Joy Perrin's Artist Statement 2009
In watercolor, the combination of surrender and control is a fine balancing act, with the ever-changing light, the wet-to-dry continuum, and the varying properties of the paints themselves. It's invigorating to be internalizing the physics of the process and expanding in the freedom to paint more and more intuitively. I'm mostly self-taught, but paying attention. For me it's about impressions of light and rhythm, color, composition and value, and the delicious feeling of successfully capturing a fleeting magical moment, in a painting.
After many years of having my art on the back burner, I am delighted to find myself in beautiful northern California, and I paint almost every day now, even while working 8-hour days as a self-employed music specialist for seniors. Of course, with the extensive traveling this entails, I'm always on the lookout for the next painting.
Out there in the sun, wind, and weather, I awake to the realization that I am a part of nature. John Muir summed up the way I feel about this experience of unity, belonging, and expansion when he said, "We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us."
It is a Divine Experience and I hope the work inspires some of the same feelings in you, the viewer. Stay tuned for announcements of upcoming of shows.
Contact Joy at 415.717.6731 or JoyPerrinArtist@yahoo.com and see more images, announcements of exhibitions, and more at www.joyperrin.com
