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May 7 - Dorothy Johnston - Watercolors
Dorothy
Johnston is a excellent watercolorist, certainly one of the best in
Waco. And that's no small claim, since Waco has a large and
dedicated group of watercolorists doing very high quality work.
Since retiring from a career
as a commercial artist, Dorothy has concentrated on watercolors.
At the left, she is shown receiving an award at a Central Texas
Watercolor Society exhibit at MCC.
She says she thinks she is now in her "cat phase," but doesn't promise
that's what she'll do for us. By then she may have moved on to
something else. A small sampler of her works appears below.
More of her paintings can be seen on her web site
www.dorothyjohnston.com.
We meet at our
usual time, 2-4 p.m., 1:30 for refreshments and conversation, at the
Waco Charter School, 615 N. 25th Street. Free for first time
visitors. Please bring recent works to share with the group during
the break.
May 7 - Dorothy
Johnston - Watercolor Still Life
Dorothy
Johnston demonstrated the painting of a watercolor of two adjacent pots of
flowers. She used a rectangular wastebasket laid on its side as a slightly
sloping easel to support the board she attached her paper to with binder
clips. She prefers to stand while painting, and finds that the wastebasket
on a table is a convenient height for her. (And it doubles as a tote
for her paints!)
After
making a careful sketch, she dampened a full sheet of cold-pressed Arches
paper on both sides. For most of the color application, she used a fairly
large (#14) round brush, alternately applying, blending, and removing color
to get the effects she intended. Some details, such as stems and pot edges,
were added with a smaller brush after the paper had dried enough to prevent
the color from spreading too much.
Most
of the flowers were geraniums, whose brightness was exaggerated somewhat.
She said that people had often asked her why she made her colors so bright,
but that it was only after she had cataracts removed that she discovered how
bright she was making them! Her bright colors are one of
things
that make her painting distinctive, however, so don't expect that to change.
She first painted magenta-red flower heads, making them larger and more
numerous than those in her model, for the sake of a better painting. These
flower heads exhibited repetition, but with variation in size and color.
Some areas were carefully left unpainted to eventually become white flowers.
The
leaves also exhibited both repetition and variation. She used viridian green
with varying amounts of yellow and blue added to achieve a variety of
greens. Flower stems were added in blue, which differentiated them from the
leaves. Additional contrast was provided by the orange-red pots. Darks were
made from a mixture of thalo green and alizarin red. Dorothy is particularly
fond of purple, and used some in the background. Purple is not especially
common in nature, but it is in her paintings.
When
we took a break to hear from those who brought paintings for show and tell,
Dorothy just kept on painting. Consequently, she finished in record time.
The result (above right) was yet another example of how fine an artist she
is. She brought along a good many other examples, two of which are at
the left and right of this paragraph. These were spread out for people
to see during the break.
Thank you, Dorothy, for a great demonstration. Even those of us who use
other media learned from watching a master at work. Thanks also to those who
brought paintings for show and tell, to those who brought guests, and to
Christine Niekamp, Judy Franklin, Rose Jacobson, and Saundra Vasek for
bringing refreshments. Remember that any of the thumbnail photos on
these pages can be expanded to full screen by clicking on them.
Show and Tell
Bill Franklin
Judy Franklin Larry
Garza Christine Niekamp Violet
Piper
