The Bright Shawl has its own art gallery, a ''hidden jewel in downtown.'' Courtesy of the Bright Shawl

To San Antonians who have attended weddings, meetings and banquets there, the Bright Shawl is a venerable building nestled on a shady lot at the corner of McCullough Avenue and Augusta Street, just north of downtown.

But the Bright Shawl, which is owned and operated by the Junior League of San Antonio, also is an art gallery. It features a rotating display of paintings by a variety of artists throughout the year along the corridor that connects two sections of the facility. It’s open for viewing by the public – you don’t have to attend a function to see it, and admission is free.

“We consider this a hidden jewel of San Antonio,” said Sakkara Biggs, Junior League member and chairwoman of the gallery. “Not that many people know about it, and we’d like to get the word out to the community.”

The shows are changed about every two months, she said, to allow the display of works by a variety of artists. Last September, she noted, the finalists in the Texas Watercolor Society’s annual juried show were displayed in the gallery.

“People who come here for events see the paintings, and some are sold as a result,” Biggs said.

And that’s good news for both the artists and the programs that are supported by the Junior League, according to league President Delaina Harrison.

“We don’t charge the artists a fee to hang their work, but we take a commission on the pieces that are sold,” she said. “That money goes toward our projects to improve the community.

“We have a variety of projects and programs that we do, but this year’s signature project is literacy. We are working with some literacy partners – San Antonio Youth Literacy, the Public Library Foundation – to promote literacy in San Antonio.

Boerne artist Linda Chalberg’s landscapes show an unusual amount of detail for watercolor works. This is ''Fishin’.''

The current exhibit, which will be on display until June 7, features the works of three artists – Mary Johnson, Lesta Frank and Linda Chalberg.

Chalberg is a principal artist with the Carriage House in Boerne.

Each has her own distinctive style.

Johnson specializes in portraits. Her touching “First Dance” is a full-length portrait in pastels of a young girl in a party dress, sitting expectantly on the edge of her chair as she waits to be asked to dance. Another portrait, “Serenity,” is a close-up of a brown-eyed brunette. And “The Travelin’ Man” shows a man dressed in a bowler-type hat with a white beard, wire-rim glasses and a purple scarf.

But her most arresting piece is the large vertical painting “After the Show.” It depicts folkloric dancers in bright red dresses, their hair pulled back in buns decorated with flowers. It’s a dramatic work that draws the eye.

Frank’s portrait of a brindle feline, “Cat-astrophe,” is a must-see for cat lovers, and her florals “Iris Splash” and “Wedding Memory” show the diversity of her watercolor technique. “Lemonade” shows women choosing lemons in an open-air market.

Chalberg’s landscapes of France and Italy show an unusual amount of detail for watercolor works. The edges of the leaves in her woodland scenes appear to be outlined, with color filling in the center.

“The Romance of La Romita,” painted in Italy’s Umbria region, shows an amber-colored church in a forest setting. “La Roque,” painted in the Provence region of France, shows a medieval town on a hilltop.

“I don’t necessarily outline my designs first, but I try to do an initial drawing where it’s broken down into shapes. Then I use enhancing color to define those shapes – light and dark to give it the feel that you get when you actually see it in person,” Chalberg said.

“I’ve been to Umbria and Provence for painting workshops. The one in Italy is run by American instructors, who take you out to the surrounding countryside and hill towns to paint on location. La Romita is an old monastery from the 15th century that was bought by a family in the 1960s as their summer home. In the 1980s, the two daughters began to turn it into an art school.”

Chalberg said she was pleased to be invited to show her work in the Bright Shawl gallery.

“I met Linda Bateman, one of the ladies on Sakkara Biggs’ (art) committee, after my involvement with the New Braunfels Art League and the Texas Watercolor Society. They invited me to exhibit. My work went up April 5.”

The art gallery has existed for more than a decade, and now Biggs’ committee is working on getting the paintings posted on the Junior League Web site so art fans can get an idea of what’s available.

Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call the Junior League of San Antonio at (210) 225-1861 or e-mail Biggs at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it The Junior League Web site, www.jlsa.org, has links to the artists’ Web sites. Click on “events and fundraising” on the home page to get to the art gallery link.

Karen Davis, a veteran San Antonio journalist, will write an occasional arts column for this paper. To send her comments or suggestions for coverage, e-mail her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it