Marion Welch

Marion Welch is an outstanding watercolorist whose reputation and following continue to grow as more people discover her work. She is a master of her chosen medium--one that many artists find capricious and difficult to control. By exploiting the fluid and transparent nature of watercolor, in a manner alternately loose and precise, she is able to create images that are highly realistic, intricately detailed, and visually engaging.

Welch’s paintings bring to mind the work of many 19th and 20th century masters; she lists Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and contemporary painter Thomas Aquinas Daly among her influences.

After applying layer upon layer of color, in thin veils, the watercolor paper is transformed. Forms, and atmosphere, emerge. Shadowed areas resonate with a richness of color and texture not commonly associatedwith watercolor. And yet, while intricately composed and executed, Welch’s paintings retain the freshness and luminous transparency intrinsic to the medium.

In all stages of the painting process, her concern is not so much with the subject itself; rather, she focuses on the effects of light and atmosphere upon the objects she has chosen to paint. Her interest lies in exploring the variations of light as it illuminates a surface or structure, revealing (or concealing) form and color. By this method, Marion Welch’s paintings capture both the tactile and the ephemeral qualities of her subject, whether it be the quiet intimacy of a still life, or a moment in time recorded from the “urban landscape” of New York City, where she has resided for twenty years.