2024 is my year of arts and culture. I’ve made so many great new friends and learned much more about art, especially the medium of watercolors. Thank you all for being part of this art journey with me!
caroleen towery, emerging artist
UPDATE
Please check back as I’ll be adding more every few days as I create more art!
Sept 21, 2024 – Figure Drawing and Modeling
When you show up to draw and end up modeling, it’s character building! Marco drapes (creates) that dress on the fly with material and rings and tying. Wow 🤩 I draw the first half of class then model the second. I love seeing all the versions of me come to life!
Sept 15, 2024 – Jane Davenport – Figures and Faces Homework
Homework is always more fun with friends! We have to draw three figures and one portrait and incorporate a floral pattern.
Sept 14, 2024 – Bechtler Art Homecoming
After a month at Bechtler, our canvases are cut so that each artist gets a piece to take home. Mitch, our art teacher, and his wife, Meredith, keep a piece as does the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. I’m temporarily hanging my section in the living room sans frame until I decide on a more permanent way to install. Talk about a conversation piece! Do you 👀 the 💩 and four 😍😍😍😍? Zoom in 🔍
Sept 14, 2024 – Peanut, the Cat
This is my last PET painting 🤪 Brian and Cherylyn adopt a new cat, Peanut. Of course, I get in the weeds of the ball of string and fabric pattern. Sure, there’s a mouth-less cartoon-y cat but did you see the fabric? That’s the focal point of my vision!
Sept 7, 2024 – Jane Davenport for Fabulous Figures and Beautiful Faces
Marco teaches us how to draw doll-like figures and faces in the style of Jane Davenport. I sit in the corner alone with my mask as I’m recover from COVID. Lisa attends her first art class with us!
Aug 21, 2024 – Mindful Sketching – Whitfield Lovell
I attend another Mindful Sketching event at the Mint Museum where we sketch the portraits by Whitfield Lovell. Joel Smelzer is our teacher and Diane Lowry leads the meditation portion. This is perfect for me because I also get my portrait sketching homework done for Marco’s class.
Aug 18, 2024 – Pierre Pochet Technique for Sketching People
Tiffany joins us to learn to sketch people with rectangles, circles, and lines. It’s very enlightening and empowering! We learn faces next. I have lots of room to grow!
Aug 14, 2024 – My Debut at Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
Who wears mostly white to a free-for-all collaborative painting event with 12 other artists? Of course, yours truly! I’m honored to have a piece displayed at the local Bechtler Museum of Modern Art under the direction of Mitch Miller from Virginia Tech. I embed two 💩, four 😍, cutout paper dolls, and my name as a few contributions.
Aug 12, 2024 – Still Life Oranges Homework
Our homework is to paint a still life of oranges with a coffee cup at a coffee shop. Two out of three isn’t too bad since we don’t make it to the coffee shop but Melanie does bring us a Summit Coffee cup. We add a second session of drawing the backyard. Spot the composter!
Aug 3, 2024 – Paul Cézanne Still Life
We study Paul Cézanne and draw and paint a still life adding charcoal. At first, I shy away from the bold background – but go big or go home! Marco encourages us to add the colors in the spirit of Cézanne.
July 30, 2024 – Home Goods Homework
Our homework is to go an art gallery like Home Goods, TJ Maxx, or Ross and take a photo of the art to replicate at home. I choose a complicated scene with a bunch of people, a mirror, details… totally my speed.
July 20, 2024 – Charles Reid and Contour Drawing
We study the work of Charles Reid and contour drawing where we don’t lift up our pencil. Even with contour drawing, I get lost in the details.
July 14, 2024 – Bastille Day Flowers
We meet at Renaissance Patisserie, a French bakery and coffee shop and happen to show up during a big Bastille Day celebration. We become part of the festivities as people photographed and recorded us working 🤣 Melanie and I even returned the next day for Nutella crepes.
June 28, 2024 – Plein Air Painting like Camille Pissarro
We start learning about Impressionism and Camille Pissarro. We even go out for some plein air painting at Freedom Park. Yasmin joins the fun!
June 22, 2024 – Hong Kong City Scene
Everyone goes to the wall and picks a city to paint. I pick Hong Kong and get so in the weeds copying all the Chinese characters in my painting. Another student asks me if that’s a language I know. Talk about me getting obsessed with the details – it’s so the engineer in me! Christine starts taking classes with us!
June 8, 2024 – Perspective Drawing
We move onto city scenes. We even rope in more of our running friends, Mindy and Anne, into the watercolors class : )
The true beauty of life is: free, unlimited and unconditional. It’s the beauty of trying again.
May 11, 2024 – Cliffside at the Mint
Melanie and I return to the Mint Museum to do our first art assignment for Marco. We look for a piece with land and a cliff. We get prizes when we do our homework!
May 4, 2024 – Pito Campos
Melanie and I start a new watercolors class through the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. Our first class was urban sketching so we don’t actually paint. The best part is that we meet Marco and Adan and our lives are forever changed for the better 😍
We want it to look like it, we don’t want it to BE it!
Pito Campos (translated from Spanish)
Apr 17, 2024 – Mindful Sketching – Craft Across Continents
Melanie and I go to another Mindful Sketching event at the Mint Museum downtown. I sketch what looks like a cube wrapped in yellow fabric but it’s actually a clay piece.
Mar 21, 2024 – CPCC Class Ends With Self Portrait
Our final assignment a self portrait. I clearly have a long way to go with painting people and especially faces. At least the hair is decent.
Mar 15, 2024 – Nani Warhol
Then I get another request for a dog. I call this Nani Warhol. And after that, I said, no more pet portraits!
Mar 7, 2024 – An Alfie
As I post more of my watercolors progress on social media, I get my first request for a dog, Alfie.
Mar 5, 2024 – Trees, Buildings, Flowers, and BLACK INK
We do classes on trees, buildings, and flowers. In my CPCC class, we trace all our pictures due to limited time. At home, I draw mostly off a grid.
It’s when I do Nil Rocha’s video with line and ink, that I fall in love with adding black ink to all my watercolors ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Feb 16, 2024 – Birds and Birbs
We do a series of birds (or birbs). Melanie and I go to a watercolors drop in at the Mint Museum downtown. I also renew my membership to the Mint as part of my year of arts and culture.
Feb 10, 2024 – Fruit and Leaves
We have a different theme for assignments each week. We do figs in class. I paint grapes, watermelon, and a peach at home. We study negative painting with leaves.
Jan 27, 2024 – My First Colorwheel
Ida Mae gives us homework every week – like color wheels. I’ve never done one before.
Jan 26, 2024 – My First CPCC Watercolors Class
I start a 10 week watercolors class at CPCC with Ida Mae as my teacher. Evidently, watercolors classes are hard to find around here.
Jan 19, 2024 – My Year of Arts & Culture Begins
Back last July 2023, it starts with a $9 watercolors kit from Amazon and a few YouTube videos. I make a few cards for friends. From there, I decide that 2024 would be my year of arts and culture.
