Lorraine Watry, NWS, AWS, TWSA, AWA

Artist Bio

Lorraine Watry (b. 1964) earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She lives and works in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she teaches watercolor classes and workshops and presents demonstrations both in person and online.

Watry is a Signature Member of the National Watercolor Society, where she served as the 2024–2025 NWS President. She is also a Signature Member of the American Watercolor Society, the Transparent Watercolor Society of America, American Women Artists, and others. In addition, she is a juried member of the International Guild of Realism and the Society of Animal Artists. Her work has been juried into numerous national and international exhibitions.

An award-winning artist, Watry focuses on water scenes, wildlife, and reflective objects. She has worked in watercolor for over 31 years and is currently in her 25th year of teaching locally, across the US, and abroad. Her educational reach extends online through her watercolor YouTube channel, which has over 30,000 subscribers.

Watry’s paintings are held in private and corporate collections and have been exhibited in museums including the Steamboat Art Museum (CO), Hilbert Museum (CA), Customs House Museum (TN), Kenosha Public Museum (WI), Brookgreen Gardens Museum (SC), Loveland Museum (CO), Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum (WI), and the National Gallery of Scotland. Her painting Some of My Favorite Things was juried into the 2025 158th American Watercolor Society International Exhibition, where it received the Paul B. Remmey Memorial Award and was selected for the Traveling Exhibition. Other notable honors include the Nita Engle Award of Merit from TWSA (2024), the Mildred Sands Kratz Award for Traditional Watercolor Painting at the Northwest Watercolor Society’s 2023 International Exhibition, and Best in Show at the 2021 Pikes Peak International Watermedia Exhibition.

Watry has exhibited at the Fabriano in Aquarello Exhibition in Fabriano, Italy (2022–2025), and her painting Crystal Gazing won Second Place at the 2024 exchange exhibition between the National Watercolor Society and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her work has appeared in the Best of Watercolor series (Splash 14, 20, and 23) and in publications including International Artist, The Artist Magazine, and Pratique des Arts. She was featured on the Australian television series Colour in Your Life in 2018, and in 2015, her painting Sonata for Horns was juried into the Shenzhen Biennial in China.

Artist Statement

I notice how light touches the edge of an object, the unusual shapes in reflections, and the fantastic harmonies or contrasts of color. The casual observer may miss these subtle nuances of the world around us. My artistic mission is to try to depict the elusive or unrecognized moments of beauty in nature and everyday things.

Watercolor is my preferred medium. The transparent paint allows light to reflect off the surface of the white paper, which makes the colors glow. I enjoy the challenge of creating a realistic subject while dealing with water and color, which often have minds of their own. Though I don’t paint like Claude Monet, his use of color, light, and reflections helped inspire my own love of those subjects. I paint a variety of subjects, but a theme of reflective, shiny objects runs throughout a lot of my watercolors. Reflective objects like water, birds’ feathers, glass, and metal hold a fascination for me. I am drawn to the unusual, abstract shapes that are often found in realistic subjects. These abstract shapes are a nice counterpoint to a bird, band instrument, or waterlily.

I continue to paint a variety of subjects, but currently, birds in water and shiny hummingbird wings are of particular interest. Showing the beauty of nature and other subjects around me will continue to be a never-ending source of challenge and joy!

Exhibits I’ve Juried and Past Workshops (link)

Shows & Awards: