CFWS President Sandi B. started the meeting by welcoming 2 new members: Karen and Elias! Welcome! We are happy to see you at our meeting!

Our calendar was displayed for members to plan ahead, so check the newsletter and our calendar on the CFWS website to keep up to date.

Sandi and Terri talked about an email scam that a few board members got. So, we posted a YouTube video on how to tell if an email is fake. It goes into detail on how to double check if an address is correct. Please take a moment to watch it.

Lois – Passed around a membership list for us to check and some business cards.

Susan – The Donna Morrison workshop is full, but add your name on the wait list if you are interested. Life happens and there can be openings. March 2, 3, 4 2026, Teresa Kirk will be teaching a workshop at SOBO Art Gallery. Save the date!

Sandi – We need volunteers for the Holiday Party and Sandi passed around a sign up sheet. You don’t have to bring a painting to the party, but if you do it can be framed or just matted. It is a casual and fun event. A flyer will be sent out soon with more information.

Sandi – She is organizing a field trip to OMA to see the FWS annual show on Dec. 12. We’ll meet at 10 am in the parking lot. Bring a chair and bagged lunch, as we’ll picnic in the park afterwards.  Adults $20 _ Seniors $12. Please RSVP to Sandi B. if interested.

Vice President Joan L. then introduced Susan Grogan, FWS to demonstrate how to loosely paint Peonys in a glass vase. She lets the colors bleed on the paper as she paints.  Tips on drawing: turn the vase upside down to see if it is even on both sides.  She likes #12 Silver Brush. She started with making Sap Green plus Quinacridone Gold in a puddle. Then Permanent Rose in a puddle. She uses lots of pigment and “Paints like a millionaire”. 

Susan changes her drawing from the reference photo to make composition better. She will print the reference photo in black and white to help her see the darks and lights. She feels doing a value study will help make her painting come out the way she wants it to.
  • One of Susan’s teachers from long ago always said, “Get in and get out.”
  • Susan likes to play. She says to load up your big brush with paint and water. Use the biggest brush you can feel comfortable with to get the job done. If you don’t want the paint to spread/run, use a smaller, stiffer brush with less water.

If you are having trouble drawing circles or ovals (one side is good but the other isn’t), try drawing the one side and turning the paper over to draw the other side. This will help get both of the sides even and balaced.

Stop if the paper starts to dry.

When choosing a background, use the colors in the painting.

Susan painted a round, clear glass vase with three peonies.

She painted the flowers and the stems.  For the pink flowers, she used permanent rose and new gamboge for the yellow centers; sap green with quin gold, and sap green with ultramarine blue for the leaves. 

For the white flower, she used lavender, cerulean, cobalt blue, and cobalt violet with some raw sienna and new gamboge on the edges to soften them. While the stems were still wet, she added the vase. The stems should be larger when under the water and smeared.

The colors for the vase were WN cerulean, permanent rose, and WN cobalt blue. She showed how the water would reflect the colors of the flowers.

She left a little white edge on the darker side of the vase and then smeared her colors right over the stems from the darker side to the lighter side. This put her stems “in the vase.” “’Smush’is a technical term! The color is darker on the bottom of the vase.

She put cooler colors in the back and turned the painting upside down to make sure the colors flowed to the top to appear darker.
Finished painting with dark background.
Susan brought several samples of the peony artwork.
Close up of Susan’s Palette as she worked.

Thank you Susan for a fun and educational demonstration of the lovely Peony.

Susan teached at the Mt. Dora Center for the Arts…. and has an Etsy page. Susan also is our workshop coordinator and we thank her for all of her hard work!