Do You Enjoy Seeing Art?

During this isolation time, I suspect you have seen all kinds of links that allow you virtually to visit famous art museums for free, and we local artists are enjoying online classes also. I want to share a link with you to a beautiful gallery full of artwork— but first let me provide a little history.

When my husband and I moved here 19 years ago, I found the SaddleBrooke Fine Arts Guild, a small group of artists who were arranging classes for beginners and some for those more advanced. In those early classes, I met Karen Brungardt and Robbie Summers, both of whom also wanted to learn watercolor.

Fast forward to 2020. Karen, Robbie and I have all served on the board for the art guild of which Karen is the current president, have taught others what we have learned, have run many of the Fine Art Guild shows over the years and yet yearned for more.

So, we, and several others, joined the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild (SAWG) in Tucson. It gave us another venue outside of SaddleBrooke to share our work and another place to teach. There are twelve watercolor artists who live in the Brooke who travel downtown monthly to attend the informative meetings and demonstrations hosted by SAWG.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

SAWG, celebrating its 52nd year, has a membership of 336 water media artists, is a 501c3 because we give scholarships and has its own gallery (located at Broadway and Craycroft) where we have monthly exhibitions and receptions. Unfortunately, with the pandemic, we have temporarily closed the physical gallery but fortunately, with our new system and website, we have been able to open our online gallery in May for all to see.

Our timing was ideal; otherwise SAWG would be another victim of the virus. Take a look and enjoy all the work. There are over 350 pieces to view, from originals to affordable unframed/matted prints. You can browse by name or just look at it all. Best of all, if you like it, you can buy it. Think Father’s Day. www.southernazwatercolorguild.com.

This organization has become very dear to me, so much so that this month, I became its new president. As such, I wanted to introduce the website to you and share the work of our SaddleBrooke SAWG members. They are: Bill Bearden, Mary Bubla, Karen Brungardt, P J Cathey, Marilyn Davis, Fran Dorr, Lee Fiorino, Jane and Bill Grinonneau, Robbie Summers, Renee Pearson and Wayne Ufford.

You might recall from last month’s SaddleBag Notes that Mary Bubla was accepted into the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies Exhibition, one of the 100 selected out of 940 entries. She was eligible to participate because she is a member of the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild. So, sit back and enjoy the show.