President’s Message – April 2025
Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote,
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote,
And bathed every veyne is swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour. . .
Just Chaucer’s way of saying April showers bring forth flowers “and smale fowles maken melodye. . .” and “longen folkes to goon on pilgrimages. . .”
In April Central MN Watercolorists welcome the long-awaited flowers and birds and snowbirds returning from warmer places in time to file taxes, and we get ready to go on retreat!
April DEMO
Our April 14 meeting features a Live Demonstration with Artist Heidi E. Nelson, who will share her approaches to Painting Portraits in Watercolor.
Wedding Zig-Zag
Heidi E. Nelson has taught drawing and painting in all mediums to students of all ages and abilities, in numerous venues in the Twin Cities for 20 years, with a talent for teaching beginning classes in a methodical step-by-step way. Ms. Nelson retired in late 2019 but continues teaching 2 ongoing watercolor classes in her large, home classroom.
Read more about Heidi on our website - www.centralmnwatercolorists.org
We can be ready to ask burning questions, such as
- What do you like about painting portraits?
- How do you plan a portrait project?
- What do people find hard about painting portraits?
SHOW Opportunities
Our Show Coordinator, Becca, has arranged several opportunities to exhibit your work in 2025. You can sign-up to show at:
- CentraCare Plaza – May
- Whitney Senior Center – June (but sign up now!)
- Good Shepherd Nursing Home – Sept. – Dec.
- Paramount Center for the Arts – Nov.
To sign up for a show, complete this artwork submission form. The shows and images will be on our website, so your work can be seen, enjoyed and perhaps purchased by more people than just those who visit the venues in person.
Other Shows
Sign up by April 7 to show your work and participate in Artists of Minnesota Spring Conference, held in St. Cloud April 25 – 27, 2025. (Note: it’s a mail in registration, Postmarked by April 8.) Our own Kerry Kupferschmidt is working hard on the conference. He says Artists of Minnesota is a sister organization, and this will be their last event. All mediums and experience welcome. There are several events. Kerry created their flyer with more information. Go to the website https://artistsofminnesota.org/
If you’d like to participate in a juried show this summer, check out Great River Arts in Little Falls. https://greatart.org/
Workshop News
We have added a Spring Workshop with Daniel Kuchenbecker, who presented a demo for us last fall. The workshop will be on a Saturday, May 17, 2005, at the Paramount. We hope you will take advantage of this Saturday opportunity. You can sign up at the April 14 meeting.
For our premier Fall Workshop we are delighted to welcome back Catherine Hearding. In May of 2018 Catherine presented a demo for us, “Building a Better Landscape.” She is an accomplished artist and teacher from Lake Elmo and holds signature status with eight different watercolor societies. The workshop will be Sept. 25 – 27, (Th. Fri. Sat.), 2005. We hope to know the pricing soon. Class will be limited to 20. We will create a wait list.
See more about Catherine’s work at https://www.chearding.com/Home
Looking forward
In May several of us will “goon on pilgrimage.” It’s our Painting Retreat at Riverside Inn in Cold Spring. It looks like a full house. Already we are planning what cheese & crackers, chocolates and wines to bring and share. Oh, yes, we also plan to paint masterpieces. Find full information on our website. In October we plan another retreat.
Other demo artists to enjoy this year are:
- May – Sarah Guy Levar
- June – Patti Schmid
- Oct. – Bethany Giinther
- Nov. – Kathy Peterson – Kathy is a fellow student at Wednesday classes with Dan Mondloch at Art in Motion in Holdingford. Last year, the Wilmar Area Arts Council invited Kathy to present her a solo exhibition.
I asked Kathy how that came about and she said, “It was an accident!” Kathy will share how she prepared for her exhibition, and show us a little about how she paints. She has a beautiful website: https://drawingoutcreativity.com/
Final Thoughts:
Last, we thank fellow CMW member Dan Mondloch for his demo last month. It was a treat for our guests and for all of us. I loved the opening question from the audience: “Why did you choose that particular reference photo? I never would have thought. . .” We went from there and were transfixed watching Dan paint.
- Good news: We recorded Dan’s demo and hope to make it viewable by members.
- Not as good news: It might be that only half the demo got recorded, but we will try to share it with members anyway. (Expect a link.)
Our goal is to make CMW programming more available to members who cannot attend meetings in person. We will try again in April. Two steps forward. One step back.
But always, keep your paints, paper and brushes handy. Then just add water!
Susan