Astronomy

Since 1994 when the Hubble Telescope began sending clear photographs of space images, this artist has been aware that our “landscape” has morphed into “spacescape.” Our real home is now the expanded universe, and it has become visible to us, no longer a mathematical abstraction. But — how is one even to try to paint such a dazzling universe?At some point, I realized that watercolor was a medium which, used in a wet-on-wet way, could flow in patterns that echoed the images we were getting from the Hubble. The first paintings all contained windows in the foreground, allowing me to establish a “grounded” viewpoint. Gradually I moved toward combining the distant and glorious with the near and familiar, working to ease the sense of vertigo which the photographs sometimes gave me. I learned that the electromagnetic spectrum exists throughout the universe. Colors are vibrations — wavelengths — no matter how distant. Each painting enhanced my comprehension of the connectedness between the stars and us. I feel at home painting galaxies.Note: all sizes are given in inches, horizontal measurement first.
Watercolors are matted, and the size includes the mat dimensions.
Click on images below to see enlargements.