Debra Kroger — Artists Along the Bitterroot

Debra Kroger - Watercolor & Gouache

Artist Statement

Let the water dance and the brush sing!

I work almost solely in various water mediums. My subject matter varies with my medium from En plein Air to animals to still life to humans!

Using gouache, which is an opaque watercolor, I can capture the impressionistic colors of life around me. Starting with an underpainting of a solid color I then spray a layer of water based lacquer so the underpainting won’t wash away as I layer on stippling using the impressionist Paul Signac as my inspiration.

My watercolor paintings don’t quietly fade into the background as I love to make images that are rich in intense colors. Letting the water dance across the paper as the colors move and blend with the stroke of a brush.

Last but not least when I feel like just letting that brush do the work I move to Chinese brush painting using just black ink. Chinese brush painting is steeped in tradition and uses various forms of rice paper. Rice paper is very unforgiving so it requires a vast amount of practice to learn to control the water to ink ratio. I could cover a football field with all my practice images which I have saved just to keep me humble in my efforts.

Regardless of the medium my goal is to capture the movement, color, and image as I see it in this vast beautiful world we live in.