Jo Myers-Walker's Blog

Inspiring subjects for painting, from the workshop by Paul Jackson

Look what I will be painting this week, very inspiring glass! I’m taking a workshop called “Painting Glass and Shiny Things” taught by watercolorist Paul Jackson, this year’s juror and instructor for the Iowa Watercolor Society’s annual exhibition and workshops (held in conjunction with the IWS annual luncheon and meeting). After serving as President, I’m going off of the IWS board, leaving it in wonderful and capable hands. (I’ll have time to paint!) I’m thankful for the board members who will continue to serve.

This year’s exhibition at the Ankeny Art Center has 65 watercolor paintings by many different Iowa artists. The show continues in Ankeny through September 27, 2012 and about 30 works from the exhibit will be picked by the juror to make up this year’s traveling show, an Iowa Watercolor Society tradition. This new batch of traveling artwork will start in Dubuque in October, then continue to art center galleries around Iowa with a month or two at each place.

Last week the red van hit the road to pick up the 2011-2012 traveling show in Storm Lake and bring it back for the artists to claim their works, completing their travels. I’ll be back in Gilbert for the start of new classes at The Left Bank Studio on Thursday, September 6. I hope to see you there! (Update: I’ve sold the little bank in Gilbert, and now I’m based in Iowa City. Check out my blog to see what I’m doing these days!)

Booth in the Cultural Center at the 2012 Iowa State Fair

We had a wonderful booth at the Iowa State Fair this year—we had an area about 35′ long and 6′ deep. You can get an idea of the space from the photo at right.

The Fair is totally different than a gallery show. You get to talk to everyone from all over the world, many of them attending because of the agricultural theme, which we incorporated into some of our artwork. I kept hearing that people hadn’t seen anything like this much cultural content in other state fairs they’d attended. (Of course, we were located in the Cultural Center!)

Karen Young, Pam McKenna, and Jo Myers-Walker demonstrate painting at the 2012 Iowa State Fair

We did demonstrations at regular times throughout the day. This encourages people to come into the booth, and we give them a little instruction. This photo shows the “day shift” doing a painting demonstration—Karen is painting sunflowers, Pam is painting a pig, and I’m painting a cow. Part of the time I demo’d slumping acrylic—I put mittens on audience members and let them try it.

A couple of young boys stopped by who had just won first place with their pigs, so I helped them “slump” an acrylic pig! They were excited from the win and I interviewed them for KHOI’s youth radio show, and learned about what it’s like to grow up on a farm. Their big brothers and sisters taught them how to clean and guide the animals to show them in a professional manner.