Artist Heidi Rosner pushes the limits of the watercolor medium with her dramatic florals and vivid landscapes. Heidi has a methodical process in which she adds layers and layers of the paint until she gets the intensity level she seeks.
“The most important part of the painting process happens before paint is even involved. It requires an accurate drawing to define the composition and help to plan out the painting. Watercolor is a spontaneous medium with no ‘forgiveness’—one mistake and the painting is potentially ruined. And, since I paint with such dark colors, I only get one shot at the painting. The challenge of this medium is why I love working with it.” ~ Heidi RosnerHeidi developed her signature style by “reverse engineering” the properties of the medium. She determined that by adding layer upon layer of color she could obtain a depth of color not typically seen in watercolor paintings.
“My work is an expression of who I am—I am not a ‘washed out’ person,” ~ Heidi RosnerHeidi paints primarily on non-traditional watercolor surfaces (such as canvas and board) for her work. Part of her process is to apply several layers of various materials prior to painting to create a texture or “tooth” to her substrate – providing her with a much more interesting surface than paper. As a result, she creates paintings that rival oils for intensity. Another bonus of her canvas and board works is they do not require glass for finishing, unlike paintings on watercolor paper.
Heidi Rosner uses the giclée process to create fine art limited edition prints from her original watercolor paintings.
Giclée (pronounced zhee-clay) is a French word which means “spraying of ink”. In this high-tech computer reproduction process, a fine layer of ink—more than four million droplets per second—is sprayed onto archival watercolor paper or canvas. Each droplet is four times smaller than a human hair.
The first part of the process includes making a very high-resolution scan from Heidi’s original work. Then, the ink is applied to produce a combination of 512 chromatic changes with approximately 10 million color possibilities of highly saturated, nontoxic water-based ink.
This combination of high-resolution scanning and digital printing gives each image the vibrant and luminous results of an original watercolor—resulting in a print that can be difficult to distinguish from the original.
Each giclée print is protected by applying an extra strength UV coating to insure museum quality. The limited edition is individually hand-signed and numbered by the artist and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
