Artist Suzanne deShazo Waggoner will present a free watercolor demonstration at 10 a.m. on Monday, September 18th, in Fairfield Bay at Bayside Studio on the corner of Greenwood and Highway 330. Hosted by the North Central Arkansas Artist League, the event begins with coffee and light refreshments at 9:30. The public is invited. For further information, contact NCAAL’s President Charlotte Rierson at 884-6100.
Waggoner’s credentials are impressive. Her paintings in watercolor, oil, mixed media, ink and graphite drawings have been accepted into juried art competitions throughout the U.S., winning top awards in regional art exhibitions, including Best of Show Awards twice in the Texas and Neighbors Competition and The Winsor and Newton Watercolor Excellence Award in the San Diego International Watercolor Exhibition.
She is a signature member of Mid-Southern Watercolorists and also serves on their Board of Directors. Her art works are represented in the Arkansas Artist Registry and in the Archives of Women Artists of Women Artists, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution recently presented her with the Women in the Arts Recognition Award for Lifetime Achievement at the State Conference in Little Rock.
Waggoner lives on a very quiet 30-acre farm in Mount Vernon, Arkansas. She and her late husband raised five children in the tiny rural town. “All of them are extremely successful and productive adults but none of them elected to become an artist”, she says.
About her multimedia work, she says, “Despite all of the training. Despite all of the classroom work in schools and universities. Despite all of the books on art and exposure to different thoughts and concepts on drawing and painting. Despite all of the kind (and unkind) remarks that my instructors, peers and friends have given me…nothing matters until your paint-filled brush touches the surface of your support. It is then that everything that you know comes together to bear the fruit of your understanding. White paper…white canvas…white walls…it is all a challenge to be used and improved upon. When one medium does not satisfy, add another one. If your efforts are close to what you want but not 100%, add still another medium. It is a thrill to work with your own skills and open doors to experimental ideas that improve and enhance an artwork in progress. We are in a unique art world currently that allows us endless directions and expressions.”