Vivid Art Gallery will host a special “Second Friday” art opening for April Featured Artist Wendy Briggs Powell on Friday, April 14^th from 5-7 PM. We will be hosting it that day due to the Good Friday and Passover holidays on April 7^th. The event is open to all and is free of charge. In addition to great art, Wendy will be at the gallery to discuss her work, and will be giving an artist talk at 6 PM. There will also be refreshments at the gallery. 
 
Briggs Powell will be presenting new work in her exhibit entitled Watermarks: Saturated in Color. A New Hampshire artist, her work is influenced by the beauty she finds in the messiness of our emotional lives. Her work entails a complex process involving submerging sheets of paper into liquid dyes. What results are beautiful, vibrant works of art with overlapping, deep, saturated colors. Some are also dipped in high gloss resin as a final step.
 
Using water in all her work, Wendy finds that this medium perfectly expresses the both overwhelming and nuanced nature of human emotion. Describing her approach, she says, “I like to consider my process of making watermarks as very loosely scientific! I think about the materials I use as variables where each variable relates to the others and a change to one variable will likely make a visible change in the outcome of the piece. As I see it, the variables are: water, color, paper, container, movement, and time.”
 
To create her work, Wendy’s complex technique brings these variables together to formulate each new piece. On the role of water and color, she states, “To make these watermarks, I begin by mixing powdered dyes and warm water in a container. I don’t measure the dye or the water but I make sure the water is warm to help dissolve the dye more quickly. The more dye I add, the stronger and deeper the color will be. The more I overlap colors, the more colors I create.” 
 
Wendy Briggs Powell’s work will be on display throughout the month of April. Please stop by the gallery during the month to see her exhibit.