Our November meeting was well attended with over 40 members and guests on hand to hear about our exciting upcoming events and workshops, and to see Elaine McLaughlin demo her Batik Process. Then on Saturday a lucky few got to attend Elaines workshop and try their hand at this exciting and different art technique. With watercolors, hot wax and irons, blow dryers and copper tools the creative process flowed.
Dori Sullivan
10/20/2025
CWS presents Elaine McLaughlin, community volunteer and artist, introducing the “how-to” Batik workshop on Saturday, November 15 from 9 am to 4:00pm in the Educational Building of the Art Center of Citrus County. The fee for CWS members is $65 and non-members $100. All levels of watercolor artists are welcome.
Elaine, a native of Nova Scotia Canada, and her husband Michael Burrock relocated to Citrus Hills about 4 years ago. She has been active in both business and volunteerism in the local area and is currently on the board of PACE Center for Girls. Her artistic talents provide inspiration and fun while she spends time with family, travel and gardening.
She studied using watercolor and batik on rice paper under artist Kathie George. The process uses hot wax as a resist while adding layer after layer of color to the sketch. During our Friday Nov. 14 Business Meeting (1:00pm at the Art Center) Elaine will demonstrate this technique using Tjaps – intricate copper stamping tools native to Indonesia, traditionally used in the creation of Batik fabrics. Her work results in unique art pieces as well as handmade greeting cards.
You may register for this workshop on our website www:citruswatercolorsociety.org or contact Signian McGeary at Signian@icloud.com. Sign up today – you don’t want to miss this workshop! A supply list will be available upon registration.
Looking ahead, CWS will celebrate the Holidays with a Pot-Luck luncheon at the Art Center located at 2644 N. Annapolis Ave., Hernando FL. on Friday Dec. 12 at 12:30. Members are asked to bring a dish to share and $5 to cover service. Please RSVP to Dori Sullivan (sullivandori128@gmail.com).
At the Holiday Luncheon Kim Shields will be our guest artist providing a demonstration prior to his one day workshop on Saturday Dec 13. Kim is always a welcomed artist who is also a signature member of Florida Watercolor Society and has many awards to his name. His one day workshop is “The Use of Contrast to Improve Your Landscape Painting”. More information and registration forms are on our website.
We want to wish our readers a very Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be grateful for including your ongoing support of CWS and our events.
At the October CWS general meeting, members and guests voted for their favorite choice from current artwork by our Members. Susan Ford was awarded 2nd place and C.J. Westrick won first place. Each were presented an award certificate by Marjorie Bannish, POM Coordinator.
C. J. ‘s painting is a watercolor rendition of country mailboxes from her photograph, completed in studio. The image is from the Micanopy area.
Susan’s watercolor is from one of CWS’s plein air weekly outings. This image is from the Dunnellon City Beach. In November, the CWS outings will be in the historic area of Floral City. For more information contact Vicki Pritchard at vickipritchard@gmail.com.
The October meeting attendance was sizable due to all the returning snowbirds. Welcome back all. It was so good to catch up with everybody. The socializing had to stop so we could enjoy a demo by Linda Woken. This was a great opportunity for our members and guests to learn some of the best tips on managing our pallets and mingling colors. Linda shared her technique of “rainbowing” colors that keeps the painting fresh and alive and avoids making “mud”. Some lucky ones also attend her one-day workshop the following day.
CWS had their annual “Show and Tell” that included the CWS Founder’s Day awards on September 19th. Over 20 paintings by our member artists were displayed and viewer’s choice determined the winners. They are; third place Yolanda Barreto for her flying shore birds, second place Lionel Sanchez for his watercolor painting of an old mansion and first place went to Judi Miller for her watercolor representation of a bamboo forest. Congratulations all! There were really terrific paintings in the show and we look forward to even more next year.
Dori Sullivan
09/2025
Citrus Watercolor Society presents a colorful workshop with Linda Wokoun – Award winning Florida Artist.
We’re so excited to welcome back Linda Wokoun on Friday October 9th for a demonstration followed by a two-day workshop entitled “Finding and Losing Detail” Sat. and Sunday at the Art Center of Citrus County, 2644 N. Annapolis Ave., Hernando FL. Member’s fee is $225, non-CWS members, $255. The demo is at 12:30 PM following a brief business meeting. Guests are welcome, members are free, a $5 donation is asked of guests. Hurry and sign up – the weeks are flying by!
Artist’s Statement “I’m Linda Wokoun, a watercolor artist and instructor originally from Chicago and transplanted to Southwest Florida ten years ago! I dreamed about life as an artist since childhood but have only recently had the luxury of painting full time.
I enjoy leveraging the natural characteristics of water to bring energy and movement to my paintings. I like to incorporate both abstract and representational elements in my work and feel that water media is particularly well suited to my approach. My process is wet into wet, blending colors and creating textures directly on the painting surface.
I am a signature member of the Florida Suncoast Watercolor Society and currently serve as its president. I’m also a member and exhibitor with the Florida Watercolor Society and the Transparent Watercolor Society of America. I have become a regular art workshop instructor throughout the Florida area as well as conducting my own online workshops.”
In this workshop we will focus on a variety of wet-into-wet and negative painting techniques. If you are interested in loosening up your painting style, this class is for you. Subjects include a stylized tomato plant and a cityscape in Glasgow. All watercolor skill levels are welcome!
Looking ahead, in November a demo by Elaine McLaughlin, followed by a one day workshop “Batik: Using Indonesian Tjaps to create design with Watercolor and Wax”. Keep up with our workshops at www:citruswatercolorsociety.org.
Just a few weeks ago, CWS had their annual “Show and Tell” that included the CWS Founder’s Day awards. Over 20 paintings by our member artists were displayed and viewer’s choice determined the winners. They are; third place Yolanda Barreto for her flying shore birds, second place Lionel Sanchez for his watercolor painting of an old mansion and first place went to Judi Miller for her watercolor representation of a bamboo forest. Congratulations all! There were really terrific paintings in the show and we look forward to even more next year.
Citrus Watercolor Society welcomes watercolor painters from Citrus, Marion and Hernando Counties. We meet monthly, on the second Friday of the month at 12:30 PM for “meet and mingle”, a brief business meeting followed by our invited artist who presents a demo of what they’ll be showing in the following workshop. Annual membership dues are $45 and include the Friday demo. The fees for workshops vary but CWS members always get a generous discount. If you’d like to volunteer to assist with our workshops, the discount is 50% off the workshop you host. Talk to any CWS board member for duty details. We hope to see you Friday, October 9th at the Art Center of Citrus County at 12:30 PM.
Polly Boston and Kim Shields had their paintings selected to be part of the 2025 54th annual Florida Watercolor Society Convention. Both their paintings will be on exhibit at the Orlando Museum of Art until late January 2026. Don’t miss it!
September 2025
CWS presents our annual free “Show and Tell” program with the Founder’s Day Awards in September.
Come and join us in the Art Center Education Building, 2644 N. Annapolis in Hernando for this exciting display of watercolor paintings by the artist/members of Citrus Watercolor Society on Friday, September 19th beginning with “meet & greet” and light refreshments at 12:30 PM. There will be a short business meeting at 1:00 with previews of upcoming workshops and special events. Don’t miss it!!
Citrus Watercolor Society meetings, demonstrations and workshops are usually held the second weekend of the month, except this year. Please note the change of date for September, 2025.
We’ve spent the past year enjoying workshops and opportunities to make our watercolor paintings better than ever. Techniques learned from our guest artists who provided demonstrations and “how to” during their workshops are incorporated in our paintings. Our own plein air days provide on site painting activities in Crystal River, Inverness and now Dunnellon. We want to share our visions with you, our viewers. Weekly challenges and inspirations during our “casual painting” days portray our skills painting birds, fruit, flowers and more. We’ve had a wonderful year and want to share the results of our labors with you. They’re all “labors of love”!
Yes! It’s time for current members and friends to bring their matted or framed artwork to the Art Center at noon, display them, enjoy viewing each other’s work and most importantly, vote for your favorite. There will be monetary awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place Founder’s Award by viewer’s choice votes. Talk about “inspirations” … this is it! We look forward to seeing you there.
Looking ahead to October, Linda Wokoun will be coming for a weekend workshop entitled “Finding and Losing Details”. Linda’s wet on wet florals and cityscapes are amazing and she’s an important Florida artist who always shows us exciting techniques during her workshops that may become part of our personal style. Linda’s demo is on Friday Oct. 10th at 1:00 but come early to enjoy meeting our members and the artist. The two day workshop is Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 11th and 12th. CWS member’s fee is $225 and non-members is $255. Details and registration forms are available on our website www.citruswatercolorsociety.org.
We’re looking forward to seeing you on September 19th at the Art Center of Citrus County – a facility for the fine arts, designed by artists. See you soon!
Due to the Florida Watercolor Society Annual Convention conflict our September Meeting date is changed to September 19. (The FWS convention is Sept. 12 and 13 at the DoubleTree by Hilton, Downtown Orlando.) Our September 19th meeting will be our annual “Show and Tell.” Members are encouraged to bring their latest paintings to display, and if they want, talk about what inspired them, where and when it was done and any special techniques used that they’d like to share. We’ll have a “Viewer’s Choice” vote and the painting with the most votes gets the Founder’s award ($50), 2nd place $25 and 3rd $15.
August 2025
August 2025 Citrus Chronicle article
Citrus Watercolor Society presents “Love Your Watercolor”, painting with Darla Goldberg. By popular request, the “Eyes Have it” is also included in this 2 day workshop.
Citrus Watercolor Society is hosting a 2 day workshop August 9th and 10th at the Art Center of Citrus County, in the Educational Building, 2644 N. Annapolis Ave., in Hernando. Registration is still open on our website at www.citruswatercolorsociety.org . Member’s fee is $125 and non-members are $155 with checks payable to CWS. Want a sneak preview? Please join us Friday, August 8 at 12:30 PM in the Art Center for the monthly CWS business meeting and demo by Darla. Guests are always welcome. A $5 donation is requested from non-members. Light refreshments are served. Come and see!
Darla is a recognized Florida artist who creates amazing animal and bird paintings known for their realistic looking eyes. Her history in the medical profession as an oculist transfers to the most fascinating eyes in her artwork. She is an entertaining instructor who has a wide background of workshops, demonstrations and shows of her own extraordinary paintings. Darla set her goal to become an artist who shares her talent thru teaching. She is a member of the Florida Watercolor Society as well as Citrus Watercolor Society. Join us for two days of creativity, camaraderie, and watercolor wonder!
CWS is actively involved with the Florida Watercolor Society and with that in mind we have changed our September monthly meeting (that includes “Show and Tell” and our Founder’s Award) from Sept. 12 to Friday, September 19th. CWS members Pauline Boston, Lionel Sanchez and Kim Shields are conducting demonstrations at the 2025 Annual Florida Watercolor Society convention in Orlando Florida. The convention Sept. 10 thru 12 is at the Doubletree Hilton Hotel, downtown Orlando. The 100 selected juried paintings will be on display thru January at the Orlando Art Museum.
At the Sept. 19th meeting, CWS artists are invited to bring their recent watercolor painting. Members and guests vote for their favorite painting and besides a “Painting of the Month” award, there will also be cash awards for the first, second and third place winners of the Founder’s Awards.
Looking ahead, our monthly meeting schedule will resume in October on the second Friday of the month with a General Business Meeting and demo by October’s guest artist, Linda Wokoun. Linda’s two day workshop following the demo is entitled “Finding and Losing Detail”. Details are on our website at www.citruswatercolorsociety.org. Until next time – to quote Andrew Wyeth “I dream a lot. I do more painting when I’m not painting. It’s in the subconscious.”
