MEET KWS MASTER PAINTER 2022, DEBORAH JINKINS

A two-time winner of the Brown-Forman Award, Deborah Jinkins’ work has been juried into regional, state, and national exhibitions and is held in private and corporate collections across the country. Jinkins is a signature member in the Kentucky Watercolor Society, as well as the Georgia Watercolor and Southern Societies. Jinkins also served as president of KWS and Director of Aqueous, the KWS National Exhibition. She is honored to have been named KWS Master Painter for 2022.

Her artistic influences include JMW Turner for his indefatigable dedication to explore what paint will do; Winslow Homer for his blues and grays of skies and seascapes; Georgia O’Keefe for her large scale subjects and lovely fusion of the real with abstract; Vincent Van Gogh for the energy, color, brushwork, honesty; and the Impressionists as a group for their search for luminosity. While there are many others that could be included here, she is grateful to all artists who seek their true voice and have the courage to express it.

Learning watercolor had been on Deborah’s bucket list for many years, but in the words of the immortal John Lennon, ‘life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans’. It was in the summer of 2011, after buying her home on Saint Simons Island, Georgia, she found her chance. Painting with Lynn St. Clair on visits to the island and later with Cathy Hillegas in Kentucky, Deborah learned the basics of watercolor and began to fulfill her dream of becoming a watercolorist. She credits her time with the Kentucky Watercolor society as especially crucial to her artistic development.

A lifelong educator, Deborah holds a BS in Elementary Education, an MA in Educational Administration and Supervision, and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction with emphasis in Literacy Development from Texas A&M. She has served in campus and district level leadership roles, worked for the Texas Education Agency and as a reading researcher for the US Department of Education through SEDL. After a long career in public education, Deborah served as Associate Professor of Reading and Literacy at Texas A&M Central Texas for 10 years.

A native Texan and Texas Aggie, she can be found painting in her studio on Saint Simons Island. She is married to Michael, husband of 40+ years, an artist in his own right, and has two adult children and three sacred grandchildren. And life is good.

MEET KWS MASTER PAINTER 2021, STEve KUHLMan

From the observation of his earliest teachers to his family and friends, it was always a foregone conclusion that Steve would pursue visual arts. He received his BFA degree in painting from Ohio University and later an Associate degree in Commercial Art/Advertising.

In the late ’70s, while continuing to paint, Kuhlman began his career in advertising as an art director for a small Louisville, Kentucky advertising agency. As the agency grew and expanded, he held positions in creative services and management. During his thirty years in the business—and ultimately part ownership the agency grew from a small local firm to a highly regarded creative agency serving regional and national clients.

Artists who influenced Kuhlman’s work include Andrew Wyeth, with his restrained color palette and attention to detail: Richard Diebenkorn, with his abstract compositions in the “Ocean Park” series; as well as realist painters from the late ’60s and early ’70s. Closer to home, Kuhlman studied with and was inspired by Horner Hacker, a noted watercolorist, and AWS member.

Kuhlman returned full time to his fine arts roots a few years ago with the opening of his studio in downtown Louisville, where he regularly spends five days a week working in his preferred medium of watercolor.

Kuhlman’s highly awarded work has appeared in regional and national exhibitions and is held in private and corporate collections. Congratulations Steve!

MEeT KWS MASTER PAINTER 2019, JUDY MUDD

KWS Master Painter of 2019 is Judy Mudd.

Judy grew up in a creative family where her mom was a painter and her dad a builder, but she herself did not start painting until her later 40s. She attended Tom Scott’s class at Preston Art Center where she now holds a 4-hour workshop monthly on weekends. She also teaches two classes a week at Lake Forest Lodge. Judy travels once a year to study under a different artist from Maine to California and recently attended the “Artist of America”s Plein Air Paintout with 1200 other artists in Santa Fe. She has managed the gallery at Middletown for KWS for years, a member of our Plein Air group, a Signature Member, has been accepted into the American Watercolor Exhibition and is always willing to help others and KWS with a gracious heart and a kind smile.

Her advice to beginners is to paint and sketch a little every day, study under lots of different teachers and get involved with KWS and all of the opportunities it offers. Congratulations, Judy!

Click here for more info and see more art from Judy.