and interactive experience. “As a watercolorist, you have to ‘leave the whites,’” she said. “You paint around things. So, that negative space is just as meaningful as the subject. Similarly, when I look at a piece of art in a room,
As for subject matter, Heidi continues to be inspired by the flora and fauna of the desert Southwest that, luckily for her, is omnipresent just beyond her front door. And luckily for her collectors, she is constantly outdoors, on the hunt
for special moments to capture and stories to tell.
Watch Heidi's interview here.
for example, I like to pay attention to the negative space around the painting. One of the ways I’m playing with this idea is with differ- ent shapes and collections of things, but not in grids. Col- lections of different shapes and sizes. Come to the Cel- ebration next year and you’ll see what I’m talking about.” Always be challenging Like many artists, in addition to the continuous explora- tion of ideas, Heidi continu- ally tries to challenge herself. This might be through new subject matters or rethink- ing the way they typically represent those subjects in their work. This year, it happens to be the latter for Heidi. “I tend to paint with a lot of detail in my work,” she said. “But sometimes it’s too much detail and you lose the focal point. So, one of the things I’m trying to do is back off from including every cactus needle or every feather painted precisely on my birds. I’m going for a looser representation. Even though it’s still representa- tional and there’s still a lot of detail, I’m backing away from some of that because I think some of the art is lost in the representation.” Rather than fill in all the blanks for the viewer, Heidi wants to create opportuni- ties for them to fill in their own blanks and create their own individual expe- rience with the piece. And no doubt, by challenging herself through experimen- tation, she’s also inviting viewers to be delightfully challenged, which is what art is all about. Top: "Hedgehog" 24x24; "Cereus'ly" 24x24. Middle: "Hummer with Penstemon" 8x8; "Springtime Lupine" 8x8; Bottom: Heidi collects reference photos––a favorite pastime.
Heidi Rosner at work in her studio.
T hey say necessity is the mother of invention, but it only leads there if the person in need is willing to put in the work to find or build a solution. And that happened to be the case for artist Heidi Rosner. Nearly two decades ago, when she began selling her watercolor work, she kept encountering a similar response: collectors loved her work but other variables kept running interference. Many either didn’t want it behind glass or didn’t want it matted or they didn’t like the frame. At the same time, other artists were (lovingly) encouraging her to explore other mediums. While she experimented with oil and acrylic, Heidi’s love for watercolor was too much to just walk away from it. So, she got to work searching for an alternative that would allow her to move away from traditional watercolor on paper and thus away from framing entirely. Science and art coming together Luckily, Heidi came from a long career in science and engineering, so experi- mentation was in her wheelhouse. “I started experimenting with some of the watercolor boards that were just starting to come out at that time, like
Keeping the experimentation alive Heidi’s appetite for experimentation hasn’t quelled, but now it’s more di- rected at things like subject matter and composition. “I’m continuing to delve into what I started last year with the Serenity Collection, which are the pieces that have the white backgrounds, but I’m going to put a different twist on some of those,” she said. “I’m also working on several pieces that are interesting shapes for standard subjects of mine.” Anyone familiar with Heidi’s work might be quick to recall some of her tall, narrow paintings of saguaros, blooming agave and other verti- cal-growing botanicals. But this year, she began challenging herself to look at subjects from a different point of view. That invited the opportunity to explore painting wider, horizontal subjects and compositions but in a vertical format. “I’m experimenting with shapes of plants and bird compositions that ar- en’t traditional,” she said. “For example, a tall, skinny piece of a prickly pear. You wouldn’t normally imagine something like that to be in that format.” In addition to non-traditional formats, Heidi is also looking at how she can ex- pand the idea of negative space beyond the canvas to create a more immersive
Aquabord,” she said. “I got some pretty good results, but I was very limited in terms of size and I like to paint big.” Next, Heidi turned to watercolor ground, a liquid primer that can be ap- plied to various surfaces to make them receptive to watercolor. And again, she was getting decent results, but she wasn’t able to achieve the level of vi- brancy and saturation of color that she was getting with paper. That’s when things got interesting. “Because of my background in sci- ence and engineering, I decided I was going to try to come up with a sub- stance of my own,” Heidi said. “I experi- mented for several years before I came up with what I use now––a combination of four different things used in a certain order.” Her dedication to finding a solution paid off. Not only did it free her to paint at any scale and achieve the richness of color she was after, it led to what has become her signature style and opened her work to collectors who had previously overlooked watercolor. “I never anticipated coming up with something of my own, but I love it,” Hei- di said. “I can use the same preparation for every substrate. So, I can paint on almost anything.”
Page 4
Issue 4 | Summer/Fall 2024
Issue 4 | Summer/Fall 2024
Page 5
Made with FlippingBook - PDF hosting