Michele Missler - Art Scholarship Recipient

Last year, Michele Missner received an art scholarship from the Appleton Rotary Foundation Art Scholarship Fund to attend the “Experience the Wonders of Waterbased Mediums” class at Jack Richeson and Company in Kimberly. This was a 5 day class that was held last October and taught by Morton Solberg. Michele learned various techniques such as gesso, wash and acrylic. Gesso is a surface preparation or primer which you apply to the canvas before you start to paint. A wash is useful for providing a background or for covering a large area. The particles are bigger and it has a chalky presence. Acrylics are a type of paint that binds the pigment and is fast drying. Once it is on the paper, it can’t be changed unless it is painted over. Solberg uses many mediums and his paintings are fairly simple using white as his backgrounds. Michele showed photos of the process Morton took from beginning a painting to the end. Several of Solberg’s and Michele’s painting were shown. One of Michele’s paintings was a street scene from New Orleans where she added musical images to the painting. Michele has enjoyed painting for most of her life. About 20 years ago, she began painting in watercolor at the Paine Art Center. After she retired, Michele began to devote more of her time painting. She loves to paint abstracts using watercolors. Michele’s work has been displayed at several exhibits and galleries and has received several awards for her work.