Pat Dall - Watercolors and paintings

For many years, my life-long love of art took a back seat to the raising of seven children.  Eventually, with the children grown and on their own, I became a photographer before turning to watercolor about eight years ago.  Today, photographs from my travels still form an important basis for much of my work.

I am attracted to pattern, color (especially red) and the observed relationships between people.  My paintings depict the friendly and familiar in a stylized manner with emphasis on complexity within simplicity.

The stylization comes from the four-step process of ink resist, which I particularly enjoy.  First I create the drawing.  Then I use white tempera paint to cover everything in the painting except those lines or areas that I ultimately want to be black.  Next,  a coat of black India ink is applied to the entire paper and when the ink is dry, I wash the painting in my bathtub.  The white paint washes away, taking most of the ink with it and I am left with a simple “coloring book” image that I then bring to life and complexity with watercolor.  (A bathtub that is seldom clean is also part of this process!)

I often wonder what the strangers in my paintings would think if they saw their “moment in time” captured in my art.  I hope they would approve!