New York printmaker and decoupage artist Reina (who uses only her first name) and Nebraska watercolorist Sandy Meyer have several key things in common besides the obvious one that they are both artists.
– They live up north where it tends to be cold in January, and thus, at this time of year, they appreciate an excuse to be in the Virgin Islands instead.
– They not only create but also teach art, and have done both on St. Thomas.
– They are friends with Rhoda Tillett and have been represented in the Tillett Gallery from the 1990s.
Put it all together and you have the makings of the Reina and Sandy Show – a joint exhibition in the Tillett Gallery on St. Thomas that will officially open with a meet-the-artists cocktail reception on Friday, Jan. 26, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Those attending the Classics in the Garden concert by the Innuendo quintet on Wednesday, Jan. 24, can get a preview of the show before and after the performance and during intermission. The artwork will hang through Feb. 20.
This will be the sixth annual Tillett show for Meyer, a Platte, Neb., resident. It will also be her sixth year conducting watercolor workshops at the arts complex. She is offering one-day sessions, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Jan. 25, 26 and 27.
Reina, who resides in Brookville, Long Island, led a series of printmaking workshops for children and adults on St. Thomas in 1991 and put together a gallery exhibit of their work at the end of the project.
The two artists met for the first time a year ago on St. Thomas.
The wonders of watercolor
The 20 new watercolors Meyer will exhibit are all of local images, painted from photographs taken on earlier visits. The subject matter includes florals, iguanas, the Charlotte Amalie vendors plaza, Frenchtown fishing boats, St. John ruins and a square-rigged schooner under sail. Her style is representational, with an emphasis on fine detail. Prices range from $35 to $325. In addition, she will be offering 20 discounts on several works in the gallery that were in her 2000 show.
Each year, Meyer frames her work after arriving on island. She brings the paintings, mats, and frame sections with her, then purchases glass from a local frame shop and assembles everything just before hanging the show.
For her, exhibiting and teaching on St. Thomas was an extension of annual visits to the territory that began more than 20years ago. "My husband and I owned a condominium in Vail, Colo., that we bought from a Chicagoan, Gunter Hoepfner," she explains. "He owned a vacation home on Water Island, too. He wanted to keep on skiing once a year and said he would let us use his Water Island home if we would let him use the condo."
The Meyers no longer own the condo, she adds, "but we still come down to the island on a rental."
Meyer got into watercolor in a manner far different from most artists. "I took up painting 15 years ago while undergoing therapy for cancer," she relates. "I was living five hours away from home and had nothing to do all day, and there was a painting class down the street, so I enrolled." Because of damage to her hand, she "had to wedge the paint brush between my fingers and tape it in, because I couldn't hold it." Holding the brush proved therapeutic for her hand, and painting proved even more so for her spirits. "I've taken lots of classes since," she says.
At home, she teaches watercolor classes for cancer survivors. "It's always fun, because most of them don't know anything about painting," she says. "I call the class Having Fun with Color, because that's what it's all about."
The appeals of paper
Reina studied printmaking at the former New York High School of Music and Art and the Cooper Union. She has participated in numerous juried exhibitions in the New York area; among her solo shows was one at the Reichhold Center.
She and Tillett have been friends for more than four decades. They met when both were living in Manhattan "and we both were dating guys and went on a double date," Reina recalls. "That was the end of the guys, but Rhoda and I are still best friends."
She will be showing four types of artwork – about 25 framed monotype and monoprint "impressionist to totally non-objective" originals on hand-made paper, a dozen three-dimensional decoupage floral pieces, and some 40 open-edition prints from paintings used to create the decoupage work.
Each monoprint, Reina says, "has an object such as a wine bottle that will reappear in other ways, in other places, in the limited edition prints." She calls monotype "an indirect method of painting," noting, "I put the image on a plate and transfer it onto paper using a press. In order to get the image print that pleases me, I have to go back and forth on the press, sometimes up to 30 times. I know when it's finished – it says ‘Mama'!"
She describes three-dimensional decoupage as "bas relief made entirely out of paper." The artwork is formed from "acrylic paintings produced as open edition prints done on an acid-free special paper that can be molded. It's shaped and formed as well as dimensionalized." She says a hibiscus image created in this manner "almost looks like a real flower because of the undulation of the petals."
Actually, she jobs out the forming part – to an Englishman, Barry Columbine, editor of Three-D Decoupage magazine. "I do the paintings; it's my work that is being decoupaged," she says. "I tried it, and it's really a craft that I don't have the patience for."
Her pieces are priced from $5 to $650. "There's something for everyone," she says.
About those workshops
Each watercolor workshops runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a lunch break. Registration is $30 per day. The sessions are open to anyone from beginners to professional painters. Participants are asked to bring their own paints, brushes and paper. Limited supplies will be available for purchase.
"We'll be doing something different each day," Meyer says, but participants can attend any one session, any two or all three. "I don't decide until I get there exactly what we will cover," she says. "It depends on the crowd." In any event, at the end of each day, she pledges, each participant will have completed a watercolor to take home.
To reserve space in a class, call 775-1929, fax to 775-9482 or e-mail to tillett@islands.vi.
