Saratoga News

Wendy Matson, a poster contest winner in 1982, returns to the Saratoga Rotary Art Show as an exhibiting artist.

Former poster winner is in the Rotary show

By Mark Kregel

When Wendy Matson entered a poster contest for the Saratoga Rotary Art show in 1982, she never thought that it would lead to her career. Then a student at Saratoga High School, she won the contest with a simple pen-and-ink drawing of paintbrushes in a can with other art materials. Now, she is one of the artists participating in the Rotary Art Show on Sunday, May 4.

Matson and her mother, Judy Puthuff, started their art careers in watercolor classes offered by the Saratoga Parks and Recreation Department. Her mother now teaches the class, and Matson has gone on to become a professional artist.

Matson attended Principia College in Illinois, getting a joint degree in art and business. She married and moved to Placerville, where she works with her husband's printing company, and she paints glowing, colorful watercolors.

She calls working in watercolors her first love. "I've dedicated my life to it," Matson says. "My goal is to capture the essence of the idea that I'm painting." She has taken first-place awards in many watercolor competitions.

Matson says that when she paints she tries to convey the whole scene, rather than just the focal point. She paints the shadows and the outside details first. She is known for florals with intense color and light.

Her first commercial assignment was a trade show backdrop for a line of Paul Mitchell hair care products in 1990. Matson painted four 8-by-10-foot floral scenes, a design that later garnered her awards.

Her work also has been featured in three books about watercolor: Creative Watercolor, Flowers in Watercolor and People in Watercolor.

Matson's goal is to join the National Watercolor Society, which has strict entrance requirements.

"You have to enter [your work] every year to be juried into the society," Matson says. "Basically, it's the best of the best."

She would also like to teach art someday, as her mother does.

Matson's work will be on display in booth 34 at the art show.

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