Art society sponsoring Doris Ettlinger art demonstration

The Sussex County Art Society is sponsoring an art demonstration in watercolors by professional artist, Doris Ettlinger, at noon on May 12 at the Hampton Community Center.

The public and prospective members are welcome to attend. Doris is a local artist who lives with her husband Michael McFadden in an old gristmill in Hampton, NJ where they raised their two children. Doris teaches the Musceonetcong Watercolor Group of the third floor of the mill in a space overlooking the river. She also teaches workshops in the Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminister. Her demonstrations recorded by Zoom have been edited and published on her YouTube channel.

An illustrator since graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1973, Doris later received an MFA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Over the course of her career she has illustrated 40 children’s books, including the award-winning titles A Book for Black-eyed Susan and The Orange Shoes.

At the May 12 meeting, Doris will show how she plans her watercolors, first by editing ad composing then sketching values and planning colors.

“Watercolor requires planning before wetting the brush, courage when applying the paint and restraint from fussing over it afterwards,” she said. “When done reight, the color looks fresh, not overworked.”

Her work is loose and spontaneous. Her subjects vary from scenes in her neighborhood, friends, fragments of nature or views of the Musconetcong River.