On Tuesday, February 13, representatives from California Watercolor Association (CWA) came to Campo to provide a “Pear Demo.”
The demonstration was held in the art classroom, A8, during third period. The demo consisted of the art teacher, Justin Seligman, and other spokespeople from the CWA. The CWA was first started in 1967, under the name of “East Bay Watercolor Society,” and it became an official non-profit organization in 1975.
According to the CWA website, their mission is to “create, foster, and sustain artistic growth and interest in watermedia.” These goals are accomplished through our community outreach programs, workshops, public exhibitions, and student activities. CWA members include professional and non-professional artists, teachers, and students with a compelling interest in painting.
During the demonstration, the students who attended were taught how to paint a pear. The reason for this was due to Moraga’s 50th anniversary and the annual pear festival. Students’ art pieces are showcased and sold at the festival, which takes place every fall in the Hacienda Park.
For the Art 2 students, the pear painting was a project for their class, so going to the demonstration helped with learning new skills to implement in their pieces. Junior Luke Martinez said, “I take Art 2 and we learned about different techniques and it helped us for our project. It was my teacher and then two women from the watercolor association, who taught us techniques on how to paint pears.”
Senior Kate Kabenina shared why she attended the demonstration: “I think watercolor for me personally, is a really hard medium because it is really hard to control it, because it kind of just flows everywhere. I thought the Watercolor Association’s presentation would really help me understand how to work with the medium better.
Senior Sonam Mangu discussed the important pieces of advice that she received from the demo: “The best piece of advice was probably to just go with it, because watercolors just flow into each other so the piece becomes very loose and flowy.”
Kabenina had similar thoughts on the comments from the demonstrators: “I think the best piece of advice I received was to let watercolors do their thing, because if you try to control them, it is not going to go exactly as you want. The best thing to do is to just let them flow into one another and that is how they work the best.”
Martinez shared the most memorable recommendations he was given: “The best piece of advice was to use shadow and use lighting. My favorite part was actually painting and having them give me tips.”
Many students seemed to enjoy this art demonstration and learned helpful ideas for their projects. Mangu said, “My favorite part was when we started working on our pieces, and they came around and gave feedback. I think the entirety was pretty fun, it was just kind of hectic.”
Martinez agreed, “My favorite part was actually painting and having them give me tips.”
Kabeina enjoyed seeing the final product of everyone’s hard work: “My favorite part was seeing the results because all of the pears came out beautiful.”
Campo students seemed to enjoy the watercolor demonstration, which was both a way to celebrate the town of Moraga and also progress as artists.
