There were over 70 Members, New Members and Guests at our April meeting.

May 5 will be our last meeting, the theme for finger foods will be “Cinco de Mayo”. Joan will lead the “Care and Share” like last year, so email Joan with your name, email and contact number to register your painting for the comments. We will have a “Sell, Buy, Swap”. Spring clean your studios! If you are selling please clearly mark your name and how much you are asking for your items on the SELL Table. Interested buyers will deal directly with you, so please bring your own change. If you are willing to donate the items, place on the DONATE table… artists can leave a donation in a jar for CFWS. Thank you.

Janet A. – submit your news for the CFWS newsletter.

Our final Plein Air will be on May 18 at the 5.22 acre public Kaft Azalea Garden, 1365 Alabama Dr. in Winter Park. There is Lake Maitland, a pond, enormous cypress trees, Azaleas, and elegant The Exedra! Meet at 10 am.

Demonstration: Anne Abgott is an award-winning artist. “If I don’t think I can do it, it lights my fire.”

She has signatures in many major art organizations. A series of palm trees-same image, different angles helped earn these accolades. She got into AWS but not the FWS show with palm tree “Leaves” from old photos. She uses the “Edit” area and plays with saturation, vibrancy, and do color studies on her phone. As she paints, she’s connecting shapes. Every shape does not have to be there.

She paints like an oil painter and does not do glazing. When she goes back to see old photos, she sees them differently. In her series of birds, played with shapes, did many variations…horizontal and vertical.

black and white photo reference for painting the values
The color painting from B&W references. Burnt Sienna is granular and makes good sand.
Paint is consistency of cream. Paper is 300# Arches. She waits in between colors. You can put the blue and brown paints next to each other because the blue soaks into the 300# and paper is dry, so there is no bleed into other color.
She makes greys with Verditer blue and Brown Madder.
Then Verditer blue and Burnt Sienna, she lets the colors mingle on the paper.
Tip: Take tube of watercolor you think is dead and put it in bottle of water. Cut up the tube and put the whole thing in and shake from time to time. A lot of paint comes out, still usable.
Video tour of Anne’s studio:  She only does painting to fit the frames she has.
She hoards watercolor paper in an air-conditioned room. Never throw anything out. She still life area to do photo shoots next to a window plus some lights. 
She uses metal frames … also cradle boards.
Projector used project onto the mounted paper, to get shapes. She has hundreds of photographs from over the years to draw from.
This is her happy place…the view is beautiful. She paints there. She paints several at a time. 

When the painting is finished it can be framed and matted…. or mount the art on cradle board, with Mod Podge Craft glue, and apply four coats of matte finish varnish. Some art shows even will accept these.

Thank you Anne Abgott for a great demonstration and sharing your expereince with our society!

To see more of Anne Abgotts award winning artwork, click:

https://www.anneabgott.com

Cradle boards can be found at art supply stores and amazon.com