Featured Artist Jan Guarino

Watercolor painter Jan Guarino presents a compelling collection of works based on travel and observation. Learn more by visiting her website.

 

 

Mine is a love affair with watercolors. I couldn’t imagine any other medium giving me the joy and freedom that I receive from painting with these pigments. I long to embrace the unexpected, the unplanned, the unpredictable. These are all properties of watercolors.

 

 

It’s the beauty of the allowance of watercolor blossoms that appear and remain in my paintings. It is one of the things that makes painting in watercolors so unique. There is a feeling that can not be duplicated when a drop of pigment explodes onto a wet sheet of paper.

 

 

This helps support my intention when painting—to create an unexpected depiction of the subject, a colorful interpretation, not a literal translation. Look closely and you will see the use of vibrant and lively colors accessing color theory to bring the viewer exploring my painting.

 

 

The things I love to paint tend to choose me rather than my choosing them. It is the light hitting the surface of an object, the cascade of a shadow on the landscape, an expression on a child or pet. It doesn’t matter, because in that moment I pause and realize I am overcome with a profound desire to paint.

 

 

I am attracted to scenes with reflections on water, windows and doors, or a structure nestled in its surrounding area. I like to take advantage of the intrigue that these images create and have the viewer to be drawn into the scene.

 

 

Being American-Italians, my husband and I take annual trips to Italy. We always feel love and pride when viewing the art, paintings, sculpture, architecture there. I feel that with these experiences continue to bring me a valuable perspective into my art. It’s in my DNA.

 

 

I didn’t seek to be a watercolor artist and never saw myself as an instructor. But as I look back, teaching is something that happened to me as a result of exploring watercolors and being disappointed and frustrated when taking other classes and workshops. I started working on my own, figuring out what the capabilities of watercolors really were, and exploring them in my paintings. I took risks and wasn’t afraid to experiment.

 

 

My 45+ year career as a graphic artist gave me a solid understand of composition, line, shape, form, space, value, color, and texture. It didn’t take long to realize that I could apply these skills to my art. I could teach it to others too. I call my art Fearless Watercolors.

 

Jan Guarino invites you to follow on Facebook, Instagram and You Tube and to explore her new book.

 

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