LAST MEETING:

Tara Sweeney – “My Signature Approach”

“My aim is to condense 40 years of painting and 25 years of teaching into an hour and a half demo!” explained Tara Sweeney as she did just that in her presentation at our February meeting.

Tara began by showing journal sketches from her “Close to Home” series. She also showed her accordion sketchbooks and has been commissioned to do these for weddings.

Besides painting, Tara loves partner dancing, and sometimes her dance partner is watercolor. “I love dancing with watermedia,” she said with enthusiasm Tara first showed the photo she was using for her portrait, her grandson at age two.

She usually begins with a contour drawing of the subject to “shift my brain from left to right.” Then she does several value sketches with paint. After those preparatory steps she puts in her first layer of color wet-in-wet with a mop brush. Then re-wetting the paper she applies slightly thicker paint. Using a synthetic brush for the third layer she paints the final details with dry brush.

It was our privilege to benefit from Tara’s many years of experience as well as her careful approach to painting.