Janice Baragwanath has been teaching art for 40 years. Originally from Larchmont, NY, she wanted to be a French teacher, although she always liked to draw. She met a college student who said she had drawing for homework.  That sounded really cool!  She applied to Rhode Island School of Design and was accepted with a full tuition scholarship. It was much harder than she expected and she quit after two years. Back in the day painting majors worked in oil. Only illustration majors used watercolor. She continued her studies at Cooper Union and the San Francisco Art Institute where she earned her BFA.

 

Not knowing how to earn a living as an artist, she worked as a travel agent for ten years. Then she answered a newspaper ad in Connecticut and got a job as "art instructor".  Students wanted to paint in watercolor.  She soon learned all she could about the medium and taught in her home studio, senior centers, adult ed and after school programs. In 2011 she moved to Nyack and paints everyday.  Over the years she's won numerous awards including one recently from the North East Watercolor Society for her painting Franklin Street.  Janice now teaches occasionally at the Valley Cottage Library and Congers Community Learning Center.