“These new watercolors emerged during the long, and very welcome, studio retreats imposed by Covid. Time suddenly opened up again to simply fix things and make things. The days seemed longer, and that felt so good. Everywhere else there was chaos.
Virtual and digital realities and all their rush to do everything at once became blessedly useless, and I found myself back in the real time – washing colors around, letting the brush swim and the water evaporate, watching layers build.
These are small paintings, but they are packed. To me they feel three times larger that they are. They feel as spontaneous as any watercolor, yet I love their density. They aren’t especially realistic, but they are generally representational.
The paintings start pretty randomly with colors and brushes. I like a lots of watery, overlapping washes and definite strokes. A suggestion arises – either by subject or abstraction – and I take it up, see where it leads me, then often reject it.
Eventually, I arrive with an image that says “Hello, here I am. Do you see me?” And that’s when I stop.”
To view the work from Crichton’s 2022 Exhibition “New Watercolors” click here: Alan Crichton E-Catalogue 2022
ALAN CRICHTON is an artist living in Liberty, Maine since 1971. Crichton was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Goddard College, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the New York Studio School. He has taught at Colby College, the MFA program at Vermont College, Waterfall Arts and the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, ME. He has exhibited throughout Maine for over forty years. His award-winning column of art appreciation and opinion, Hi-Lo Art, appeared in the Waldo Independent, the Republican Journal, the Camden Herald, Art New England, the Maine Arts Journal and the Free Press.
In 2000, Crichton and a group of friends founded the Arts Center at Kingdom Falls, a non-profit, artists’ residency and community arts education organization, now known as Waterfall Arts, with locations in Belfast, Maine. Crichton’s sculpture, drawings and paintings are in numerous collections throughout Maine, New England and New York.
Alan Crichton Resumehttp://caldbeck.com/sites/default/files/artist/bio/crichton_resume.pdf
