On Jan. 16th Arts and Crafts will hang our first exhibit of the new year in the Cribari Conference Room.

This exhibit features two artists who share a love of painting watercolor.  You will read about Linda Hackel next week, but this week we learn a bit about Jane Smith.  

Jane is a native of Merion, an area north of Philadelphia where she grew up.  Just after high school she went to Penn State and studied in the medical field as a virologist and in respiratory.  This was her life's work until retirement.  Then with prompting from her brother, a commercial artist, Jane took up painting and something else fun, golf.

She also took travel classes.  Later, Jane moved to Foster City and in 2003 moved to the Villages.

Immediately Jane joined Arts and Crafts and enhanced her painting in watercolor with classes from

one of her favorite teachers, Linda Sieker.  Chris Cairns helped prompt her along with on line classes.  She did dabble a bit in pastels, but watercolor is her stable.  Jane also notes that getting it right the first time while painting watercolor is a must.  She likes the shine of light in her work and often paints from her own photos whether it be birds and flowers or complex landscape and she feels a connection to Monet's work.

Now she paints and then makes cards of her work and many of those paintings hang in key places of her home.  You will get the chance to see some of her work from Jan. 16th through April 8th.

                                   by Michael Sunzeri

On Jan. 16th Arts and Crafts will post our first exhibit of the new year in the Cribari Conference Room.

This exhibit will feature two artists who share a love of painting watercolor.  They are Linda Hackel and Jane Smith.  This short bio features Linda Hackel who hails from southern Calif.  She earned her teaching credentials in San Diego and later moved to Cupertino, then here to the Villages.

A friend got her interested in watercolor around 2004 and she soon starting teaching youngsters in the Cupertino area.  Once Linda moved to the Villages, she joined Arts & Crafts and enrolled in several watercolor classes and workshops.  Linda named some of those teachers, Terry Madden, Mike Baily, and Linda Logan  Her favorite teachers are Linda Logan and Kay Duffy.  All these artists have offered a versatile range in this medium.

Linda likes the freedom and versatility of watercolor.  Along her journey she has painted landscape,animals, still life, and is accomplished in depicting trees and sky.  Each facet in painting watercolor is challenging noting that too much paint is hard to correct.  Several times many of us have seen one or more of her paintings in our juried show.  Most of Linda's work resides in her home along with other artists beautiful paintings she holds dear.  Many paintings Linda completed she has given away to grateful recipients for them to enjoy.  We hope you get a chance to view her work from Jan. 16 through Apr. 8th 2024.

                                                                 by Michael Sunzeri