Plainsboro Library presents an exhibit by Watercolorists Unlimited, a group of experienced watercolor artists from the regional area. The show will provide a look at traditional watercolor techniques and styles. An art reception will be held on Sunday, August 2, from 2 to 4 p.m. where the artists will be available to answer questions about their work. The exhibit is on view August 1 to 26.
Members include Barbara Cox of West Windsor; Fran Crandall of Princeton; Jean Dunham and Eleanore Newell of Monroe; Sue Ewart and Jonnylee Gore of Pennington; Bernice Fatto of Hillsborough; Mary Kramarenko of East Windsor; Beverly Nickel of Hamilton Square; and Dale Smith, Lisa Walsh, and Ginny Swanagan of Cranbury.
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. (The News, June 10, 2011).
Cox and her husband moved to West Windsor 14 years ago. “We moved from Berkeley Heights to be near our daughter, Deanna, and help her with the children,” says Cox. “We were one of the first to move into Village Grande.” Her husband died in 2010. (The News, July 6, 2012).
Her oldest son is a physician and dabbles in photography and her youngest son works to “protect computers.” Her daughter, Deanna Munoz, teaches first grade at Dutch Neck School.
Cox began teaching at elder hostels (now called Road Scholars) more than 20 years ago. “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.”
Cox enjoys the inspirational scenery found in the New Jersey coastline and farmlands as the motivation for most of her paintings. In addition to having more than 20 solo shows, she has paintings hanging in private and corporate collections. More than 30 of her paintings hang exclusively at the Kansas City corporate headquarters of the Independent Telephone Network.
Watercolorists Unlimited was founded in 1987 by former students of the late watercolorist, Lucile Geiser. In an effort to continue the professional interaction of Geiser’s workshops, the group began to hold monthly meetings at which they could critique each other’s work. Using established criteria for elements such as composition, color, form, and contrast, they discuss each member’s painting; they also evaluate the techniques employed that are unique to the water-based medium.
At the close of every meeting, an assignment for the following month is chosen by consensus. Assignments have included a wide variety of subject matter and artistic challenges including the use of complimentary colors, atmospheric perspective, reflections, figures, and texture. The monthly exercises are intended to strengthen skills and to provide challenges that may push artists beyond their comfort zones. The group exhibits frequently in the regional area in an effort to promote the awareness of fine arts in the community.
Art Exhibit, Plainsboro Public Library, 9 Van Doren Street, Plainsboro. Exhibit by members of Watercolorists Unlimited. Reception is Sunday, August 2, from 2 to 4 p.m. 609-275-2897. www.lmxac.org/plainsboro.
