Painter helps create artistic community

GRIFTON — A renowned artist who’s been leading workshops in Grifton for two decades wrapped what he said will be his last in-person visit during a water-color master class at the Grifton Civic Center last week.

Sterling Edwards teaches techniques that help artists paint vivid images while increasing their speed and production.

“I teach everything from abstract expressionism, how to paint florals, landscapes, coastal scenes, and a very wide variety of subject matter using specific techniques that I’ve learned myself, and I’m just passing the information on to them,” Edwards said of the Grifton workshops March 20-24.

Each day of the workshop from 8 a.m.-noon Edwards did a different demonstration for the participants. They would lunch for an hour and return from 1-4 p.m. for a second demonstration and learn more techniques.

A lot of his students are professional artists, and Edwards said that one thing they like about what he teaches is that he can do a painting in two or three hours that used to take two or three months.

“And they like the fact they can learn how to paint pieces just as attractive in a tenth of the time,” said Edwards. “Especially those who sell their work, of course they can produce more sales by doing that, and it’s really a pleasure to get around groups like this and just really share information with them.”

Edwards is a member of the Whiskey Painters of America. He said that it’s a unique miniature painting society of 150 members.

“They’re tiny little pieces that are highly collectable around the world, and what you do is a watercolor painting, but instead of dipping your brush and water, you dip it in some kind of liquor,” said Edwards.

There were 17 participants this year, some of whom attended these workshops for years, and have formed a family community through their love of painting.

“We got people from all over the country here from North Carolina, Maine, Michigan, South Carolina, Ohio, California, and there’s even one woman who came from Canada,” said workshop coordinator Judy Dye, who teaches watercolor classes through Pitt Community College. “Everyone gets along with everyone, and it’s just a bunch of artists just sharing their experiences with each other.”

Dye said she first reached out to Edwards about 20 years ago. “I wanted to bring a famous artist down here to do a workshop to provide this education to the country people, and he’s been coming here ever since,” she said.

Edwards, 72, has been teaching in and out of the country for 30 years and said he is on a mission these days gearing up for retirement. With 7,500 students all over the world, he’s transitioning to Zoom classes.

“I just I just did one a few days ago and we had people from Denmark, Belgium, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and these are all students of mine,” said Edwards. “They can join these Zoom classes, I can watch them paint, they can watch me paint, they can ask me questions, and that’s kind of where our business is going now, because after this year I’m kind of coming off the road.”

Barbara Smith of Chocowinity has been coming to the workshops since 2013 and said they have built a family community among the artists and will miss being in the same room learning from Edwards.

They will attend the Zoom classes but being with the other artists working to learn has made the workshops special.

“We are all aging beautifully together, we miss some who are not here anymore, but we remember them fondly because they’ve been part of this group,” said Smith. “We commiserate together, and we celebrate each other’s successes, and we find out that we’re not in a boat all by ourselves.

Edwards said that he’s been trying to teach people to take a photograph of something that inspires them then paint own interpretation. He said the main thing he’s trying to do is teach people that it is OK to step outside their comfort zone and do something different.

“It can be abstracted, it can be realistic, and that’s your call as an artist,” said Edwards. “The artists who do something different are the ones that usually become quite well known and famous because their work stands out and doesn’t just blend in with everybody else.”