Seeking the Light
Seeking the Light is the second chapter of a larger body of work that I’m lovingly calling “I’m Drowning But It’s Beautiful Here.”
I didn’t know it at the time, but this work began over ten years ago - you can read more about that here: blog link
What started as simply a new and exciting style that I was experimenting with has evolved into something much deeper. It’s begun pulling from a place of more emotion, it’s becoming a receding tide revealing everything I’ve been holding onto and holding in for the past 10 years, maybe longer. There’s a little piece of myself and my story in every painting, and because we’re all part of this shared experience of being human, you might find a piece of yourself in this artwork, too.
Explore the Paintings
Losing Some Trace
Everything given up, everything sacrificed, is to make space for something new and beautiful—unimagined but forever longed for—to grow.
Painted with vibrant, highly-pigmented watercolors in a miniature collectible size that’s perfect for gifting and easy to display on a shelf or add to a gallery wall.
Details:
• Original watercolor & gouache painting
• On Hahnemühle cotton cold-press paper
• 2.5×3.5”, unframed; optional 4×6” mat available.
• Signed by the artist on the back
Seeking the Light
Rising up from the depths that weighed everything down, the tension begins to break and small moments of brightness break through, growing stronger and coming into focus.
Painted with vibrant, highly-pigmented, professional grade watercolors on archival paper. Perfect for gifting to any art collector, in a small size that’s easy to display on a shelf or add to a gallery wall.
Details:
• Original watercolor & gouache painting
• On Hahnemühle cotton cold-press paper
• 4×6” painting on 5×7” paper, unframed; optional mat available.
• Signed by the artist on the back
Carving the Passage
Sometimes we lose the paths we made long ago and relied upon to guide us over and over again. We stumble through the undergrowth, we search for the trail, we give up on trying to find what was once there. And bit by bit, we cut through to a new path.
Painted with vibrant, highly-pigmented watercolors in a miniature collectible size that’s perfect for gifting and easy to display on a shelf or add to a gallery wall.
Details:
• Original watercolor & gouache painting
• On Hahnemühle cotton cold-press paper
• 2.5×3.5”, unframed; optional 4×6” mat available.
• Signed by the artist on the back
The Gathering Illuminance
The light returns, slowly at first, bit by brilliant bit, until the surrounding glow is blinding.
Painted with vibrant, highly-pigmented, professional grade watercolors on archival paper. Perfect for gifting to any art collector, in a small size that’s easy to display on a shelf or add to a gallery wall.
Details:
• Original watercolor & gouache painting
• On Hahnemühle cotton cold-press paper
• 4×6” painting on 5×7” paper, unframed; optional mat available.
• Signed by the artist on the back
Tasting the Brightness
Pushing up through the depths, toward the light the we can’t see yet, but trust will still be there, remembering it with our other senses. Tasting its presence before it makes itself known.
Painted with vibrant, highly-pigmented watercolors in a miniature collectible size that’s perfect for gifting and easy to display on a shelf or add to a gallery wall.
Details:
• Original watercolor & gouache painting
• On Hahnemühle cotton cold-press paper
• 2.5×3.5”, unframed; optional 4×6” mat available.
• Signed by the artist on the back
Behind the Scenes of
Seeking the Light
The title for this chapter of work came from the first painting in the collection. Here is Seeking the Light, from the first layers of color, and below, nearly completed, with only a few lines to add.
When I started this piece it was meant to be part of another upcoming collection, but I noticed right away that it didn’t fit in. It was telling a different story from the other pieces. The name came to me almost immediately, along with that sense of searching for something, reaching for something.
The keystone painting of this chapter.
I began each of these paintings with multiple layers of color, and the composition of each develops intuitively and with a lot of capricious influence from the watercolors.
Here is Tasting the Brightness with the colors completed.
The stages of the paintings.
Also pictured: My travel watercolor palette from Art Toolkit in Port Townsend, WA, and my very favorite sable travel brushes from Isabey.
I love my studio space but I often pack my watercolor kit up and take it to my local coffee shop. I enjoy painting among other people—it actually helps me focus to have a little bit of noise and bustling around. And working in miniature sizes makes it extra convenient to bring my paintings with me out into the world.
It’s sometimes a little intimidating to start adding the outlines to my paintings—it’s the most technically challenging part of the process. But it’s always worth it for how it makes the colors glow even brighter.
Here is The Gathering Illuminance in its earliest stages and back at the coffee shop, adding outlines. I use Dr. Ph Martin’s Bleedproof White for this step. It’s possibly the most opaque white water-based paint on the market, and it’s been a favorite of illustrators since the 1930s Golden Age. This collection of paintings also speaks to some of my other artistic influences from that era, Art Deco and Surrealism.
