Artist Statement

Both my large and small scale watercolors of natural subjects have a serene and glowing presence.

Color excites me -- seeing it, mixing it, working it into many transparent layers in images of heightened brilliance that bring nature into crystalline focus. 

I experience color in a nuanced, kaleidoscopic way. The deeper I look, the more I see.Transparent layers of luminous color combined with compelling imagery celebrate nature and evoke the remembered image. Image and technique combine to summon the viewer's own inner landscape of memories and emotions.

The large watercolors are elaborately detailed, introspective, and can take from four to ten months to complete. Watercolor is my chosen medium because the jewel-like purity of its colors and the fluidity of the brush moving across the page in a pool of water allow me to achieve a range of expression truly unique to this medium. The transparency of this medium allows me to build many complex layers of color and create the contemplation that is central to my process.

For the past decade, I have been inspired by the Maine landscape and Monet’s garden in Giverny, France. In Coastal Maine I find a landscape richly evocative of timeless and universal archetypes of being -- the sovereignty of the island, the connectedness of the forest, the ebb and flow of the tidal pathway.These are powerful metaphors that guide my work and my life. In Monet’s garden, I find an exquisite environment filled with light, exuberant color and texture. This place flourishes in a constant state of flux. I feel a deep connection to the past, present, and future.

I begin the physical work on-site with fast and intuitive plein air studies to access a pure and unfiltered response to my subject. I take numerous reference photos spanning 360 degrees, including earth and sky. I return to the scene many times over during the course of creating a watercolor. The paintings are painted in my studio from the plein air sketches, memory, reference photos and additional watercolor studies done in the studio. 

                       ~Marjorie Glick