Watercolor Landscapes
I am attracted to intricate details – branches glimpsed behind gates, wrought iron railings on balconies, and carvings on buildings. I look for sharp contrasts between areas of light and shadow. In the watercolor and gouache paintings, I explore positive/negative space relationships: what amount of detail and specificity is necessary to reference architectural and natural features? How can the negative space, or white paper, unify the image with the background paper? I began these paintings during a Study Abroad program in Italy and continued them at home, working from life and photographs of Maryland, Wisconsin, and Puerto Rico.