white objects — something Sorolla also worked on.

Lesson learned: This example celebrates the abstract nature of light and shadow, and of cool and warm planes of color. It goes to show you can make a compelling painting from just an arrangement of white walls.

Going from a watercolor to an oil copy is quite a different exercise altogether. I think I learned more about Sargent’s mastery of changing temperature inside of a shadow by trying to re-create them in oil.

Lessons learned: When copying the iconic painting of muddy alligators sunning themselves on a bank, my first observation was the impossible white of the paper. White paint cannot come close. I became more aware of how the sharp edges create the baking hot atmosphere of the scene.

In the oil paint copy, I saw where I could drag paint over an area to give it the feel of rough paper. I’m going to do a few more of these oil copies of great watercolors because on the one hand, I notice more subtleties in the watercolor, and on the other hand, I am intrigued by the richness of oil paint in layering, which I seldom do in watercolor. I also noticed how I could not bring myself to use that cobalt blue color in the shadows. They work wonderfully in the watercolor, but I couldn’t pull it off in oil — something to strive for, I suppose.

In Conclusion

By translating a work in another medium I become conscious of the extraordinary ways that my choice of medium plays into the portrayal of mood. I try to celebrate the inherent qualities of each medium and exploit them for their strengths. If you’re interested in doing these exercises in the warmth of your studio, I recommend the French Impressionists, as they are good for copying, especially Sisley and Pissarro. Pick your own favorites and mix up the media a bit. Notice how easily blends happen in watercolor that take more care in oil. One of the main benefits you’ll find is that it forces you to not slip into autopilot.