Resume

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Bio

Lucie Wellner is a central New York State artist who has been painting using watercolors since 1997. Her formal training is in Surface Pattern design, which led to 15 years of designing dinnerware. She was raised and still lives in a part of the state that has an abundance of rolling hills, dairy farms, woods, fields, wildflowers and trees; their presence influences her daily life and painting.

Education

Syracuse University MFA 2000

Rutgers University MCRP Masters in regional Planning 1992

Syracuse University BA College of Arts & Sciences, Geography/Cartography

Awards

Special Award Gallery Committee, Rome Art Community Center, 2007

Elsie M. Birch Memorial Prize for Watercolor Cooperstown National 2003

Statement

While drawing or painting, I find that the background static, the mind’s busyness which we all share to some degree, recedes a little and opens a space for my work. In addition to my aim of documenting something significant to me, I find challenge in the use of materials, of making the final result look the way I imagine it should. But I also take advantage of the gifts the process offers, allowing the painting to take shape into something unexpected. Through focus and concentration, and the elimination of self-doubt, I find immense enjoyment in this fulfillment of aesthetic desire. After a few hours work, I feel rested, fresh and ready to make more.

And the more I paint, the more I understand the subjects I’m observing or thinking about. The more art I produce, the more other artists’ work appeals to and communicates to me. Thanks to them and my own work, my eye is sharpened, my spirit refreshed and I find myself on the threshold of new understandings in the immediate world. Watercolor is the product of an evanescent moment in time—fleeting and difficult to capture but fulfilling in its pursuit.

I hope to channel the view, person, obsession or thing into form and light onto paper. Landscape is particularly enticing to me because in addition to offering the pleasure of being out of doors, it is where light can be at its fullest or most subtle. In watercolors, color is subsumed under the force of light, revealing a reality that is both concrete and luminous, holding an aura that draws the viewer into the world of the painting. There I hope the viewer will have a chance to “see” deeply into the texture of reality and aspects of nature.

Sharing a moment in time: why paint from life?

It’s the difference between a studio recording versus a live concert. For example, an opera is always better when listened to live – you get to see the singers sweat and make all kinds of faces. Same with the local bar band – it always is better live (but is that because of what is served at the bar?)

I search for evidence of a live performance in a watercolor painting. John Singer Sargent painted his watercolors from life – There are photos of him uncomfortably seated in the tall grasses battling too much sun, bugs, and humidity. You can see evidence of all this in his paintings from the vantage point, the netting over the women’s faces, and the bright light. They had to be done quickly in order to capture the mood and light. You also see his process: For example, he might note a strong horizontal line early on in the painting, because that was what he focused on in the initial composition, but then later, he realizes he omitted a tree that partially obscures that line, so he paints it in. Because watercolor is transparent, you can see the line behind the tree. This helps show a passage of time and a process. It’s enjoyable to the viewer – it gives more substance to a painting, more than just the illusion of a landscape on a flat piece of paper. It’s a document of a moment in time, not just of a subject matter.