The three-day workshop by this renowned artist is the Gallery’s first instructional program devoted to watercolor portrait painting.
By Kara Dicker
Visitors to Heartland Art Club may be familiar with the work of watercolorist Janine Helton, a portraitist who paints primarily people and birds. Preening, an 18 x 10 closeup portrait of a Great Blue Heron pluming itself behind budding willow branches, generated much enthusiasm from Heartland viewers before it recently sold.
“There’s an emotional connection,” she says when it comes to the Great Blue Heron, her favorite bird to paint. Helton and her husband used to visit Table Rock Lake, where there were rookeries flush with the large wading birds. “Mike would go fishing, and I would photograph the birds.”
Today, Helton works from her large home studio in St. Charles County. It’s not just where she paints, but where she processes her original reference photography and creates instructional videos on a variety of painting topics from applying flesh tones and glazes to tearing watercolor paper for a proper deckled edge. It’s also where on Thursday afternoons she instructs her class of intermediate-stage painters called Next Level. “I really enjoy working with other artists and meeting them,” she says.
In March, Helton will bring her teaching skills to HAC for the gallery’s first workshop devoted to portraiture in watercolor. Demystifying Portraits in Watercolor, March 20-22, will address ways to strengthen the overall feel of portraiture. “It’s really about how to get the contours and shapes and values right than it is about making the perfect eye,” she says, emphasizing that it’s not always about the details, but instead about the illusion or feel of the painting. For example, Helton explains how as subjects, painting children can be particularly challenging. “People struggle with children. They often make them look too old or harsh.” Helton will instruct on how to get the right values to achieve the softness in skin tone. She’ll also focus on hair and how to make it look more natural.
Helton, who has always worked in watercolor, describes herself as “somewhat of a transparent purist” and will use translucent colors in her workshop. In terms of style, her emphasis on achieving color harmony can sometimes bend toward the whimsical in what she calls surprise colors. The head of a Northern Flicker, for example, is given a blue rinse.
Growing up in St. Charles, Helton was first exposed to the medium of watercolor as child, having a neighbor who was an artist. “I remember going into her home,” she says, “and I just liked the feel and the look of it, the softness and freshness of it.”
Watercolorist Janine Helton inside her home studio.
However, it wasn’t until 2009 that she began to pursue art herself, with the encouragement of others, including her husband. “He directed me toward the classes.” Today, Helton is a recognized regional watercolorist whose awarded work includes first prize in Art & Color 365 Magazine’s International Portrait Competition. She has been featured in numerous publications local and national, and is a member of several watercolor societies.
“Preening,” 18×10 watercolor, depicts one of the artist’s favorite birds to paint. The piece, featured at Heartland Art Club, recently sold.