We are excited to have invited Shirley Roberston, one of our members, to do two demos for us in watercolour: nature and still life. The nature one shows some wild flowers with tiled background. The still life shows a jug and a cup with shamrocks on them to celebrate St. Patrick Day!

She also shared with us two fun watercolour techniques. The first one is to drop colours on the paper randomly creating some patterns and then work on it as you like. The second one is to cover the whole paper with little bits of paper in random shapes to block the parts you want to leave white. After you take away the bits of paper, you can use one side of a card to dip colour and place on the paper with straight or curved lines. This is best for creating door or window frames.

Shirley has been painting for about 15 years and does watercolour mainly. Her loose, lively and spontaneous style says a lot about her. “I seem to be drawn to bright colours and patterns.  I am happy when people say they feel happy looking at my paintings.” she said.

Shirley is from Montreal where she graduated from McGill University.  After a career in student programmes administration at York University where she had the opportunity to audit Fine Arts courses, she spent her time painting. She has studied with local artists at the Thornhill Community Centre, McConaughy Centre, Banbury, North York, Richmond Hill Groups of Artists, Loyalist College and has participated in many art shows.