Light Space & Time is very pleased to announce that Michele A. Congdon is the gallery’s new featured artist. Michele will now be featured by the gallery for her outstanding landscape and nature watercolors.

Michele’s paintings follow a path of uncertainty. This allows for a truly adventurous experience. Each painting is an opportunity for the excitement of discovery. Michele believes that doing it this way makes for more vivid, exciting, complex works yielding a more interested reaction from the viewer . . . the process is more interesting, therefore the output has to be more interesting as well. The landscape or natural surroundings is merely a back drop, the stage scenery for the acts to come or that have already past. The drawing of twilight as a prelude to sunset and moonlight, the wind just before a change in the weather, the brilliant sun and deep shadows that let you know a beautiful day is happening around you are the beginning of the adventure.

Michele’s father was a painter, and he introduced her to art at an early age. She soon discovered that holding a brush gave her intense pleasure. Although oil was the medium she learned first, Michele has embraced watercolor as her chosen means of expression. Mostly self-taught, Michele has built a library of art instruction and reference works. Constantly honing her skills and learning new techniques keeps her perspective fresh and her interest high.

She is unsure exactly how the complete painting will arrive from her brush to the paper and since watercolors can be a mysterious medium, never giving you the same results twice using the same tools twice, she allows the painting to go where it takes her. The uncertainty of the final outcome is much more apparent when using watercolor. As she likes to experiment, this medium suits her and her philosophy that painting is an opportunity to learn about nature, life and art. To Michele, painting is a journey of the heart and mind.

Michele starts with a visual idea of what she wants to do; a feel for the atmospheric quality; she may have a reference photo or an idea from a dream; after situating her horizon line and a few important sketch lines she lays out her palette, her choice of colors is determined by the atmosphere she is trying to depict. The use of different brushstrokes gives different effects—her use of non-traditional tools, such as cotton balls, tissues, sponges, and plastic netting assists in depicting different effects.

Michele has created a distinct personal style that, while eclectic, is consistent but never static. Her paintings are an invitation to take the journey with her, sharing in the excitement of discovery.

Michele is an Associate Member of the American Watercolor Society. She is a member of the Alliance of Professional Artists. Many of her pieces are in private collections. She has a corporate installation at Wright Risk Management and Congdon, Flaherty and O’Callaghan in Garden City, NY and has a first place for watercolor landscape at the Long Island Fair in 2012. Michele’s pieces ‘Lake and Lilies’ and ‘Iris’ were chosen for the 2011 all member show of the Northeast Watercolor Society of which she is an Associate member. Michele was invited to the NY Botanical Garden as an Expert for their Azalea Garden opening Create and Capture Weekend in May 2011 and regularly shows her work online at Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery. Michele’s website is http://macwatercolors.com