Prairie Grid A3 Painting

At first glance, my work has been described as comforting and soothing, overwhelming in its simplicity and kindling a sense of growth and movement. But up close, I invite the viewer to seize the colorful, kinetic energy within the strokes and the complex play of shape, form, negative space and transparency. My goal is to create a piece that is as interesting up close as it is simple and strong from afar. As a student over forty years ago, I was fortunate to have been guided by the renowned Irving Shapiro, watercolor instructor and Director of the American Academy of Art. It was then that I began to develop my understanding of using negative space to capture form and atmosphere. I was taught the beauty of an economical brush stroke and the importance of working with the attributes that the medium offered and the dangers of overworking the painting. And while many of my pieces break away from what may be considered traditional approaches in transparent watercolor today, I believe the main tenets and disciplines still apply. My introduction to the public art scene began with challenging the notion that watercolors needed to be small, fragile pieces kept under glass. I was absorbed with the beauty of color washes and the granulation effect of color mixing while wet in wet or layered over each other in transparent washes. I wanted to take that piece of magic that is up close and magnify it..to turn it into an integral focus of the work. Today, I create watercolors with some reaching over 20 feet in length using a process that is both archival and adds to the overall aesthetics of the work