Water Works

I've been playing with water–lots and lots of water. I've been diluting inks till the color is almost nonexistent. I've been dunking entire leafs of paper in water. I've been painting snow after it falls on paper. I've been pooling water on canvas. I've been trying to find ways to capture color and light as it ebbs and flows in little rivers and oceans I create on blank surfaces. 

Paper didn't hold up-even the heaviest weight, cold-pressed, taped down papers. Its surface would buckle under the weight of all that water. Canvas was worse-the water would pool, then dry in rigid forms loosing all of it's flow. I kept playing until I found a way to use raw, absorbent canvas stretched tight to act like paper without the warping.

I'm loving this new medium. I love being able to play with water and color in a new way. I love that I can only coax the forms and the colors into being–water is the real conductor. I love that I get one shot to make it work–I can't hide flaws under an opaque layer–these translucent colors show everything. I use extra large canvas frames so I can really immerse myself in the experience. 

I see myself surrounded by water. Surrounded in deep oceans where the cold quiet presses in. Surrounded in damp evergreen forests where silence is eternal. These new works are my attempt at expressing all the stillness in ever-moving, light-filled water.