Featured Artist Colleen Nash Becht

Watercolorist Colleen Nash Becht captures vivid tropical seascapes, flora and fauna. View more of her portfolio by visiting her website.

 

 

As an artist working in transparent watercolor and living in the tropics, there is an abundance of organic sunlight which captures my imagination and stimulates my creativity.

 

 

I am self-taught and strive to express the inherent qualities of this medium’s spontaneity and unpredictability, loving the challenge and learning to make the most out of an “emergency!”

 

 

When creating a watercolor painting, my first and last thoughts are of the light and its mystifying shadows.

 

 

My subjects, which vary from tropical flora and marine/wildlife to wooden dories, create a reminder to be aware of the magnificent ephemeral light we take for granted. I translate the beauty and simplicity of an ordinary moment into something celebrated and sublime.

 

 

My palette is a recycled egg carton which is lightweight and small. I never travel without it, and even paint for hours on an airplane! The palette contains no white paint. I use masking fluid to preserve the white of my paper, which creates the vivid sparkle and glow of sunlight upon my subjects.

 

 

I am often referred to as a colorist. I build the transparent pigment of several colors with the use of water as the medium. Colors are built upon with numerous applications, which in turn builds layers of vivid, deep, rich contrasts and tones.

 

 

My watercolor paintings are intricate and detailed, and are often hyper-realistic renditions done at close range.

 

 

I work from photographs I have taken which capture the light at that given moment upon a subject.

 

 

My latest obsession is small wooden boats. I travel from California to the Bahamas to capture the wonderfully different dories and their reflection upon the water.

 

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