Taking Flight

The very talented artist known as Han has been teaching Photo Reference Watercolor, Oil, or Acrylic Painting at A Unique Art Gallery in Jupiter for the past few months. I met Han in July when he joined the art collective, and the two of us became friends. He began teaching his class on Saturday mornings, which is the day I mostly cover the gallery.

Originally on the first Saturday but more recently on the third Saturday of the month, I run an Unleashing Creativity workshop. Han took part in a couple of workshops, so I decided to take his class. We figured that way neither one of us would have to pay. We would just exchange services. My sister, Jan, was studying watercolor with him, and I decided to try it myself.

A hundred years ago when I was in college, watercolor was a medium I did not enjoy. I’ve been oil painting since my early twenties, and I’ve always thought that oils are much easier to use than watercolors. After all, you can correct mistakes in oils but with watercolor you have to get it right from the start. So I was nervous when I started taking Han’s class.

I teach in my creativity workshops not to worry about the product and instead to enjoy the process of creating. If the process (the creative experience) is good, it will more likely result in a meaningful, worthwhile finished product. Though I try to practice what I preach, I’m not immune from an internal judge, who can be very critical of my work. Still I didn’t allow my self-criticism to inhibit me from trying to paint with watercolor, and the result has been a new love.

Next Wednesday, March 9, 2011, A Unique Art Gallery and our neighbor Unique Glass Art, are benefiting the Audubon Society of the Everglades on our Second Wednesday open house from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. The theme is “Taking Flight,” which is the feeling I get working with watercolors.

Jan and I have been bird lovers our entire lives. Our mother was not a dog or cat lover, so our

childhood pet was a brilliant parakeet. We are convinced that Skippy, who had a huge vocabulary and spoke in sentences, was a reincarnated human. He was a bird who flew away from home and found his way back.

Ten years ago when I started painting again after not painting for nearly twenty years, I began with a painting of Baby, my parakeet at that time, in a hibiscus tree. So I suppose it’s not surprising that the Audubon fundraiser inspired me to spend the last month using watercolors to paint birds. I’m hoping that the fundraiser is a huge success and that people will want to buy my new watercolors.

A Unique Art Gallery and Unique Glass Art are located at 226 Center St., one block west of Alt A1A, next to the Jupiter Ale House. Learn more about the organization, its artists and programs on the Association’s website, www.artistsassociationofjupiter.com. For more information on this event call Susan Lorenti at (954) 588-7275 or Carolyn Austin at (561) 747-2024.