The Villages - August 2019 - 16

S H A R ON W I L S ON
WATERCOLOR PAINTER AND RESIN-POUR ARTIST
Art can be a vehicle for self-expression and an
avenue for healing. After the death of her husband,
Village Santo Domingo resident Sharon Wilson pressed
on via paint, her brush and a canvas.
"He was just 41 when he died of a heart attack," she
said.
At 39 and with two kids ages 9 and 12, Wilson was
a widow living in the Midwest.
"My neighbor said what do you want to do, and I
told her I wanted to paint," she said. "I'd done some art
in school but I was never told I had any talent. When
I was old enough to know better, I doodled on my
grandmother's wallpaper and I got in trouble a lot for
that," she chuckled.
Wilson's neighbor got the supplies, stretched the
canvas and signed the women up for a class. Her first
project was a landscape with water
and rocks.
"I worked on it for six
weeks," she said. "It wasn't so
good, and the teacher made
fun of the rocks, saying they
looked like skunks."
Fragile and still grieving,
Wilson dropped out of that
class but still felt the urge
to create. She continued to
practice her art, taking other
classes in Onalaska, Wisconsin.
"I worked in acrylics for seven
years," she said. Always experimenting, Wilson eventually decided to try watercolor, a medium
she'd previously rejected. In a Minnesota workshop, she learned a
new technique taught by renowned
Chinese painter Chen Chi.
"He put colors down on wet paper and sponged out
these beautiful Koi fish - without a photo or drawing
for reference," she said. "It was incredible, although it
16

AUGUST 2019

was a difficult technique - only five students out of 25
were able to pick it up."
Wilson left the class with a new appreciation for
watercolor and a still life that now hangs on the wall in
her Villages home.
"It's a little muddy," she said, pointing to the framed
display of fruit: a pineapple rich with texture and a
cluster of vibrant grapes. "What I found is that it's not
so tough if it's who you are."
A Villages resident since 1999, Wilson has come
a long way since her first art class - emotionally,
geographically and artistically.
And while she now calls watercolor her favorite medium, she's constantly innovating and experimenting.
"Right now, I'm into resin pours," she said. "But
that may change - in a week, a month or a year."
The Villages - August 2019

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