Artist Statement
My interest in watercolor portraiture lies in the study of personalities, emotions and the medium itself. I find the dynamic interactions between chemical elements, the physical properties of pigments, water and various papers as compelling as the relationships within in my subjects. The relationships I consider in my work are the subject’s feelings towards his or herself, the world, his or her immediate physical environment, I as the painter, and ultimately the unknown viewer.
People-- though presently I am finding similar inspiration in plants and sea creatures-- interest me in a way that I can express through the unconventional techniques of abstracted color, emotive structure, selective cropping and various amounts of representational depiction. The medium of watercolor, I have found, can lend itself to abstraction through possible errors, such as the natural and spontaneous pooling of water during the wet-on-to-wet technique. The medium is also steadfast. It dries rapidly (the pigment concentration being dependent on water content) and can be viewed as a stain—something that the painter can see as marring the work. Both pooling and staining might be considered mistakes, but I view them as avenues for unexpected invention in my paintings.
Through subjective intellectual interpretation and the unconventional techniques, I mainly venture to capture individual mental states, auras, nuances of personalities and a strict to vague representation of the physical form of the subject. I use the representational element in the piece, to whatever degree I choose, to give the viewer a way into the painting. It is with this familiarity that I hope to make the viewer comfortable enough to see the subjects in the paintings as real people whose feelings are laid bare. I hope to achieve this through my choices in color, light, skewing and focus. With elements of representation and verity in the titles of the paintings (Stephanie is Stephanie) I wish to portray honesty in a way that is palpable to the viewer. In gratitude to the subjects of my paintings, I try to maintain an impression of dignity and beauty in my work.
I feel that watercolor as a medium and the subject of human personalities are inextricable. Both are transparently organic. Both are immutable as well as capricious. Both can be hauntingly expressive.
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