61st Texas Watercolor Society Exhibition Acceptance

HAPPY DAY!! I got this email: "Cheryl Devoto, Congratulations, your painting, THE UGLY DUCKLING, was selected to be included in the 61st TWS Exhibition, April 1 – May 8, 2010 at Rockport Center for the Arts." I'm crying!!  It's my first acceptance into a juried show.  I'm so thankful!!

The Infant Messiah

Meanwhile the long expectation of the Jews, especially during the reign of Herod, of a promised Deliverer was fulfilled, and one claiming to be the Messiah appeared - not a temporal prince and mighty hero of war, a greater Judas Maccabeeus, as the Jews had supposed, but a helpless infant, born in a manger, and brought up as a peasant carpenter.  Yet he it was who should found a spiritual kingdom never to be destroyed, going on from conquering to conquer, until the whole world shall be subdued. 

This painting was part of the SWS Christmas Party. Santa Claus, a.k.a. Richard Wilson and his wife received it in the gift draw.

INRI

This is my first attempt at an abstract-ish painting.  I wanted to try out the new Fredrix Watercolor Canvas and discovered it requires a little instruction when used with strictly watercolor.  My painting of a poinsettia looked like I'd painted glass with diluted Kool-Aid.   At SWS last month, Sandi D'Alessando gave a demo on Yupo using an acrylic medium.  I dug through my cabinets for the DaVinci fluid acrylic samples from the Nick Simmons workshop and decided to try something similar to Sandi's techniques to salvage the canvas.  I had a blast finding shapes that emerged from layering and scraping paint!  Those hearts were almost entirely formed without intention.

The text came from an antique book called Beacon Lights of History and reads, "...the life and teachings of Jesus entered with vital power into the heart and brain of those devoted followers who recognized him as the Christ - the revelator of the universal fatherhood of the One true God; and thence-forward Christianity becomes the great spiritual power of the world."