Beryl Watson is a visual artist who lives in Mount Vernon, New York.
She grew up in the New York suburbs in the 60s and 70s and attended Hartford Art School, where she studied under artists like Rita Myers and Jack Goldstein. She completed her BFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
“I wanted to be at the pulse of the art world. The New York music scene was also a large attraction and influence. Clubs like CBGB, Max’s Kansas City and the Mudd Club were alive with punk and alternative music. Music and art blended together. This was also a time when artists lived and worked in lower Manhattan and there were more galleries than high-end store fronts in Soho.”
At SVA, she studied with artists like Anton Van Dalen, Juan Gonzalez and May Stevens and painted mainly from life with live models.
“I discovered that my paintings worked best when I worked quickly to capture a feeling in the moment. I want my painting to be fluid and fresh: brushstrokes, texture, splattering, bleeding one color into the next.”
After SVA, she worked in the antiques and fine furniture department of ABC Carpet & Home and continued to paint. She married journalist Tom Watson, and together they raised three children.
For the last decade, Beryl has worked under the direction of artist Eleanor Grace Miller at the Pelham Art Center.
“The creative and supportive environment working among other artist along with the guidance of Eleanor has been a major influence on my painting.”
In recent years she has developed her own painting technique. First, she primed watercolor paper and then applied oils thinned down with turpentine and cold pressed linseed oil. allowing her to manipulate the oil paint with the fluidness of watercolors.
“I found that this method of painting to lend itself to my need to paint quickly and work from the same image over and over creating a series of work that stand together as a unit.”
One day while working in the studio she discovered that she was out of watercolor paper and decided to use a pad of YUPO watercolor paper that is made of 100 percent polypropylene. Though not intended for use with oil paints, she found this slick filmy surface suited her method of mixing and allowing paint to bleed to create her vision of the image.
“I craved the fluidness of watercolor but needed the color intensity and richness found only in oils. This technique provides both. My exploration continues.”
Selected Exhibitions
- “Synthetic Landscapes” by Beryl Watson, Lagstein Gallery, Nyack
- Juried Art Exhibit to benefit Rockland County Pride, Rockland Center For the
Arts, West Nyack - Annual Beaux Arts Exhibition, Bronxville Women’s Club, New York
- Pelham Art Center group exhibitions, Pelham
- Watercolors, Cabrini Mission Foundation, New York
- Watercolors and oil paintings, Savannah at Home, Bronxville
- Oil paintings, Frances Schervier Home & Hospital, Riverdale
- Oil paintings, Exposure at Kandombe, New York
- Oil paintings, School of Visual Arts Gallery, New York
