Name: Jane Kincaid
City of residence: Wellington
Occupation: Artist and illustrator, owner of Thru The Paintbrush studio, vice president of the Wellington Main Street Program board
How long have you lived in the Wellington area?
I’ve been in Northern Colorado over 32 years. I’ve been local for almost 29. All my kids grew up here, doing all the fun things in Wellington. We are known for our Fourth of July parade and our trick-or-treat on Main Street, and my kids did that growing up. We have been a part of this area for that long, but now I have really embraced the town.
What do you do for work?
I’m a watercolor artist. I make greeting cards, or that’s how I started, and I sell them at local businesses. I also teach classes to all ages. I love every age, and I love people, so I have a lot of fun doing that. My studio is very small, so I do small classes, but I can also do larger classes at a local restaurant that we have here, Slurpz.
How long have you been painting?
I fell in love with watercolor about 12 years ago, and that’s when I started making cards and things. I wanted to do something people would enjoy but might not want on their walls forever because I was just starting out. So that’s why I decided on greeting cards. I love different holidays and decorating. I have more than 100 cards now that I’ve made, and I keep changing them out for the seasons.
What inspires your work?
Pretty much anything. I can be walking down the street, and I see a dog in a car, and I’m like, “Oh my gosh, it’s so adorable,” so that’ll be something that I’ll need to paint right away. The painting doesn’t always happen right in the studio because I could be anywhere. I always carry supplies with me. I carry a tiny water brush, a tiny palette and some watercolor paper almost everywhere I go, so I can work on things when I feel like it.
What is Mingle on Main, and what led you to start it?
It’s something I created in 2023 because I saw a need for shops in downtown Wellington to be open at the same time. I was running one of the local shops, which I’ve done over the past 10 years from time to time. When I have my product in there, sometimes they’ll ask me if I’ll do retail, which I absolutely love. People would say, “What’s that shop across the street?” or “Do you have a coffee shop?” or “Where’s the best place to eat?” and there were always all these questions. I decided to have a time when all the retail stores, restaurants and coffee shops are open so people can travel from place to place and see what everybody has and not feel nervous to walk in, like they have to buy something. It’s really fun, and it’s been catching on. We have more and more people participating and coming out each month. It’s the third Friday of every month.
I create a map every month. It’ll be a map of Main Street, and it will have whatever’s happening that day. We’ll have special sales. We have some shops that do DIYs. People will come around, and adults and children will do the different DIYs. We have home-based businesses that set up. This last Mingle, we had a lot of them in the new salon (inside the historic hotel).
What is the theme for Mingle on Main in April?
The theme for April will be “treasure hunt.” Last year we had our April Mingle on Main before Easter, so we did plastic Easter eggs, and we had all the different stores and restaurants give us some kind of coupon for a percentage off, or maybe a token for a free beer. We hid them all around Main Street, and folks could find them and use the ones they wanted and put back the ones they weren’t going to use. That was a lot of fun.
We’re going to do the same kind of thing this year. It will be right after Easter, so I’m not sure it’ll be eggs, but it’ll be something. It’s just a lot of fun to find things. We’ve also done rocks, where I’ve decorated them and then people can find them and bring them to the store and get a prize. Those are some of our treasure hunt ideas.
Aside from watercolor cards, what else do you create?
Each month for the Mingle, I create two or three coloring pages. The chamber, the Wellington Main Streets Program and the town will make copies for me, then I just drop them off everywhere. All the restaurants, the kid-friendly bars and the coffee shop have copies of it. I’ll give them some crayons to color them in. The adults sometimes like to do it too. I saw that Soul Squared put all my December ones up on the wall, which was really fun to see when I went in.
I’ll also make stickers sometimes, or pins, and pass them around town, spreading the joy.
What is your role with the Wellington Main Streets Program?
When I started the Mingle, the Main Streets Program approached me and said, “Hey, can we help you in any way?” They started making copies of my maps and coloring pages and different things. I enjoyed working with them, and I love the things they do because I hadn’t realized that they’re the ones who do everything to put on the parades and the trick-or-treat on Main Street and all these fun events that I had been enjoying all these years with my kids when they were little. So I decided to join the board. The first year I just volunteered, and the second year I joined the board. There was a need for more, so this year I became the VP to support the president.
What do you love most about Wellington?
The community. I love the people who live here and the people who work here. It’s like we all try to help each other. The people who live in town try to come to the retail stores first and buy something before they venture out farther. They try to support local. The businesses will pass along information to each other.
Because we have the downtown construction coming up, we have a team where anybody impacted by the construction is going to meet once a month, and we’re going to try to help each other. To me, that’s what it’s all about, and I just love it.
If you had a friend or family member visiting Wellington for a weekend, what are some things you would you take them to go do?
First, I would hope they would be here during Mingle on Main because that’s when a lot of things happen. I’ve had my sister and niece here during the Mingle on Main, and it’s really fun because I’ll take them to all the businesses that are involved in something with Mingle on Main. We also have our farmers market that will run from June through September. We always collaborate on the Mingle with them. They’re on a Friday night, and there’ll be music and lots of local vendors. There will be things right on Main Street and at the park for the market, so I would love to have someone here during that time because it’s so much fun.
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