Watercolor Gallery of Margery Schuler - The Missouri Watercolor Society

Interest in drawing and painting started early when Mother enrolled me in a local art class in the first grade. The smell of turpentine was finally too much - but the lessons were fun! Art-wise, little else happened until I was working in Cambridge, MA where I took a pottery class... outside Philly... Chinese brush painting - great discipline!

When I moved to California, I continued brush painting until I won a watercolor as a door prize at an art club meeting. I was hooked!! For 16 years, I took lessons in Adult Education, once or twice a week (slow learner), and plenty of workshops for a day, weekend or week.

Some watercolorists with whom I have studued are Wilfred Provan, Ralph Ledesma, Bob Landry, Jade Fox, Doug Kingman, Millard Sheets, Milfred Zornes, Morris Shubin, Gerald Brommer, Tom Nichols, Rusty Walker, Zolten Izabo, Chris Schink, David Green, Patsy Baker and Margaret Wilson.

Travelling to Baja California and Sea of Cortez, I began to fill 8 1/2 x 11" sketch books and paint many of the sketches on the trip. My regular paintings were accepted into many shows while I lived in California.

In the early '80's I began teaching in Syntex's "After Work Activities" program for employees. I enjoyed it so much that I left Syntex, moved to Maine and began to teach drawing and watercolor in local adult-ed programs.

I have continued to take classes at Newlyn School of Art, Cornwall, ... with Elderhostel and some workshops in Maine. Eight years ago, I began giving workshops on Bailey Island, Maine, where I spent the summer painting.

Since I have been fortunate to be able to travel abroad, I try to fill a 200 page book and paint it on each trip. I'd like to paint 24/7 if I could ...with some travel. I hope that you will enjoy the originals of my gallery, which will include travel paintings.

	Traveling... sketching...watercolor painting...and meeting so many wonderful people!!! Being able to participate in these endeavors makes me a very fortunate person. The amazing countryside and historical areas of Britain, a barge trip on the Burgundy canal, the Loire, Dordogne and Lot valleys of France...Spain and Portugal..the Tuscan and Amalfi areas of Italy, Sicily, Malta Greece, Eastern Europe, the Rhine and Danube Rivers with cities, castles and vineyards are some of the areas that I have sketched and painted. Africa, North and South America, Russia, Siberia, and areas of the Far East have also been my subjects. They are all so exciting!!I I have also had the opportunity to paint selected subjects from photographs that others have taken during there travels. I hope that you enjoy viewing my paintings that I now have in my galleries here and will revisit to see them and additional ones as they are added.
		Margery Schuler was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania... Pennsylvania Dutch country - ...the land of covered bridges, small farms, shoo fly pie, scrapple, vineyards (today) and a wonderfully unusual way of speaking! Margery is a graduate of Gettysburg College and Wesleyan University in Connecticut. She worked as a research biologist at MIT, McNeil Pharmaceuticals near Philadelphia, and for many years at Syntex Labs in Palo Alto, California. She nows lives in Auburn, Maine... the slow lane!!
	Interest in drawing and painting started early when Mother enrolled me in a local art class in the first grade. The smell of turpentine was finally too much - but the lessons were fun! Art-wise, little else happened until I was working in Cambridge, MA where I took a pottery class... outside Philly... Chinese brush painting - great discipline! When I moved to California, I continued brush painting until I won a watercolor as a door prize at an art club meeting. I was hooked!! For 16 years, I took lessons in Adult Education, once or twice a week (slow learner), and plenty of workshops for a day, weekend or week. Some watercolorists with whom I have studued are Wilfred Provan, Ralph Ledesma, Bob Landry, Jade Fox, Doug Kingman, Millard Sheets, Milfred Zornes, Morris Shubin, Gerald Brommer, Tom Nichols, Rusty Walker, Zolten Izabo, Chris Schink, David Green, Patsy Baker and Margaret Wilson. Travelling to Baja California and Sea of Cortez, I began to fill 8 1/2 x 11" sketch books and paint many of the sketches on the trip. My regular paintings were accepted into many shows while I lived in California. In the early '80's I began teaching in Syntex's "After Work Activities" program for employees. I enjoyed it so much that I left Syntex, moved to Maine and began to teach drawing and watercolor in local adult-ed programs. I have continued to take classes at Newlyn School of Art, Cornwall, ... with Elderhostel and some workshops in Maine. Eight years ago, I began giving workshops on Bailey Island, Maine, where I spent the summer painting. Since I have been fortunate to be able to travel abroad, I try to fill a 200 page book and paint it on each trip. I'd like to paint 24/7 if I could ...with some travel. I hope that you will enjoy the originals of my gallery, which will include travel paintings.
	Margery Schuler Sketching in Kashgar, China
	The challenge of watercolor is perfect for me... the different reactions on various paper types and weights... mixing colors, especially greens.... washes.... hard and soft edges... the editing of a complex subject. Sketching, especially very rapidly, 10 seconds to 2 minutes, makes it easy to only have the essentials. I've given up working from photographs, since a great deal of composing is done in rapid-sketching. Where to paint!? Truthfully I do not enjoy doing watercolors out-of-doors. Too hot, too cold, too windy... foggy... humid... no shade... rarely perfect! So why fight it? I'll do plenty of sketches and then paint in doors with the comfort of a hair dryer! My favorite subject? Probably crashing waves... always a challenge... always learning.... so much to learn!! On "How to" books - I found that trying to copy the illustrations in the books in their original size... not the size of the illustration, is great. John Pike, Ted Koutsky, Winslow, Homer... the best teachers you can have!