Watercolor Encounters

M. Douglas Walton held the first WATERCOLOR ENCOUNTER in Ruston, Louisiana in August 1977. Since then, the ENCOUNTERS have been conducted in Italy, China, England, Indonesia, Greece, Bali and many other locations around the world. Walton encourages artists to have confidence and to believe in themselves. He himself was inspired by attending a similar event in 1971, a watercolor workshop taught by well-known artist Edgar Whitney. Prior to that time, Walton had spent five years working as an architect and had gone on to be an Associate Professor of Architecture at Louisiana Tech University. Walton says that, "Whitney taught three concepts in that class: Anyone can learn to create art, every person has 'talent' (simply defined as the result of hard work), and each and every student possesses the capacity for greatness."

It’s because of the impact Heartspring has had on Douglas’ life that he is making the ENCOUNTER workshops available to the Wichita community to help raise funds for the children we serve. At the age of 14, he came to Heartspring because he was unable to speak. After two years of therapy, Walton went on to graduate with honors from Wichita East High School. M. Douglas Walton was awarded a National Communication award by the National Council of Communicate Disorders in Washington, DC on September 9, 1997. He has become an effective communicator through speech and art and has been recognized for his active support of communication services.