Photo by Wanda Jackson. Artist Valerie Watson describes the watercolor technique she uses to create large-scale paintings.

Published on: Thursday, November 03, 2011

By Wanda Jackson

Valerie Watson’s large-scale watercolor paintings begin with spontaneous moments captured with her camera. These moments feature Cuban music and dance, African marketplaces and Native American tribal dances.

“In my paintings, I exploit photographic effects — cropped images, blurred detail, deep shadow, bleeding color and the frozen gesture,” Watson said. “I blow-up images to larger than life dimensions to re-animate them with intensified color and form. Street scenes and outdoor settings provide my most evocative images.” 

The 39th Street Gallery recently hosted an art talk with Watson at the conclusion of her four-month artist residency. The 39th Street Gallery is located in The Gateway Arts Center at 3901 Rhode Island Avenue in Brentwood.

Part presenter, part teacher, Watson quipped about her work, life and previous exhibits in Senegal, Africa and Havana, Cuba, and answered questions about her watercolor techniques.

Watson describes watercolor as a vibrant medium for expressing and illuminating life.

“When you put watercolor on paper,” she said, “light goes through the transparent pigment, hits the paper and sends back a luminous glow of color. I use the directness and spontaneity of watercolor to suggest the fluidity of movement and push the medium’s luminosity to heighten the effect of natural light.”

Watson uses her photographs or elements from a series of photographs to create a collage of her painting. She uses a grid technique to draw the collage in pencil on 100-pound, white, acid-free paper. She doesn’t use a table or easel, but instead, she places her works, which generally measure 90-by-48-inches, on the floor. She sketches very lightly, as she erases, redraws and adds details, then finally erases all pencil lines when she has completely applied watercolors.

With each brushstroke, Watson uses her “artist’s eye” and intuition to remain open to exploration, to color choices and unpredictable results that might happen. Her goal is to find the delicate balance between proportion and layout. When creating people, faces or scenes, the slightest change in a line or shadow can make a huge difference.

Watson’s photographs from Senegal turned into a giant heroic figure draped in layers of purple fabric and gold brocade embellishments, communicating achievement and status in Africa. Photographs from Havana depict everyday life and the energy and liveliness in the works of its musicians.

Watson earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in painting at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore in 1994. She has been awarded an Individual Artist Grant by the Maryland State Arts Council, the Governor’s award of Merit and a listing in Who’s Who in America.

Her paintings have been featured in regional solo shows and internationally in Havana, Cuba; Asuncion, Paraguay; and currently, Rangoon, Burma, through the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies program. Previously, Watson worked as a visual arts specialist at the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and is now an adjunct instructor at Prince George’s Community College, teaching Watercolor I and II. She also serves as a visual art consultant to Prince George’s County Public Schools.

For more information about the 39th Street Gallery, call 301.864.3860 or visit www.39thstreetgallery.com. Inquiries about Watson’s work should be sent to her email at valeriewatson1@verizon.net.