The next Society of Watercolor Artists (SWA) member meeting is Monday, Feb. 17th at 7pm. Meeting Location: University of North Texas – Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth, TX. Visitors are welcome.
For more about SWA, see the website https://www.swawatercolor.com.
February Demo Artist – Walt Davis
Walt Davis, signature member and past president of the Southwestern Watercolor Society, began painting in watercolor over thirty years ago. He studied first with Faith Helen Foust at Eastfield Community College then with Bud Biggs. He later attended workshops with Doug Walton, Louise Cadillac, Carole Barnes, Frank Webb, Mark Mehaffey, Richard Stephens, Joseph Zbukvitch, and noted bird artist John P. O’Neil.
Artist’s Statement
I believe that pigment, dissolved in water, and applied to paper produces more luminous color than any other medium. Watercolor and acrylic are
mercurial however-sometimes difficult, always full of surprises. I constantly weigh the importance of original intent against unexpected opportunities. For me, painting in watercolor and acrylic is a series of negotiations with the medium often involving painful decisions, trade offs, and sacrifices. The ever-present risk of failure lends excitement to the process and makes success especially sweet.
I am inspired by the beauty nature produces when left to express itself according to its own needs and potentialities. Painting allows me to enter into that world and experience it in a more personal and intimate way. Hopefully, the resulting painting captures the essence of a creature or a place and allows the viewer to experience that essence more deeply as well.
The natural world is composed of essential elements (rocks, soil, water, plants, animals) playing their appointed roles according to fundamental principles. A work of art is composed of essential elements as well (line, shape, value, color, texture) obeying a different but no less fundamental set of principles. The challenge for the artist is to choreograph a delicate dance between art and nature coaxing the fundamental truth of one to illuminate the fundamental truth of the other.
