Kathleen Alexander

Lawaii Plumeria II, 21" x 28"

With a focus on Pacific Rim subjects, Kathleen Alexander constantly challenges herself to take on new subjects and create artistically inspiring series of paintings. Beginning with local California coastal landscapes, she moved on to botanical orchids and then to tropical flowers -- particularly of Hawaii -- following travel to the islands. From there, she expanded her field to include various tropical plants with intriguing foliage and then pushed the boundaries further with waterlilies, koi, and Japanese persimmons. She chooses subjects that trigger an emotional response for her and aims for finished paintings that evoke peace and tranquility. Kathleen says, "For me, technical skills are important, but having a subject you are passionate about is equally important for creating art. I found that my technical skills improved as I explored painting similar subjects. Working consistently with the same color palette also improved my technical skills, as I learned how certain colors behaved with each other and on the paper." Primarily a studio painter, she uses her camera and computer as tools in creating her striking compositions, preferring subjects with strong contrasts and rich shadows.

Enlightenment, 13" x 31"

Summer Morning, 21" x 29"

Although she began painting in watercolor in 1982, Kathleen earned a degree in biochemistry and worked in that field before starting her family. In 1991, she felt the need for a focussed creative outlet and began taking evening classes in watercolor at a local community college. She was awarded a one-year scholarship to the Academy of Art College in San Francisco after entering a painting in the local County Fair; she studied life drawing and graphic design at AAC in 2000-2001 while continuing to paint in her own studio. She currently participates in regional art festivals during the summer and teaches ongoing classes as well as three-day workshops in watercolor. Her work has won awards in numerous juried watercolor competitions around the country -- the Northwest Watercolor Society, the Watercolor Art Society - Houston, the Lousiana Watercolor Society, and Watercolor West -- and she recently won Third Place in the juried Statewide Watercolor Exhibition at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA. Kathleen is a signature member of the Northwest Watercolor Society.

Haiku I, 20" x 30"

Lawaii Palm, 32" x 37"

Please visit Kathleen's website to see more of her work and get details of her show schedule and classes.

Nancy Calhoun

St. Jerome -- Taos, 13" x 13"

Nancy Calhoun's complex watercolors often start with a collage created from scraps of paper or photographs. Her ideas come from people or places that have inspired her -- the southwest, the Sierras, and a recent trip to France are depicted in her current work. From her collage, she creates a drawing that she transfers to watercolor paper. By using multiple applications of masking fluid and pouring numerous washes of transparent paint, she builds depth in her images while retaining the vibrant glow of the paper.

Real Indian Stuff, 13" x 13"

Nancy started her art life as an oil painter, studying with Chris Borggren in his San Carlos studio. Born in Denmark, Borggren studied with the Fauvist artist Maurice de Vlaminck in Paris, eventually moving to the U.S. where he taught art for his entire life. As the mother of three small children, Nancy cherished the hours that she spent studying with Borggren, remarking, "He was an incredible person, artist, and teacher with a fauvist's love of color which he passed to his students." After several moves back and forth between northern and southern California, Nancy and her family settled in the Bay Area and she began taking art classes at local community colleges. She took her first watercolor classes in the early 1990s, eventually discovering Mike Bailey's challenging class, Watercolor Beyond the Obvious. Although she still loves the smell of oil paint and still has Borggren's easel, which she purchased after his death, Nancy now works exclusively in watercolor.

Southwest, 20" x 20"

Nancy studied art and education at both UCLA and San Francisco State University, earning a bachelor's degree in Education. She has won Best in Show in the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society annual show in addition to other awards. She is a member of Viewpoints Gallery in Los Altos and a longtime and very active member of Arts of Bear Valley, near her summer cabin and studio in the Sierras. Arts of Bear Valley sponsors a summer show in conjunction with the annual Bear Valley Music Festival, as well as another show in Calaveras Big Trees State Park.

Beynac I, 22" x 14"

Beynac II, 22" x 14"

Please visit Nancy's website to see more of her work.

Rosanne Seitz

Carrizo Colors II, 22" x 30"

Rosanne Seitz knew at age five that she was drawn to color and loved the process of putting it on paper to create form and space. During the 23 years she taught elementary school, she took art classes and painted in her spare time. And she says, "Watercolor chose me." She has been inspired by the early California scene painters, primarily the plein air watercolorists, and was fortunate to be able to study with Milford Zornes, among many other well-known artists. Plein air painting allows her to soak up the atmosphere, color and adventure of exploring new landscapes and provides the means to pay tribute to the land and her heritage, while studio painting allows her to enjoy working on a larger scale in a more controlled environment. Both bring her a sense of connectedness to the world.

Relating a plein air painting day, Rosanne writes, "...on a stormy Friday afternoon at the Chimineas Ranch, the sun found a break in the clouds and shone across the grassland. We stopped to paint, and as the sun went lower, the grass lit up like it was on fire and glowed against the dark blue purple of the storm clouds. WOW! We stopped painting every 5 minutes to exclaim as the scene changed and finally the clouds began picking up the sunset colors."

Sierra Monument, 30" x 20"

Although she is a member of a number of local and regional art associations, Rosanne is particularly proud of her membership in San Luis Obispo Outdoor Painters of the Environment. This group of 20 professional artists is committed to preserving the diversity of life in the natural communities throughout the county, drawing public attention to the environment through their paintings and through shows held in conjunction with local and national conservation groups.

Mouth of Avila Creek, 28" x 18"

Rosanne has consistently won awards for her work in regional and national art shows, and she has maintained a busy festival schedule, exhibiting in events from Los Angeles to the San Francisco area. She also participates in regional benefit shows, and she shares her love of painting by teaching workshops. She is co-owner of The Gallery at the Network in San Luis Obispo, which features her work and that of her co-owners, along with works from many other fine artists.

Coastal Colors II, 15" x 22"

Hollister Peak and Oaks, 18" x 28"

Please visit Rosanne's website to see more of her paintings and learn more about her activities.

Lisa Faulkner Wright

Vermillion Sunset, 18" x 24"

Speaking of her choice of subject matter, Lisa Faulkner Wright comments, "Having grown up near the shores of Lake Tahoe, I am inspired by the vast pine forests, high mountain lakes, granite peaks and sandstone canyons of our western states. But I am equally inspired by the smaller details of nature. From the stunning vistas to the roadside wildflowers, I have been instilled with a reverence for the land, with its powerful geologic forces and the striking beauty of its flora and fauna."

Lisa primarily paints landscapes in a contemporary realist style, applying the concepts of pictorial geometry to create illusionary worlds that invite her viewers to step into the scenes psychologically. Painting both on location and in her studio, she has chosen watercolor for its luminosity and for its wide range of properties from transparent to opaque. She capitalizes on the special effects of granulating pigments, often flowing several washes down the paper to build up sedimenta-
tion and reticulation patterns which she then incorporates into rock features in the painting. Watercolors are usually applied in a traditional manner with traditional sable/blend brushes, but she also trims synthetic fan brushes to desired shapes and then uses them to apply thick paint to capture the details of grasses, trees, and stratified rock. She finds the Primatek paints from Daniel Smith especially well-suited to depicting the features of the desert southwest and the Colorado Plateau.

Flood of Color, 17" x 12"

Although academically trained in printmaking and ceramic sculpture -- she holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison -- Lisa came to a turning point in her career when she studied with Jack Beal and Sondra Freckelton during summer programs at their home studio. She has taught university classes in printmaking, papermaking, and painting and also maintained a successful studio and gallery displaying ceramic sculpture, porcelain pottery, and watercolors for many years. She has also exhibited widely, winning awards in regional and national shows, and her work is included in the collection of the Elvehjem Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, among others. Her work has been featured in Watercolor magazine and is included in Daily Life in Still Life, published by American Artist magazine. She now teaches painting and drawing at her private studio.

Blossoms of the Cholla, 17" x 12"

Yellow Blossoms and Raindrops, 12" x 17"

Trail to the Sandstone Bluffs, 18" x 24"

Please visit Lisa's blog to see more of her work.

Myrna Wacknov

Frenchman (muted cool palette), 15" x 22"
watercolor on gesso-textured paper

Myrna Wacknov has had a lifelong passion for painting figures and faces -- doing portrait commissions while she was still in high school and then working as a charcoal sketch artist at outdoor art shows for a number of years. Her focus of interest has changed over the years to capturing an expression and gesture rather than creation of an exact likeness, and recently she has been pushing the design potential of her subjects by working in series, keeping the image constant and changing the combination of elements from painting to painting. Her eagerness to experiment with processes and techniques provides endless opportunities for exploring her creativity.

Sketchbook portrait, 5" x 7"
collage with pen & ink wash

Myrna attended Washington University and the Kansas City Art Institute and later received her degree in Painting and Drawing at San Francisco State University. Her work has been included in many national watercolor competitions and she has won awards in exhibits with the Rocky Mountain Watercolor Society, the San Diego Watercolor Society, and the California Watercolor Association, to name a few. In 2008, she won the CFS Medal at the American Watercolor Society Exhibition. She is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society and the California Watercolor Association. Myrna's work has also been featured in several magazine articles -- a feature on her portrait process in Watercolor Magic (October 2007), an article on 20 artists over 60 in The Artist's Magazine (March 2008), and a 2nd place in the self-portrait competition in American Artist (October 2008). Her work was also featured on the cover of Palette Magazine in January 2009. Myrna teaches several portrait painting workshops from beginning to advanced levels.

Rose, 18" x 24"
watercolor on Tyvek

Advanced portrait class variations, 15" x 21"
watercolor with dilute matte medium

Bill Cook the Housepainter, 18" x 24"
watercolor

Go to Myrna's blog to see more of her work and to find links to her website and gallery.

Judy Welsh

Sunflowers, 26" x 20"
watercolor on Yupo

A fourth generation Californian, Judy Welsh grew up in the coastal town of Santa Barbara, and her love of the outdoors has been nurtured by the beauty of her state from the sea to the Sierras. Since her early childhood, painting has been a way of seeing and celebrating the Creator. She finds plein air painting especially inspiring because it brings forth an emotional response that is not readily accessible for her in the studio. Using rich, saturated color and interlocking shapes that hug the contours of her subject matter, she hopes her audience will be as excited by her finished paintings as she was when she painted them. Recently, she has been experimenting with alternative painting surfaces such as watercolor canvas and synthetic paper, both of which present new technical challenges and offer new avenues for creativity.

Wet Medium/Wild Color, 20" x 26"
watercolor on Yupo

Judy holds a bachelor's degree in fine art and also did graduate work in art at San Jose State University. She has won many awards, including second place in a recent landscape competition in "International Artist Magazine," has had her work published in Splash 9, The Best of Watercolor (North Light Books, 2006), and is represented in both private and public collections. She is an award-winning signature member of the California Watercolor Association, and her paintings have been included in exhibitions at The Triton Museum of Art, The Art Museum of Los Gatos, and The de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University, as well as in Europe and Japan. Judy has owned and managed an art business for the last twenty years, doing freelance art, teaching art to all ages, and consulting for both business and private clients. Her most recent passion involves teaching both art-making and art appreciation to her three grand-daughters.

Rock Dwellers, 20" x 30"

Cinnabar Hill, 30" x 22"

Ahh Umunhum, 22" x 30"

Please visit Judy's website to see more of her work.