THURSDAY, MARCH 02, 2006 In the midst of a hurricane of activity, Patrick and I got away to Columbus to see my family there, and the American Impressionists exhibit at the Columbus Museum of Art. My brother couldn't say enough about the watercolors of Alice Shille, and I couldn't stay away. They were as inspiring as he described them. My sis-in-law bought me the museum book, bless her. From it, I discovered a new vocabulary word: oeuvre.
After basking in Shille's oeuvre, I have redoubled my commitment to paint loose. Alice stayed loose, yet modeled the figure in 3D. No easy achievement in watercolor, but she did it over and over, all her life. She could boldly drop viridian and cobalt blue into the face of a child and make it work. Later in her career, she strove to discover color and flatten the composition to gain a more striking design, imitating the asymmetrical color compositions of Japanese prints. She was clearly influenced by the impressionists and the post-impressionists of her day.
