Dartmouth watercolorist is featured at cultural center expo

Oct 7, 2022

Cue the waterworks.

The Dartmouth Cultural Center held a reception for its newest exposition on Friday, Oct. 7 displaying a series of watercolors from local artist Heide Hallemeier.

Hallemeier’s works, which mostly depict scenes from the surrounding area, distinguished themselves with their sharp foreground details and soft backgrounds, a technique the artist uses to create a sense of depth.

“You want to push some of it back to get depth,” she said. “So, you want the background to be blurry.”

While some blurriness is common in watercolor, the details that Hallemeier brings out in her foregrounds are more rare to see, drawing the attention of some of the other artists at the show.

One such attendee asked Hallemeier how she achieved the grainy texture of a sandy beach in a painting of a seagull. Hallemeier responded that she used a splatter painting technique.

“I put my toothbrush to work,” she said with a laugh.

Hallemeier, who once owned the Unusual Shop in Padanaram, said she has always been an artist and even went to art school, but has really taken up the craft more seriously since she retired.

She said that although she’s tried many different media, watercolors have always been her favorite.

“I’ve tried everything else… but I always come back to watercolor,” she said. “It’s just so fluid and lively — I love it.”

She added that her love of the South Coast has meant that she always has something interesting to paint, from picturesque vistas to colorful fishing boats docked in the harbor.

“It’s been fun and I’ve always loved living here so I’ve always painted what’s here,” she said.

The exposition will be on display at the Cultural Center through October. The Gallery is open Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more information, visit dartmouthculturalcenterinc.org.