One Day in Georgia out of Boredom
When Susan McGuire was a young woman studying printmaking at Holy Names University in Oakland, she found herself fascinated by the random splatters of ink left around the edges of prints after they had been run through the art studio presses. Today, art shoppers visiting the Martinez Gallery can see how this fascination eventually led McGuire to develop her own unique brushless watercolor painting technique to great effect.
Her creations are delicate and delightful. They are careful constructions using values of the primary colors, red, blue and yellow, ranging from cool to warm palettes. McGuire plays with transparent watercolor paint sprayed from miniature bottles over arrangements of pieces of torn paper, discarded film canister caps, bits of wiggly string scavenged from the kitchen drawer, twigs and leaves found in the garden, and anything else that can serve as a masking device to cover up areas on her working surface of watercolor paper. Sometimes McGuire also dips objects into paint, lays them down on her image and removes them to leave behind an imprint.
Down Under, watercolor
Her mind works both as a printmaker’s and a painter’s, planning out images in reverse order so that areas masked in the early stages of the process will, when exposed in the end, be lighter in value against other areas that have been treated with many layers of sprayed red, blue or yellow watercolor droplets.
McGuire allows the creative process free rein so that her images are loose and playful.
“I try not to over think. There comes a point when I cross over and I have to go with what is happening,” she says.
McGuire developed this particular style one day in Georgia out of boredom. Feeling a need to play, she gathered up little items near at hand and roamed outside to collect fallen leaves and other objects. These McGuire brought into her studio and threw down randomly onto a piece of paper. She splattered watercolor paint over them, here and there, then removed all the objects. Where they had been were blank spots on the paper. McGuire knew she was on to something and kept going.
Over the years, these early experiments have developed into what is now a sophisticated painterly skill. McGuire is able to create scenes with moody atmospheres designed to capture to the imaginations of viewers.
Susan McGuire joined the Martinez Gallery in November 2012. The gallery is located at 630 Court Street in downtown Martinez.
By Jen Copeland
Photograph by Phil Venable
mARTinez Gallery 