The Anchor Hosts Newton Watercolor Society for Paint Night

The Anchor in the Navy Yard is getting creative.

The beer garden and activation initiative for Shipyard Park welcomed the Newton Watercolor Society to its abode in the Navy Yard last Friday afternoon for a gallery presentation and two live painting opportunities for those in the area.

Anchor opened in May as a beer garden and family game/hang-out area, using proceeds from sales to help provide programming such as lectures, live music and paint night.

The Newton Watercolor Society is one of only two in the area dedicated to only watercolor painting.

On a gorgeous summer afternoon Friday, the Society held demonstrations and invited the public to try their hand at watercolors.

Norris Strawbridge, a part-time painter and member of the Society, showed several in attendance the intricacies of how to do watercolor painting.

Society President Gitty Schacher said they were excited to come to the Navy Yard, and used the opportunity to premiere their 2020 calendar of Boston landmarks – with each month featuring a watercolor of a landmark done by a Society member.

“We’re really happy have this with Anchor,” she said. “We are really trying to grow as an arts society and arts organization. We are one of the only organizations specifically for watercolors. There’s the New England Society and there’s us. Our members are half from Newton and half from all over Greater Boston.”

She said watercolor painting is very hard to master, but it is easy for anyone to pick up quickly.

“You can start from scratch,” she said. “You don’t have to be really good because many people do it for fun. You can become very good and it’s an intellectual challenge to plan it out. An oil or acrylic you can paint over your work, but you can’t do that with watercolor. You have to plan it out.”

The Anchor will host the Charlestown Chowder Fest on Sunday, Sept. 8, in the Navy yard, and will use the occasion to honor former Kennedy Center Director Terry Kennedy and Navy Yard Bistro owner John Moore (who is closing up shop soon). There will be games, a chowder competition from local restaurants and live music.

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