Tag Archives: demonstration
November Zoom Members Meeting and Demonstration by Gord Jones
A Zoom Event, Thursday, November 17, 2022, 7 – 9 pm.
After a brief Members Meeting we will welcome Gord Jones from Algonquin Highlands in Ontario, Canada. (We will send a link to this Zoom event to all members on the Monday before the event.) Join us for an evening of inspiration.
You can see Gord’s demonstration, as recorded, on our Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society YouTube Channel!
Gord is a watercolour artist residing in the Algonquin Highlands where he has his studio, White Pine Studio. He and his family moved from Stoney Creek after cottaging in Hali- burton for 25 years.
Gord is an elected member of the Canadian Society of Painters of Watercolour and the Society of Canadian Artists. He is also a member of the ECOAA, IWS, Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society, Haliburton Arts Council, and The Rail’s End Gallery in Haliburton. He has participated in the Studio Tour – Haliburton Highlands for the past 3 years.
Gord has been drawing and painting for over 35 years. After experiencing many different mediums such as oils, acrylics, even egg tempera, he always returned to his greatest love – transparent watercolour. He is inspired by the surrounding landscape. The scenery in Haliburton has been a great source of inspiration for most of his paintings. His approach is to interpret the essence of his chosen subject rather than producing detailed likenesses of actual places. Watercolour allows Gord to transfer the light and shadow that he photo- graphs in real life to the painting. With a fluidity of colours, Gord combines impressionistic strokes and semi-abstract techniques to elicit memories of place and time in his transpar- ent watercolour landscapes. He paints mainly landscapes, cityscapes, and industrial scenes.
Gord teaches watercolour painting in his studio and at The Haliburton School of Art & De- sign. He also does workshops for art groups throughout Ontario.
September 15, 2022 In Person Members Meeting and Demonstration! Sheila Reigh will be our artist demonstrator!
After a brief Members Meeting, we will have our in person demonstration by local artist and beloved teacher, Sheila Reigh.
Sheila Reigh, a WNY native residing in Tonawanda, first joined NFWS in 2007, and is a signature member and former NFWS Secretary. She has BAs in Elem Ed and Psych, graduating 1st in her class from Mercyhurst University in 1981. After 12 years of formal school teaching in grades K-8 and H.S. English; and then part-time medical transcriptionist, proofreader, calligraphy teacher, and summer camp art director; she made the switch to full-time self-employment as a professional face painter, artist, and art teacher. She currently teaches watercolor and drawing at the Tonawanda Senior Center, accepts several commissioned projects in various art media each year, and is a premiere face painter at many private and public events in WNY.
“After studying artistic concepts such as composition, perspective, color theory, and realism for several years at Partners in Art in North Tonawanda and elsewhere, I wanted to try a more challenging and surprising medium. So I dove into watercolor! Under mentors Gail Bille, Jody Ziehm, Margaret Martin, Kathleen Giles, and many others, I have found joy in the fact that I can never duplicate the same result twice. I love that watercolor can take ME for a ride!”
“I love the surprising blends of colors, the dramatic whites and darks, creating color harmony and balance, and even the challenges of ‘timing’ and ‘how-much-water-how-much-paint’. In my ‘teacher brain’, I am always striving to better break down into steps and explain, this wonderful world of watercolor to others. I continually improve my curriculum so it works best for my students. I love painting from nature best, but I paint many subjects so as to give myself and my students experience with a wide range of forms, color palettes, and textures. It’s so rewarding to find that all those art concepts finally DO merge together to create a whole, no matter what medium I am working in. No telling what I will paint next!
We will be together again after a summer break, and what a treat to host Sheila Reigh!
Come and enjoy!
Take Note!! Our May Members’ Meeting and Demonstration by Skip Lawrence will be virtual, on ZOOM!
The May Meeting and Demonstration was switched to virtual. We welcomed this inspiring teacher and Artist, Skip Lawrence after a brief Member’s Meeting. Here is a link to our recording of Skip’s demo on our YouTube Channel.
Skip Lawrence’s Zoom Demonstration
William Skip Lawrence: Expressive Artist
“I love everything about painting. I love feeling the paint, seeing a rich color spread under my brush onto a surface and the play between colors coming together. I love watching my idea take form until a painting finally says “it” and I am surprised and delighted every time. I love sharing my art and knowing that someone is moved by it.
I see no hierarchy among realism, abstraction, non-objective painting styles. I see only the relationship of colors, shapes, surface and line that either thrills or bores me. When these elements come together to communicate an artist’s intention to the viewer, to connect with someone, it is nothing short of wonderful.
Join us for an evening of sharing and inspiration!
March 17th Members Meeting and Demonstration by Kris Parins!
After a brief Members Meeting, Kris Parins will be our artist demonstrator, joining us from Sarasota, Florida.
Delight in nature was instilled in Kris in her childhood, spent at the edge of a lake in northern Wisconsin. That same small lake now provides the view and inspiration from the windows of her summer studio. She spends winters painting in Sarasota, Florida.
A Signature Member of several watercolor societies including AWS, NWS and TWSA, Kris Parins’ award-winning paintings and articles have been featured in Watercolor Artist, International Artist, and American Artist Watercolor magazines, as well as several editions of Splash, the Best of Watercolor. Her work is regularly included in international competitions including Birds in Art at the Woodson Art Museum.
After earning an art degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison she studied graphic design. As an art director and account executive, she enjoyed the occasional opportunity to create watercolor illustrations for her clients’ product graphics. Since 1999, Kris has devoted her creative energy toward fine art. Watercolor’s transparency and vibrancy, combined with an element of surprise, continue to keep her interested in this challenging medium. Frequent travels provide fresh input and continue to inform her way of interpreting the world around her.
Kris Parins – Artist Statement:
Through my art I strive to communicate my joy of experience, both of observation and of creation. When I succeed, the person who views one of my paintings will see a small part of the world in a new light.
By exaggerating essentials and eliminating detail in my reference photos and sketches, I call attention to the ideas that interest me, resulting in paintings that are more powerful, abstract, and personal.
I continue to love transparent watercolor because I am energized by the randomness and spontaneity it provides. The swirl of color mixing on the paper creates its own nuanced atmosphere and inspires a conversation with the medium, often suggesting new directions.
A Special Thursday Night! June 17th! Andrew Pitt will demonstrate on Zoom for NFWS!
As a special treat we will have British artist Andrew Pitt on Zoom for NFWS Members from London! We will email Zoom invitations on the Monday before the Event!
Andrew Pitt was born in Maldon, Essex in the UK. He started painting at the age of eleven, inspired by watching visiting artist who came to Maldon to paint the Thames Sailing Barges.
Although he is primarily a watercolour artist he also paints and teaches oil painting.
He has been teaching workshops and residential courses for over 40 years and has held over 20 one-man exhibitions. He has contributed many articles to the English art magazine, “The Leisure Painter’’ and his first book, ‘’Seasons and Reflections: Notes on Painting in Watercolour” was published in 2019. In 2008 Town House Films Ltd produced an instructional DVD called, ‘’Watercolour: Pure and Simple with Andrew Pitt’’.
Andrew lives in Suffolk, England with his wife Rachel and her small flock of chickens.
Here is his Artist’s Statement
Painting, particularly in watercolour, is endlessly fascinating because we are not painting what we know but what we have just found out. My aim is to paint a picture which represents the subject as I see it without compromising the fluid, transparency of the watercolour medium.
To achieve a lively, fresh painting is a high risk activity, but when a watercolour is successful it is difficult to beat using any other medium. I try to keep my technique and materials as simple as possible. I paint using a direct – all a prima – method, which dispenses with the traditional ‘’light to dark’’ approach. I go for the end straight away, the way I want my picture to look when it is finished, using the minimum of planned over-painting; a method which emphasises the freshness, and essential beauty of watercolour. I also want the viewer to feel my paintings celebrate the subject and convey the enthusiasm and pleasure of the artist. 
Our Zoom Demonstrator for March will be Lena Thynell!
For information about the demonstrator and our Zoom event, click here:
Zoom Demonstration by Lena Thynell, March 18, 2021
May Members Meeting and Demonstration by Richard Stephens HAS BEEN CANCELED!
We hope to be able to reschedule Richard Stephen’s Workshop, and Demonstration in the future.
Stay safe and healthy, please.
April 16, 2020 Members Meeting and Demonstration by Jeffrey Watkins has been CANCELED.
January Members’ Meeting and Demonstration by Carol Molnar
After a short and informative members meeting, we will welcome our own NFWS Signature Member Carol Molnar, an Elma NY artist whose paintings and other media creations have long fascinated all who know her.
Artist’s Statement: “Watercolor is just one of several ways I find to get the art stuff out. I taught art for thirty one years (1st-12th grade) so I see myself as a “jack of all trades and a master of none”. It wasn’t until several years after retiring and joining NFWS that watercolors were given some extra space next to: sewing, gardening, painted wood creations, batik, stained glass and jewelry design.
I am not by any sense of the word a “disciplined” painter. Weeks or even months will go by before picking up a brush. The paintings are always worked on in my head long before being placed on paper. Then the need to paint takes over and I will disappear into my workroom.
A future painting presents itself at any given time. I am so thankful for camera phones to preserve the memory of that perfect composition. Sometimes … well actually pretty often, I will view a scene and see it as if it was already a finished painting. Objects from nature appear to be the work of assorted artists: a Burchfield tree, a Georgia O’Keeffe sky, a Picasso rock, (I have one in my garden), a composition by Adolph Gottlieb, and then the sun will quietly and perfectly cover a house for a painting by Edward Hopper. I’m sure this happens because of all those years of teaching art history, the principles of design and the elements of art.”
Everyone, member, not yet member and watercolor lover alike, is welcome to join us. We are a group that shares enthusiasm for watercolor and watermedia, welcomes friendship old and new, and enjoys good snacks!!!