Butler Water Color Society gathers to create and for critique

The view outside the Butler Fire Hall was gray and rainy, but there were vivid colors inside as a dozen amateur painters worked on their watercolors.

Their paintings included sailboats skimming along blue waters, a cottage tucked into a hillside and a vase holding pale pink and purple flowers.

The Butler Water Color Society started meeting weekly at the fire hall in September. Once a month, art instructor Carol Westphal shows up to critique the work and offer suggestions and encouragement.

The new artists colony came about after Westphal, who taught art at Community College of Baltimore County in Hunt Valley, retired.

"A lot of us were Carol's students and we got to be friends with each other and with her," said Bill Kirchner, of Sparks, who helped organize the new art group. "We enjoyed her classes so much that when she retired, we decided to paint each week and have her join us once a month."

The Butler Water Color Society is a nonprofit group that collects money from its members to donate to the fire company for allowing them to use the hall, and to compensate Westphal for her time and expertise.

"This is my first time out here," said Westphal, whose husband, Skip, drove to Butler from their Baltimore home. "I look forward to seeing what they've been working on."

She helped Sue Renner, of Timonium, who was working on a painting of a log cabin in the woods.

"I knew it needed something and Carol told me I either needed more color in the sky or more color in the cabin," Renner said. "She's very delicate in the way she comments on your work, but she puts you on the right track."

Bonnie Busta, of Monkton, worked on a scene she photographed during a recent trip to New Mexico.

Westphal told her the best way to paint the burnt-orange cliffs was to do a wash. So Busta drenched the bottom of her watercolor paper and then added small amounts of color that spread out in irregular shapes and shades.

Not everybody was Westphal's former student. Kathleen Hazlehurst Knust, of Long Green, just started painting three months ago. She heard about the painting group from Busta and decided to join.

While Westphal made her way around the room, the artists chatted with each other and took time to look over each other's work.

"Being here with everybody makes you want to paint," said Jo Ann Iglehart, of Cockeysville. "Plus, it's fun to see what Carol, who I call the "Paint Doctor," has to say about your work."

Several artists used photographs as their inspiration. Susan Daneker, of Hydes, painted a blue-footed booby that she had seen on a trip to the Galapagos Islands. Barbara Dickison, of Phoenix, painted koi swimming in a pond based on a photograph.

"About half of what I'm doing is copying and the other half is making it my own," Dickison said. "I like to add my touches to it."

The group is open to anyone interested in working once a week, said Kirchner, who wore a T-shirt that read, "An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision."

To find out more about the Butler Water Color Society, e-mail Kirchner at billkirchner@hotmail.com or Busta at bonniebusta@gmail.com.

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