The Wellington Art Society will feature longtime member Deborah LaFogg-Docherty as the first demonstrator of 2017. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 11 at the Wellington Community Center on Forest Hill Blvd. The meet-and-greet will begin at 6:30 p.m., followed by a member spotlight, a brief meeting and a unique art raffle.
LaFogg-Docherty is well known for her great love of nature. She gives people a glimpse of how animals live in the wild. Her quest for nature has taken her from the Everglades National Park to Denali National Park in Alaska.
LaFogg-Docherty grew up on a farm in Connecticut, surrounded by nature, and began drawing as a child, copying her mother’s paintings of Bambi, Flower and Thumper on her bedroom wall. Her parents quickly provided her with coloring books, paints and crayons to encourage her creativity.
LaFogg-Docherty earned her college degree with a dual major in illustration and commercial art. After graduation, she moved to South Florida, where she has worked for many years as a graphic artist for the Sun-Sentinel. She also teaches at Old School Square in Delray Beach and does local workshops and demos.
Mediums used by LaFogg-Docherty include pastel, oils and acrylics, and may involve an under painting for added luminosity and atmosphere. Each medium requires different procedures. With pastels, it involves washes of color and turpentine. In oils, she blocks out colors. With acrylics, she builds on layers going from light to dark.
LaFogg-Docherty had two solo shows in 2015 at the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge and Everglades National Park’s Ernest F. Coe Gallery. She has received many national and local awards. She has also illustrated two children’s books.
“Looking at my paintings today, many people think they are photographs,” she said. “I take it as a compliment since I’m a photorealistic painter. My quest has been exciting and rewarding.”
The Wellington Art Society is a nonprofit charitable organization open to artists of all mediums and patrons of the arts, allowing both local and regional artists to display their art work in local galleries, interact with other artists and serve the community through their art. For more info., visit www.wellingtonartsociety.org.
