I paint exclusively in watercolor - a medium known to be challenging to most painters. The medium can be unforgiving requiring a certain amount of forethought and planning while allowing for the flexibility and organic movement that occurs with pigment in water. It requires both discipline and patience, and an acceptance that it cannot be controlled. My favorite part of painting in watercolor is to let the pigment move and flow. That is where the magic happens.
I’ve taken the last two years as a time of deep introspection about my work. In particular, I’ve thought about the emotions and “ahh” reactions that I’d like my work to evoke for collectors. As a result, I’m employing even more colors in my palette, challenging myself on composition, and exploring new ways to look at my subject matter.
With every painting, my goal is for viewers to have a physical sensation of the experience and share in the moment with me. That’s how I measure my success as an artist.
Throughout her 30-year career, painter Heidi Rosner has redefined what it means to be a watercolor artist. Her radical use of the medium thrills collectors, earning her inclusion in private and corporate collections nationwide.
Heidi’s ingenious watercolor techniques allow her to transcend the usual misty scenes associated with the medium. Instead, watercolor becomes a way for her to create the seemingly impossible: paintings that are both opaque and translucent - with enough brawn to be applied to canvas and wood yet with enough delicacy to show the dimension of a butterfly wing.
Her command of the medium is the result of decades of experimentation and innovation, systematically challenging the conventional wisdom about how watercolor can be used and what can be achieved. Whether it is layering the pigment or applying it to non-traditional surfaces, every one of Heidi’s paintings is an exploration of the color, density, and tensile properties of the delicate paint - a natural process for this mechanical-engineer-turned-artist.
“I’ve had people tell me, ‘Watercolor can’t be used on canvas,’ while I was literally painting on canvas in front of them,” Heidi says. “Even after I show them, it takes a bit for people to realize what is actually possible with the medium.”
Heidi’s watercolors often depict the minutiae of desert life - a perfect cactus flower, a hummingbird hovering on the wing - to give the viewer a permanent vision of what would otherwise be fleeting.
She spends hours out-of-doors to find inspiration for her work, hiking, gardening, and birdwatching.
The artist is also renowned for her architectural and cityscape works, using her unique layering technique to achieve the depth and warmth usually only obtained with oil painting.
Heidi has taken research trips to Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Germany, the Baltic states, the British Isles, Scandinavia, Mexico, Central America, Russia, Morocco, and Portugal.
