Portals

spring/summer exhibition at Walker Fine Arts, Denver 

May 17-July 13, 2024

Yesterday was the closing reception of "Portals" - summer exhibition at Walker Fine Art in Denver, where I exhibited work from my "Wondrous Reef" series. These paintings draw inspiration from the undersea worlds and marine life that I love, combining impressions from my childhood summers on the Adriatic coast and more recent visits to Aruba and Mexico. All paintings here are created with mixed media watercolor and acrylic on deep cradled panels.

During the closing reception's artist panel, I was asked:

Q: You work both on paper and panel. Do you see your process change when approaching these differing mediums?

A: My work is guided by the process, and the process depends greatly on the materials I am using.

I like to play with and embrace the inherent qualities of each material.

The largest body of my work is watercolor on paper, and I paint on cold pressed, hot pressed, and rough surfaces. Some of the papers I use are bright white, some natural and others cream colored. 

Like in a laboratory - I truly get excited over exploring new papers.  I don't stick to one type or brand.

Paper can be moved around easily, lifted, turned, and bent lightly. Sometimes I create subtle burn marks and add pencil marks. All of it feels very natural for work on paper.

The same way - when working on panels, I will see what characteristics the panel itself has that makes it interesting to me, and that I can use in my process.

Panels are generally heavier and more static, of course there is no bending and shuffling quickly, like with paper. 

In my current "Wondrous Reef" series on panel inspired series on panel I make use of panel's natural resistance, and ability to take on texture - so I introduce acrylic paint, for its thickness and potential to build it up.  I play with pairing watercolor's transparency and acrylic's opaque quality and its potential for very vivid colors.

Generally, I am not interested in the resulting outcome in a way that I would conceptualize the process beforehand. I don't do preparatory drawings for my work. I experiment a lot, and draw from that experimentation, but I don't create a plan. It is all "prima vista" so to speak.

Lastly, no matter the material, one thing stays key in all my work - a sense of intimacy and directness. I believe all the work I do is a form of a visual diary, it is vulnerable and sincere. I love the idea that I am sharing an intimate moment with a viewer, regardless if that viewer is a stranger or someone very close to me.