Hidden Talents: Prize-Winning Watercolorist Gayle Higgins

Gayle Higgins, a College employee since 1989, just won her first art prize: third place in the watercolor division of the Holyoke League of Arts and Crafts' annual member show. Toronto Waterlilies I, an atmospheric depiction of water lilies and reflected trees, is now on display at Holyoke's Wistariahurst Museum. While thinking of herself as an artist is something new for Higgins, clearly the judge recognized an artist at work.

"I've been painting off and on for fourteen years," Higgins explains, "but in the past four or five years I've worked at it more now that my kids are older." Higgins divides her work day for the psychology and education department, spending mornings as a psychology department secretary and afternoons as an education division administrative assistant. In both positions she works extensively with students, assisting them with paperwork and handling tasks related to student-teaching placements and state teacher certification.

<<< Award-winning artist Gayle Higgins displays two of her watercolor works, The Grist Mill and Summit House: View from the Road. The painting that earned her third-prize honors is on display at Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke.

Painting is not part of either job, but she does display her current works at the office. "Having them around at work allows me to step away from them and see them differently. I glance up at them between work tasks, and sometimes the answer I've been looking for comes to me." As her knowledge of watercolor technique continues to advance, Higgins reworks individual paintings many times. "With each version I try for incremental improvements. I'll use different techniques or colors, or work to create more atmosphere." She often paints local sites such as the College gates, working from photographs. Inspiration may come from something as prominent as the Summit House on Mount Holyoke, or as modest as a fall foliage arrangement on someone's front steps.

Although Higgins has been interested in art for a long time, she wasn't an "artistic" child. Rather, she feels she is a good example of how painting can be learned, even later in life. Her formal art training started with adult education evening classes, and she now attends workshops given by groups such as the Hudson River Valley Arts School.

She describes herself as not so much patient as flexible about the way in which the tools of watercolor painting--water, paper, and brush--do not always cooperate. Higgins is now using some of that flexibility in her newest role, teaching a beginning watercolor class at her church.