Seniors featured in watercolor exhibit
Ten members of the Waupaca Senior Center will exhibit their original watercolors in “Art is Always Ageless.”
The exhibit will take place Oct. 2 to Nov. 11, in the Waupaca Area Public Library’s lower-level exhibit room.
The public is invited to the opening reception there at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2.
Refreshments will be served.
The women who will exhibit their work all showed a desire to improve their painting skills and accepted the challenges of professional art instructors during painting classes offered at the center.
The current instructor is painter Marie App, of Ogdensburg.
Exhibiting their work will be Martina Falke, Mary Kurylo, Janet Larson, Karen Martens, Holly Martin, Susan Martin, Sonia Rothenback, Mary Rozmarynowski, Mary Ann Wells and Marge Writt.
Falke hopes to explore all painting media in her lifetime.
She said as she grew older and wiser, she found a freedom in slowing down from the fast and furious pattern of life by turning to nature.
“I sit with nature, see it, feel it, dance with its colors, curves and flow. I call it the Spice of Life. In this way, I am both student and teacher,” Falke said.
Kurylo did not take her painting seriously until she started to take lessons at the senior center.
She took oil and watercolor classes.
Kurylo likes the way watercolors blend and the way her projects form before her.
“I have enjoyed learning all the different techniques that are introduced to us,” she said.
Martens just started taking painting classes at the senior center this year and said she likes to paint in watercolors, oils and acrylics. “Our instructor Marie makes one feel like one can accomplish almost anything,” she said.
Martens brings her love of painting from her childhood on the family farm, where she appreciated country beauty and the pencil drawings of her father.
Holly Martin was raised in an art-appreciating family and does not remember a time when she was not working on an art project.
She likes the color choices and futuristic style of Heronymus Bosch.
“Getting what is in my mind unto paper challenges me. I am learning to accept my artistic voice. I don’t judge my work compared to the work of others,” she said. “Watercolors force me to accept that I cannot control every aspect of how the paint behaves. I am learning to see ‘mistakes’ as serendipity.”
Susan Martin always wanted to be an artist and began drawing at a young age.
She was a fourth-grade teacher for 35 years and taught art during summer school.
When she retired, she pursued painting classes and fell in love with watercolors.
“I love the way watercolors move and flow. I am inspired by the original work of Henri Rousseau, Fernando Botero and Gladys Nilsson,” she said. “I have an unending curiosity about human behavior, relationships and a love for pets which I try to incorporate into my pieces. I enjoy painting whimsical narratives.”
Rozmarynowski began sketching in her elementary years, but found her greatest inspiration as an adult when visiting museums during her travels.
She saw the originals of Michaelangelo and Vincent van Gogh, as well as the architecture and sculpture of the Medieval and Renaissance ages.
Wells recalls drawing at age 5.
Inspired by the paintings of an artist friend, she started taking lessons from several art teachers, using different media.
“I love the challenge that watercolors throw at me. I need to plan ahead, know how wet to make the paper, how to blend the paints to get the colors I want. I paint to paint and to help improve my style,” Wells said.
Writt said she finds of the medium of watercolor extremely challenging.
“It’s hard to control the paint, and the whole process requires planning, along with skills,” she said.
Writt said if she lives to be 80 or 90, she will still be learning how to paint in watercolors.
Larson and Rothenback will also show their recent watercolors in the exhibit.