Large Mask Series #1 Painting

The body of work exhibited in this East Austin Studio Tour was inspired by my recent Spring 2024 trip to the island of Milos in Greece. This group of watercolor paintings was created after spending a month exploring Milos and visiting Athens. My work is divided into three categories: historical, architectural and landscape. I spent days investigating the historical contents of several museums in Athens and Milos. I was drawn to the designs painted on pottery fragments and decided to enlarge them and place them together in a composition. The early Greek Cycladic pottery figures were unlike any I had seen before and specifically representative of certain Greek islands. During my stay in Milos, I wandered through different neighborhoods in the port village of Adamas, returning to a few buildings that had an evident sculptural quality. I was interested in the stark linear shapes against the blue sky and angular white surfaces with windows and doors often accented by a solid blue color. The third category that grabbed my attention was the rugged, carved volcanic landscape all around Milos. I explored the moon-like landscape of Sarakinikos and also found impressive cliffs, rocky structures and caves during a yacht trip around the island. These stood out against the spectacular bluegreen Aegean Sea that surrounded them and the unobstructed view of a changing sky. My work focuses on shapes and forms, exploring relationships in space, and juxtaposing colors and textures to create tension. My most recent series of pen and ink drawing and watercolors on Fabriano paper are all examples of being motivated by plant shapes in nature, birds in flight and abstractions of them to create specific moments in time or to magnify a portion of what the viewer sees.