|
|
|
| 
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Courtesy
of American Art Collector magazine |
| |
|
|
|
I first saw Elizabeth
Pratt's work featured in a newspaper and her brilliant colors
just hooked me. I saved the article and 15 years later I
got an opportunity to meet and own a few of her works. What
a blast! I love the 'textures' in her watercolors and the
feeling of contentment I get looking at them.
— Kinga Salierno
|
|
The Process
For over
60 years, I have been experimenting with watercolor techniques.
I’ve gotten various textures by applying paint to hot press paper through crushed
tissue paper and then removing the tissue.
I’ve also had success by applying paint to the paper and then pressing crushed
tissue, wax paper or clear plastic wrap into the wet paint. (The top papers are
removed and discarded.)
I’ve rolled a brayer over wet paint and put paint on a brayer to roll it onto
the paper.
I’ve brushed color and India ink onto paper, partially dried it with a hair dryer
and then sprayed it with water to wash off the damp paint while leaving tints
in patterns.
I’ve displaced wet paint by sprinkling it with water or grains of salt.
I’ve taken a wet painting-in-progress, flattened it against a piece of plexiglass,
and gone back to work on what was left on the paper.
I’ve applied globs of color and tilted the paper until it ran.
I’ve splattered a second color onto a first.
I’ve glazed a thin layer over paint over dry color.
I’ve had fun.
— Elizabeth Pratt
|
|
Chasing Sunbeams
Watercolor
Image Size 26 x 23
Framed 32 x 29
$1,600
|
|
| |
|
Heron Habitat Revisited
Watercolor
Image Size 18 x 22.5
Framed 21 x 28
$1,000
|
|
| |
|
My Garden
Watercolor
Image Size 9.5 x 11
Framed 15.5 x 17
$650
|
|
| |
|
Stately Blooms
Watercolor
Image Size 11 x 9.5
Framed 17 x 15.5
$650
|
|
| |
|
Champagne Coast
Watercolor
Image Size 19 x 29
Framed 26 x 35
$1,800
|
|
| |
|
Upstream
Watercolor
Image Size 14 x 19
Framed 21 x 26
$800
|
|
| |
|
Family Values
Watercolor
Image Size 22.5 x 15
Framed 26.5 x 21
$1,200
|
|
| |
|
The Day's Catch
Watercolor
Image Size 18 x 22.5
Framed 24 x 28.5
$1,100
|
|
| |
|
Sweeping the Crest
Watercolor
Image Size 10.5 x 21.5
Framed 16.5 x 27.5
$950
|
|
| |
|
Longevity
Watercolor
Image Size 14.5 x 22.5
Framed 20.5 x 28.5
$1,350
|
|
| |
|
Out to the Island
Watercolor
Image Size 13 x 22
Framed 19 x 28
$1,300
|
|
| |
|
Ocean Surge
Watercolor
Image Size 14 x 23
Framed 20 x 29
$1,200
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Water
Rhythms I Watercolor
Image Size 23 x 11 Framed
29 x 17
$1,100 |
|
Water Rhythms
II Watercolor
Image Size 23 x 11 Framed
29 x 17
$1,100 |
|
| |
Green Spires
Watercolor
Image Size 14.5 x 22.5
Framed 20 x 29
$1,100
|
|
| |
|
One Last Sail
Watercolor
Image Size 14.5 x 22.5
Framed 21 x 27
$1,100
|
|
| |
|
Morning Tide
Watercolor
Image Size 10 x 19
Framed 27 x 26
$950
|
|
| |
|
Taking the Sun II
Watercolor
Image Size 18 x 22
Framed 25 x 29
$1,500
|
|
| |
|
Pamet Harbor
Watercolor
Image Size 19 x 25
Framed 26 x 33
$1,600
|
|
| |
|
The Sea's Rhythm
Watercolor
Image Size 10 x 13
Framed 16 x 19
$550 |
|
| |
|
Abstraction
Watercolor
Image Size 19 x 25.5
Framed 25 x 31
$1,600 |
|
| |
|
Eyes on You
Watercolor
Image Size 17 x 23
Framed 23 x 29
$1,100 |
|
| |
|
Beyond Pleasant Bay
Watercolor
Image Size 14 x 23
Framed 20 x 29
$1,000 |
|
| |
|
Sparkling Waters
Watercolor
Image Size 12 x 20
Framed 18 x 26
$950 |
|
| |
|
Woodland Mists
Watercolor
Image Size 12.5 x 23
Framed 18 x 29
$1,000
|
|
| |
|
Windy Day
Watercolor
Image Size 22 x 15
Framed 29 x 22
$1,000 |
|
| |
|
Oh What a Beautiful Morning!
Watercolor
Image Size 20 x 15
Framed 26 x 21
$1,300 |
|
| |
|
“While kayaking down Little
Pleasant Bay one morning I was struck by the perfection of
it, sky, marsh, sea at its peak. I went home and interpreted
the image still in my mind’s eye.” |
| |
|
Big Brother
Watercolor
Image Size 15.5 x 20
Framed 21 x 26
$1,300
|
|
| |
|
“I have done several
paintings of cows using the ‘blooms’ in the watercolor
technique for the patches of color on their coats. These cows
seem to
be riveting their eyes on me, seeing all like Big Brother.” |
|
|
Tide's Out
Watercolor
Image Size 14 x 20
Framed 20 x 26
$1,300
|
|
|
|
Sky High
Watercolor
Image Size 15 x 20
Framed 21 x 26
$950 |
|
| |
|
“This is an image I snapped in
my head, not my camera, as I sat in my kayak in a tidal lagoon
on Tern Island in Pleasant Bay. The soaring white clouds and
the two so different shades of water, shallow and deep struck
me. The marsh grass had begun to bloom and the dry sand gleamed
white.” |
| |
|
Rough Seas
Watercolor
Image Size 15 x 20
Framed 21 x 26
$1,000
|
|
| |
|
Pamet Sky
Watercolor
Image Size 19 x 29
Framed 25 x 35
$1,800
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Elizabeth
Pratt studied at the Dayton Art
Institute and earned her B.A. in Fine Arts at William
and Mary. She
completed workshops with nationally-known watercolorists
and studied the masters of painting in Europe's great museums.
Elizabeth
had the first of over 50 solo shows at the Spectrum
Gallery in Washington, D.C., where she was a founding member.
Ms. Pratt's work has been acquired by many government agencies,
courts, corporations and collectors.
Ms. Pratt
is a Copley Master and has juried membership in Audubon Artists,
New York City and the New England Watercolor Society. She has
taught at the Truro Center for the
Arts, Castle Hill; the Creative Arts Center; the Cape Museum
of Fine Arts; and the Cahoon Museum.
A full-time
artist with a spontaneous style evolving as the images develop,
Ms. Pratt keeps her work continually fresh and alive in a range
of subject matter treated with new techniques.
Her work has been featured in many periodicals including American
Art Collector, Artist Magazine, Cape Cod Times, Cape Codder,
Arts & Antiques, Boston Magazine, Review Magazine and Cape
Arts Review. She will also be featured in the August 2008 issue
of American Art Collector . Her work and techniques have been
covered in books including The Art of Watercolor by Charles
LeClair, The Best of Watercolor by Betty Lou Schlem and Tom
Nicola, and nine others.
Artist's Statement
Since my early training, watercolor has
challenged and excited me. For over 50 years, I have worked
primarily in that medium.
My aim has never been to become more proficient in realism
but rather to explore the limits of watercolor's possibilities.
I strive to let the paints' characteristics rule, the drips,
bleeds and blooms be apparent for visual enjoyment.
The invention
of hot press papers in the 1960s expanded the medium's ability
to achieve amazing textures. The paint stays
on the surface and can be manipulated with various tools
as well as with brushes. Color vibrancy, abstract shapes,
tactile
representations and lighting extremes are enhanced without
a preset plan. I let the medium lead me.
The works evolve
on the paper through "accidents"-and
my imagination. Paintings of fish and birds are ideal for
this as the subjects can be woven in during the final steps
towards
completion of a piece. Landscapes begin as abstracts and
the nature I know emerges. If painterly effects appear
in jeopardy,
I stop and leave the essence.
These methods have been transmitted
in all my teaching. I stress how to see differently,
how to cherish what is
developing
on
the page, how to push it to the utmost.
Even now, having
completed over 2,000 watercolors, I feel the rush of excitement
when the first colors go
down, flowing
freely,
uncontrolled, meandering in a way more beautiful than
I could have imagined. I quickly tilt, drop in more
colors, imprint,
spray, spatter, continually looking for the direction
the
painting is taking. It's a game. Of nerve. Of spontaneous
decisions.
The paint always wins and I am glad to be on its team. |
Books
- The Art of Watercolor, by Charles LeClair,
Watson Guptil, 1994, revised 1999
- The Best of Watercolor, Betty Lou Schlem
and Tom Nicolas, Volumes I, II, and III
- Rockport Publishers
(for all of the following)
Watercolor Expressions
Painting Composition
Floral Inspirations
Places in Watercolor
People in Watercolor
National Juried Exhibitions
- Audobon Artists of New York City, 1994 to
2003
- Adirondack's National Exhibition, 1994, 1995,
1996
- San Diego Watercolor Society National Open
- Face of America - Contemporary Portraits in
Watercolor
- Academic Artists, 1993, 1994
- Georgia Watercolor Society National
- Mississippi National Exhibition
- Rocky Mountain National, 1996
- Montana National
- North American Open Exhibition
- The Face of America, National Portrait Exhibition 1994
Solo Shows
- The Copley Society
- The Art Complex Museum
- The Maryland Academy of Art
- Spectrum Gallery — Georgetown
- Radford University
- Stonehill college
- Cape Cod Conservatory
- AddisonArtGallery
- Cape Cod Museum of Art
|
|
Group Shows
- The New Bedford Museum
- Guild of Boston Artists
- The Fitchburg Museum
- The Berkshire Museum
- Johns Hopkins University
- Mississippi Museum
- The USIA Traveling Exhibit Overseas
- Copley Society Shows
- Falmouth Annual
- nd Annual Northeast New England Watercolor
Society
- AddisonArtGallery
- Cahoon Museum
- The Greater Washington Invitational
- The Arts Club, Washington
D.C.
- The Federal Reserve Bank, Boston
- Boston City Hall
- The Harvard Club, Boston
Articles
- The Cape Codder
- Arts and Antiques
- Boston Magazine, 1986
- The Review Magazine, 1988
- Artist Magazine, 1988
- The Cape Cod Times
- Palette Talk, American Artist Magazine,
1993
- American Art Collector, 2007
- Cape Arts Review, 2008
- American Art Collector, 2008
Permanent Collections
- The Cape Museum of Fine Arts
- The International Monetary Fund
- The United States Catholic Conference
- The Office of the Director of the CIA
- Sperry Univac
- Citi Bank
- Superior Court of the District of Columbia
- The National Association of Manufacturers
- First National Bank of Boston
- The Cahoon Museum
- Stonehill College
- National Society of Professional Engineers
|
|
|
|
|
