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 Elizabeth
Pratt studied at the Dayton Art
Institute and earned her B.A. in Fine Arts at William
and Mary. She
completed workshops with nationally-known watercolorists
and studied the masters of painting in Europe's great museums.
Elizabeth
had the first of over 50 solo shows at the Spectrum
Gallery in Washington, D.C., where she was a founding member.
Ms. Pratt's work has been acquired by many government agencies,
courts, corporations and collectors.
Ms. Pratt
is a Copley Master and has juried membership in Audubon Artists,
New York City and the New England Watercolor Society. She has
taught at the Truro Center for the
Arts, Castle Hill; the Creative Arts Center; the Cape Museum
of Fine Arts; and the Cahoon Museum.
A full-time
artist with a spontaneous style evolving as the images develop,
Ms. Pratt keeps her work continually fresh and alive in a range
of subject matter treated with new techniques.
Her work has been featured in many periodicals including American
Art Collector, Artist Magazine, Cape Cod Times, Cape Codder,
Arts & Antiques, Boston Magazine, Review Magazine and Cape
Arts Review. She will also be featured in the August 2008 issue
of American Art Collector . Her work and techniques have been
covered in books including The Art of Watercolor by Charles
LeClair, The Best of Watercolor by Betty Lou Schlem and Tom
Nicola, and nine others.
Artist's Statement
Since my early training, watercolor has
challenged and excited me. For over 50 years, I have worked
primarily in that medium.
My aim has never been to become more proficient in realism
but rather to explore the limits of watercolor's possibilities.
I strive to let the paints' characteristics rule, the drips,
bleeds and blooms be apparent for visual enjoyment.
The invention
of hot press papers in the 1960s expanded the medium's ability
to achieve amazing textures. The paint stays
on the surface and can be manipulated with various tools
as well as with brushes. Color vibrancy, abstract shapes,
tactile
representations and lighting extremes are enhanced without
a preset plan. I let the medium lead me.
The works evolve
on the paper through "accidents"-and
my imagination. Paintings of fish and birds are ideal for
this as the subjects can be woven in during the final steps
towards
completion of a piece. Landscapes begin as abstracts and
the nature I know emerges. If painterly effects appear
in jeopardy,
I stop and leave the essence.
These methods have been transmitted
in all my teaching. I stress how to see differently,
how to cherish what is
developing
on
the page, how to push it to the utmost.
Even now, having
completed over 2,000 watercolors, I feel the rush of excitement
when the first colors go
down, flowing
freely,
uncontrolled, meandering in a way more beautiful than
I could have imagined. I quickly tilt, drop in more
colors, imprint,
spray, spatter, continually looking for the direction
the
painting is taking. It's a game. Of nerve. Of spontaneous
decisions.
The paint always wins and I am glad to be on its team.
Upcoming
Museum Show:
Cape Cod Museum of Fine Art, July 12
- September 7, 2008
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