By Madison Butkus
Hometown Weekly Reporter
The Westwood Public Library happily hosted the Westwood Council on Aging seniors for their Spring Art Exhibit, ‘Creative Inspirations.’ On Thursday, June 8th, all were welcome to enjoy some light refreshments while taking in the amazing artwork done by local Westwood seniors.
The goal of this exhibit was to celebrate springtime and explore the incredible array of inspirational and creative artworks created with the mediums of watercolor paintings and drawings.
Art classes are held for seniors at the Westwood Council on Aging and are taught by instructor Brenda Goldman. In both the watercolor painting and drawing classes, seniors learned different techniques which ultimately allowed them to create the multitude of subjects that were on display at the exhibit.
Goldman, and her husband David, were there to help welcome guests and introduce those seniors in attendance. In regards to her classes, Goldman mentioned, “We [both of her classes] meet every week. I have two watercolor classes and one drawing class. This is just a snippet of some of the class projects that we have in both classes.”
Many of the seniors within Goldman’s classes have never drawn or painted before entering the classroom. When picking a project for each week, she explained how some of the photos are ones that she took herself or that she found somewhere online. To make these class experiences easier for seniors, Goldman went on to explain her special technique when teaching, “What I do is, I have a camera set up on a work area where I draw or paint, depending on the class, and I have it hooked up to a TV set in the room so they can watch me on a large screen TV. And then I talk them through the process of the drawing or painting we are working on. … I’m sort of like Bob Ross. He explains everything he’s doing, all the colors, where to draw everything, things like that. And we all do it together as a group.”
The ‘Creative Inspirations’ Art Show participants included: Maridee Kirwin, Julie Pinel, Amy Sun, Paula Rosenburg, Diane Carney, Jeanne Seaquist, Joan Fleming, Dan Felming, Rebecca Pellegrini, Sue Chipchase, Carol Murnane, Suzan Riley, Carmen Doherty, Cheryl Studley-Straut, Caroline Martin-Ellis, Shuran Zhu, Marie Lawerence, Pat Bradley, Dotti Drucker, Sarah Vazquez, Brenda and David Goldman.
The art lining the room that was done by all these seniors was extremely impressive and absolutely beautiful. A big hats off to those who participated in Thursday’s event!
