Frances Burke – Artist’s Statement

Watercolors capture best the range and subtlety of light and color around us.

I studied art at Long Beach State College and have always loved drawing and painting.   Life and marriage took me in a different direction. I moved to Capay Valley in Yolo County CA with my husband David in 1979 and farmed for 27 wonderful and challenging years. Now I am returning to my first love art. Feeling more confidence with age, I have discovered the beauty and wonder of watercolors. I am inspired by our California landscape and enjoy wandering around the back roads of Western Yolo with my camera and sketchbook looking for history in the landscape.

Each painting takes many hours to finish and in that time I am fully present in that space. I look deeply at the scene for all the small and subtle details. It is a form of meditation and I am refreshed on its completion.

I hope to offer the viewer a journey, a way of traveling through the painting and finding both a big picture and the interesting details that may be missed at first glance.