My involvement with art began early. My father was a freelance artist in upstate New York and I started showing pen and ink drawings with him at the age of twelve. From there, I took art in high school and received a BA in fine art from the New York State University at Oswego.
Since then, I have been creating art, exhibiting in art shows, exhibitions and galleries and my own studio. I have always been inspired by the Impressionist painters and also by Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper.
Through the years, I have experimented with various media including colored pencil, printmaking, acrylic and oil painting and mixed media.
About seven or eight years ago, an artist friend mentioned watercolor batiks and I checked out a few videos demonstrating the technique and loved the results. Since watercolor was one media I did not work in, I adapted it to using acrylic washes.
Acrylic batik is a wax-resist process: You begin by transferring your drawing onto rice paper using a water-proof pen such as Micron 05 or 08. The next step is to wax out any areas you want to keep white—then you are ready for the first thin wash.
When that is dry, wax out any area you want to remain that color, and repeat using another color wash. Working from light to dark, apply the wax to block further layers of paint until the entire surface is waxed.
When your surface is completely coated, crumple the entire painting, spread it out and wash a final color (I generally use a mid to dark blue but any color could be used). Before that wash dries, apply a final wax coating over the entire piece. Then the wax is ironed off (between layers of newspaper) to reveal your creation.
While this process works well for any subject, my favorite subjects are landscapes with rocks, water and/or deep shadows.
My family has lived in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley for more than thirty years now and as an artist, I can’t help but be influenced by the beauty of our area. Many works were inspired by hikes my husband and I have taken on the Appalachian Trail.
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