ARTIST DISCOVERY: GET TO KNOW THE ART OF WENDY BRIGGS POWELL

Uncovering wonderful talent is one of the great things about Instagram. I discovered artist Wendy Briggs Powell courtesy of Instagram, and I am so glad I did. Her abstract paintings are beautiful and uplifting. Using a dip dye process with watercolor she calls "watermarks", Powell creates beautiful abstract waterprint pieces with color fields by submerging sheets of paper into a color bath. She obtained a Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she honed this unique process. There is something about them that reminds me of Rothko's color field paintings, but with a looser style. She works with a durable paper that takes the color well, and she explained, "I work with Crane's lettra paper. It is super thick and I can let it soak and saturate for hours, even days, without it losing too much structure." The paintings measure 26" x 20" or 20" x 26" and make a graphic impact yet have a softness to them. "I work with large containers of dyed water so they are not really watercolors in the traditional sense! It's an unpredictable process and that's one of the things I really like about it," Powell says. Water and form play a big part in her work, as do fluidity and embracing the unexpected.