Demo Artist: Tara Sweeney
7.00 pm to 9.00 pm
Christ Presbyterian Church
6901 Normandale Rd, Edina, MN 55435
Tara Sweeney
St Paul, Minnesota
Following Watercolor’s Lead
Watercolor’s spontaneity inspires me whether I am painting intuitively and abstractly or observationally. Following watercolor’s playful lead reliably jump starts my creativity, wakes up my senses and strengthens my technique—all of which contributes to my best work. My demonstration will explore pigment characteristics, wet into wet mingling magic, transparent layering, lost and found edges, and lively brushwork. I’ll begin with a playful exercise of simple shapes and values and then apply the same techniques to the shapes and values of observational realism.
Artist Bio
Tara Sweeney is a prolific artist, illustrator, author and teacher from Saint Paul. In 2017, she was awarded a MN State Arts Board grant to write and illustrate A to Zåäö, a picture book about the Swedish alphabet and a bunch of curious characters (University of MN Press, fall 2019.) TPT2 public television’s MN Original recently showcased her work tpt.org/post/artist-tara-sweeney
Tara’s watercolors have been selected for exhibition and awards with the National Watercolor Society and the Transparent Watercolor Society of America, among others. She holds signature status in the National Watercolor Society, the Red River Watercolor Society, and the MN Watercolor Society.
She earned undergraduate degrees in textile design and studio art from the University of Wisconsin, and an MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She is professor emeritus from Augsburg University where she taught for 25 years and served as art department chair. She teaches watercolor classes and workshops at Wet Paint in Saint Paul and a variety of regional locations: tarasweeneyart.com.