Janet Lindell is a Portland watercolorist.  She has studied and shown her work in Portland galleries and shows.  This show features her enthusiasm for watercolor batik.

These paintings have been done with a watercolor batik process on rice paper.  Working with watercolor on rice paper it is impossible to totally control the results.  The surprises that occur can be very beautiful.  These surprises can be enhanced and made even more dramatic.

First she sketches the image on freezer paper with a dark marking pen.  The rice paper is placed over the sketch and the painting begins.  Painting from light to dark, covering each color with wax to protect it from the next wash, she frequently does backgrounds by just dropping in colors.  When the image is complete, the entire painting is covered with wax. When the wax has hardened, the paper is crumpled, flattened again, then rubbed or painted over with a dark wash, allowing it to seep into the cracks.  When dry, the wax is removed by placing the painting between layers of newspaper and ironing over it.

At this point more color may be added to enhance the surprises, deepen the values, or add what it takes to make an exciting image  using watercolor, pastel, acrylic, caran d’ache or whatever will produce the desired effect.  Each painting is very unique.

John Cline’s work begins with his love of drawing.  Working predominantly in pencil and pen and ink, his current work continues where his undergraduate thesis left off and explores his ongoing architectural education and mines his professional experiences through hard lined drawings.  The recent work are conceptual “sections”, “elevations” and “plans” sometimes seamlessly superimposed on top of each other.  The viewer is allowed to make interpretations as to scale, volume and texture.  Each piece attempts to create space for the viewer to inhabit while maintaining balance and composition throughout the entire drawing.

John uses drawing as a vehicle to explore ideas of the process of making.  Understanding process is critical for exploration, iteration, testing and the critical editing of ideas.  Through an engagement of process, ideas can be tested.  John believes process can begin to guide the work by articulating intent. Drawings in its many forms – the ritual and craft of it, its tools, its tactility, the space of deep intellectual focus and concentration that it affords has remained a central theme in his work.

Currently, John is a Job Captain at SERA Architects and resides in Portland, Oregon.