Art by Medium: Watercolor

'Girl' 2003 by American artist, Kim McCarty. Watercolor on paper, 29.875 x 22 in. (framed). This work on paper expresses the fragile vulnerability of adolescence. By using a “wet into wet” watercolor medium the artist conveys the transitory and emergent state. The figures heads become too large for their small, narrow bodies, their hands too large for their arms. The translucent watercolor expresses both the flaws and perfection. Kim McCarty is known for her nubile and waif-like figurative watercolors in muted hues, which she likens to “blurry afterimages drifting past closed eyelids.” McCarty began working with the medium in 1993, after a fire destroyed her studio and she could no longer find a space with proper ventilation for working with oil paint and became quickly intrigued with watercolor’s transparency, immediacy, and “unforgiving qualities.” She works in a wet-on-wet technique, in which watercolor is applied to a moistened sheet of paper—a technique that allows for very little control over the final image because of the pigment’s tendency to spread. For McCarty, this style corresponds to the longing, loss, and vulnerability embodied in her subjects. A graduate of UCLA (MFA) and the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena (BFA), McCarty has had many solo exhibitions include Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York and David Klein Gallery...

'Boy' 2003 by American artist, Kim McCarty. Watercolor on paper, 29.75 x 22.25 in. (framed). This work on paper expresses the fragile vulnerability of adolescence. By using a “wet into wet” watercolor medium, the artist conveys the transitory and emergent state. The figures heads become too large for their small, narrow bodies, their hands too large for their arms. The translucent watercolor expresses both the flaws and perfection. Kim McCarty is known for her nubile and waif-like figurative watercolors in muted hues, which she likens to “blurry afterimages drifting past closed eyelids.” McCarty began working with the medium in 1993, after a fire destroyed her studio and she could no longer find a space with proper ventilation for working with oil paint and became quickly intrigued with watercolor’s transparency, immediacy, and “unforgiving qualities.” She works in a wet-on-wet technique, in which watercolor is applied to a moistened sheet of paper—a technique that allows for very little control over the final image because of the pigment’s tendency to spread. For McCarty, this style corresponds to the longing, loss, and vulnerability embodied in her subjects. A graduate of UCLA (MFA) and the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena (BFA), McCarty has had many solo exhibitions include Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York and David Klein Gallery...

Kim McCarty Untitled (Brown Green Figure), 2006 Watercolor on paper 40 x 26 inches (101.6 x 66 cm)