Minutes of the last meeting

May 11, 2026

The meeting was called to order at 6:04 p.m. by the President.  The meeting was held at the Pillar Arts space in the mall.  Twenty people were in attendance. We welcomed a new member and our monitor from IU.

The minutes of the April meeting were approved, with Meri Reinhold moving to accept and Barbara Coffman seconding.

The President provided the treasurer’s report in his absence. Details can be obtained by emailing info@bloomingtonwatercolor.org.

REPORTS FROM COMMITTEE CHAIRS

The Nominations Committee gave their final report about enlisting members to get involved with BWS by being an officer or a chair for the 2026-2027 year.  The chair of the committee announced that a number of officers and chairs have volunteered to perform those duties for another year.  However, after talking to many members the position of President is still open due to other commitments and conditions.  The slate of officers who have committed to continue their positions was unanimously approved.  It was decided that the current president will create a working group committee to discuss how the responsibility of the president can be distributed next year.  Anyone who wishes to brain storm on this issue should contact the current president.  It was suggested that those officers and chairs who are new to their positions attend at least the first of the committee’s meetings.

The Show Chair, told the attendees that Teachers Warehouse was most pleased with the money raised by our show. 

The program chair suggested that there are doors at either end of the meeting area and for tear down when the meeting over it might be nice to have traffic round robin out one door and back in the other.

As part of the relocation of BWS’s standard meeting location, it was decided that BWS would provide a check to Pillar Arts to cover purchase of more chairs for use at meetings as well as at other events.  This would be convenient since Pillar has been borrowing from other stores in the mall to cover larger meetings and events.

The plan for the June meeting is to install the new officers and Celebrate the BWS 20th Anniversary with a catered event for members who wish to attend.  There will be no instructional program but there will be a slide show with pictures of some BWS activities and showing the art produced by members (past and present).  It was suggested that members come prepared to speak up about one significant memory that they have involving BWS.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Charlotte Griffin announced that the Bloomington Garden Club Garden Walk will be on June 6 and 7 and will be looking for “Artists in the Garden”.  The garden walk will be Saturday from 10:00 to 2:00 and on Sunday from Noon to 4:00.  An email will be sent out as soon as there more detail about where the gardens are located.

Sara Steffey McQueen invited people to participate in a one-and-a-half hour workshop for $25 named Discover Your Creative Spirit: Intuitive Inquiry Journaling.  It will be held at Pillar arts on May 16 from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m.  More details can be found at Pillar Arts  (See Events).

The business meeting was adjourned at 6:49 p.m.

The Program

The program for May 11 was Animal Paintings with Amber Connor.  Amber talked about how to make animal painting interesting and showed the attendees techniques for creating texture effects, hair, and visually appealing areas to enhance the paintings of various animals.