Jessica McGarry Bartlet – Statement

My goal in this body of work is to continue explore the watercolors unique capabilities in regard to color dispersion and mixing through a liquid vehicle. The essential nature of the medium changes with each passing minute of work and within an hour, the entire composition is different. Time is a challenge intrinsic to landscape painting and to have the opportunity to paint simply and directly, watercolor is a natural resource to my practice.

I continue to explore surface texture through paint handling and finishing techniques. The sublime luxury of the dry texture of paper is one of the most basic motivations for my continued use of watercolor paint. The fragility of paper in a finished product is a major contributor to my continued exploration of alternative, archival, methods of mounting and displaying my work. I have started to use a technique in which the medium of watercolor transcends the basic, traditional necessitation of matting and framing under glass. To lose access to the texture of the papers surface behind glass has always been disappointing. My work is traditional watercolor landscape, figurative, in conception and creation. My desire to observe and record the changing landscape of the natural world and obstruction, if not destruction, of the element of man has not changed. My method serves to preserve the intrinsic quality of the paper underneath, while providing the color pigments in the paint to sing.

My influences include Vincent Van Gogh, Tom Thomson, A.J. Casson, Lois Dodd, Margaret Grimes, Neil Welliver, and Richard Serra.

This body of work is about switching working between day and night. Painting at night without light is the most ironic practice ever. It’s about finding the same things at night that I usually sought during the day. The goals have been reversed. I am looking for light in the darkness. I am finding the spectrum blindfolded. It’s like everything is exactly opposite of where I thought I’d find it. It’s like looking away to from something to really see it. Entire portions of my life have been moved around, relocated, and reorganized to the point I no longer have recognition of my own mark… But that kind of uninhibited observational painting, for me, is the entire reason for everything..