Welcome to Splash & Petal! I (Pauline Colton) currently live in Utah but call Idaho my home state. I have also lived in California, Maryland, and Wisconsin. In every place I have lived there have been positives and negatives but the biggest positive for me came when I lived in La Crosse, Wisconsin. There I was lucky to find an amazing teacher for watercolor at the community college (then Western Wisconsin Technical College). She was Ellen Roles, who is a signature member of TWSA. We only got to live in La Crosse for four years but I went away richly blessed. Even almost 20 years later I still hear lots of Ellen's words in my head as I paint, "You are the God of the painting" being chief among them.
When we moved away in 2007 I asked Ellen for advice on finding a painting group in Utah. She told me to start one and teach it myself! It took 15 years before the right circumstances came together but in 2022 I began to teach my own painting group. Or rather, "groups"--I currently teach two regular groups which meet weekly in Utah, and one irregular one which is my mother's in Idaho which lets me visit and teach them occasionally. Some of my paintings come from what I do with my students, and others are just things I do on my own.
I have lived for 40 years with depression and anxiety. Painting treats that in lots of ways. It shuts up the negative voices chattering away in my head, at least temporarily. It makes my brain happy to watch the paint being moved around by the water and my heart happy to paint bright, strong colors. And it makes my soul happy to spend time with the great people in my painting groups.
When we moved away in 2007 I asked Ellen for advice on finding a painting group in Utah. She told me to start one and teach it myself! It took 15 years before the right circumstances came together but in 2022 I began to teach my own painting group. Or rather, "groups"--I currently teach two regular groups which meet weekly in Utah, and one irregular one which is my mother's in Idaho which lets me visit and teach them occasionally. Some of my paintings come from what I do with my students, and others are just things I do on my own.
I have lived for 40 years with depression and anxiety. Painting treats that in lots of ways. It shuts up the negative voices chattering away in my head, at least temporarily. It makes my brain happy to watch the paint being moved around by the water and my heart happy to paint bright, strong colors. And it makes my soul happy to spend time with the great people in my painting groups.
