At our February meeting we featured something special....a tag team watercolor demonstration by two of Ohio’s premiere watercolor artists, Cathy Welner and Bob Moyer.  These well known and very popular artists attracted a large number of people to our meeting and the good weather helped, too.  For the middle of winter, the forces of the elements graced us with a sunny, warm day and most of the snow melted!  We had 18 guests and 24 members in attendance....three guests became members!  We thank both Cathy and Bob for a fun evening of art.

The 40+ attendees circled around Bob and Cathy to watch their demonstration.  We were intrigued to learn what was meant by ‘tag team’.  Bob started first.  He had pre-sketched a bouquet of flowers, mostly roses, on the diagonal, on Strathmore 140 lb. cold press paper.  Starting on dry paper in the upper left corner, Bob brushed colors of rose, then yellow, blue and green, letting them merge together on the paper.  His painting style is very loose and wet.  He actually moved the colors around even more while using the blow dryer.  We just watched the magic happen!

We could tell that Cathy was getting concerned, when she said “I have to figure out what to do with this!”  They both admitted to doing a lot of squinting and both agreed it works best if you have a large drink....wine, preferred.  Cathy went next.  She paints more dry brush, adding negative shapes and detailing the roses like a pinwheel.  She likes using her favorite round brush, called Dreamcatchers from Cheap Joe’s, because it comes to a sharp point.  Cathy broke up the dark green color by adding several white, yellow centered daisies, using a product called ‘Dr. Ph. Martin’s bleedproof white’.

Cathy and Bob worked back and forth several more times before they considered the painting complete.  When asked how he does it, Bob quipped “I pray a lot”.  They both agree that composition, complementary colors, and negative space are the key things to remember.  Their bantering back and forth was very entertaining.  Bob said their combined age was 280 and he was 80!  “Really, Bob!”...more like 177!  We thank them for donating the finished painting to the club, which we plan to raffle at our Spring Library Show....make sure to buy a ticket!  We also plan on offering a “Bob & Cathy” watercolor workshop in October, 2017.

The theme for the evenings refreshments was ‘A Night at the Movies’ in honor of the upcoming Oscars.  We thank our hosts, Deb Kramarz and Linda McGreevy for the assortment of movie goodies...variety of popcorn, candies, pop, plus a healthy choice of oranges, veggies and garlic hummus dip.  Did you cast your vote for the Oscar winners?  If you did, your ballot was taken to the Euclid Library and added to others, for a chance to win a big basket of goodies.