Process
Color and mark-making have always been a preferred language for me. I felt early on words could be malleable and misinterpreted, intimated to mean opposite things. The elements of my artworks best convey my feelings, my evolution and relation to place and time. A fully loaded palette has the possibility to create so much nuance and a powerful connection with others.
Like Mattise, I wish for most of my artworks that they are ‘like a soft armchair at the end of the day’. Also, like the fresh watercolor strokes of a Sargent Venetian watercolor demonstrate a command and distinct ability to observe, paint directly and accurately a complex subject, I want my art to be so experienced. Wayne Thiebeau‘s halos of complimentary colors inspire me.
My process allows a feeling of movement and the reflection of light. In part this comes through a layered surface which simulates the shines and dull surfaces we experience moving about in our daily world. Brushstrokes allowed to retain their raw nature foster an atmosphere within the rectangle of the canvas. Color neighboring enhances a distinct wholeness of time and space, coherent and self-contained.
Each artwork represents me: my relation to the outer world, my artistic evolution through exposure to art history as well as the influences of my local art community. I recognize my art rests upon that which came before me and by what surrounds me. Gauguin said it well in the MFA Boston held painting, “ Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?”.
In the early 2000’s I discovered resin as a medium, mixable with oils, to create almost stain glasslike surfaces. This was a breakthrough from the traditionally dull oil paint surfaces I had known. Employing techniques engrained during my youth as a watercolorist, I began treating canvases with glasslike colored base coats from which I could then layer increasingly lighter valued and more opaque surfaces, leaving traces of each layer visible in the finished piece. I researched how the cones of our eyes receive light and color to understand more of how appearances are taken in by the eye. Simultaneously I developed my palette employing contrasts between transparent and opaque hues, warms to cool and complimentary pairs. How each color placed next to another is done to activate the colors, heighten their visual conversation while still representing to the viewer a familiar sense of space and objects.
Painting outdoors is a thrill for me. I become enveloped in the elements of the day and place. Each work conveys the effect of this in the type of brushstrokes and hues used. There is a completeness in each little bit one sees in nature, a perfect balance and harmony when one looks closely. Although my paintings are not attempting exactitude of likeness, the seen structures are faithfully kept in their proper relationships resulting in historically correct captures of places in a particular time. Unlike still lifes the subject is constantly running from the painter as the light shifts and subjects wander and receded.
Core to my still life work is the use of textiles. They serve as a muse. Now I mostly use ones sourced from a particular female designer in Sweden: Gudrun Sjoden. Her unique colorful pieces incorporate organic forms abstracted from nature. I am very particular about all the elements that are part of my subject matter including how the light and shadow fall and create their own patterns. Typically each object holds a special meaning only to me. The patterns of the textiles set the key for the rest of the set-up elements. An atmosphere is created, a place to wander about and relax within. There is air, warmth, depth, exits. The pieces are visual scapes.
I hope you enjoy seeing my expressions.
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Heidi Caswell Zander
