Plainsboro Library’s gallery has a new exhibit by Watercolorists Unlimited on view this month. An artist’s reception and art chat will be held on Sunday, June 12, from 2 to 4 p.m. The 20 artists, with backgrounds in education, commercial and fashion illustration, graphic design, printing, and interior design, meet monthly to explore watercolor and discuss and critique their work. “Favorites” is an exhibit of the best of the best focusing on their finest work.
Barbara Cox of West Windsor, one of the artists in the group, has been using watercolor for close to 30 years. “I like watercolor because it is instant and dries quickly,” she says. “I have more freedom to create an image the way God makes landscape – with a lot of water.”
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Cox was raised in Ohio. She graduated from the University of Akron with a degree in art education. After her student teaching in Ohio, she married and moved to Fort Benning, Georgia, where her husband was stationed. She tried to return to teaching art only to find out that “the art rooms were being used as science rooms and art classrooms were on a cart.” Her teaching was put on hold when their three children were born. “We had horses and I had to stay home in case someone got hurt,” she says.
Cox and her late husband moved to West Windsor 11 years ago. “We moved from Berkeley Heights to be near our daugther, Deanna, and help her with the children,” says Cox. Deanna, who had worked in the corporate world in public relations, decided to change avocations and return to school. “We were one of the first to move into Village Grande.” Her husband, who “was crazy about the kids,” died in December.
Her oldest son is a physician and dabbles in photography and her youngest son works to “protect computers.” Deanna, now a first grade teacher at Dutch Neck School, is raising her three children in West Windsor.
About 20 years ago Barbara began teaching at elder hostels (now called Road Scholars). “I thought it would be a bunch of older boring people but I found teaching more exciting than painting,” she says. “The attendees, mostly in their late 60s and early 70s, were ready to sleep and drink art for a week and learned quickly. Art was waiting for them to pursue it.” This year she is teaching in Cape May.
Her paintings in the Plainsboro Library exhibit include “July 4,” featuring an American flag hung over a rocking chair. The other, “The Great Race,” features hot air balloons based on an experience in Colorado. They may be purchased for $500 each. “If you don’t let go you won’t grow,” says Cox.
— Lynn Miller
Art Exhibit, Plainsboro Public Library, 9 Van Doren Street, 609-275-2897. www.lmxac.org/plainsboro. Opening reception for “Favorites,” an exhibit by Watercolorists Unlimited. Explore the difference in techniques in an art chat with the artists at 3 p.m. On view to July 30. Sunday, June 12, 2 to 4 p.m.
