Watercolor exhibit adds splash of color to UNT on the Square

H2O Hue is dedicated to Lisa Tseng, a UNT graduate and watercolor painter who died this past April.

Photo by Patrick Howard

Example of watercolor artwork on display at UNT on the Square.

A green fanged monster with big bold eyes reaches its long, gnarly hands towards a flame-haired nymph. Its hand clasps the dainty creature, lifting her off the ground and staring her down, weighing the sprite’s fate. The colors are vibrant and the detail is precise, as if taken from a child’s vivid dream – just one of the visions lining the walls at UNT on the Square all summer long.

H2O Hue features works using traditional watercolor methods, multimedia, sculpture, embroidery and photo transfers. The exhibit includes 21 student artists from UNT, both graduate and undergraduates in the watercolor program at the College of Visual Art and Design.

The gallery, which is showing until July 21, displays work on a variety of subjects produced through diverse methods.

“Watercolor can be extremely traditional, but then again, it can be very contemporary,” said Millie Giles, a watercolor lecturer at UNT.

Many of the paintings in H2O Hue are large, from 51-by-94 to 20-by-40 inches, and took anywhere from a full semester to 15 hours to complete. Artists must work quickly to lay down paint and accept mistakes that might happen along the way, Giles said

“Watercolor is tricky, you can’t work on it forever,” she said.

“Arrested Motion” by UNT watercolor graduate student Joshua West is an attention-grabber hanging front and center in the gallery. The painting uses dark metal tones and green earth tones to take the viewer to an overgrown junkyard riddled with disheveled, tarnished cars.

“A lot of the things I’ve painted are from different areas around North Texas,” West said.

Two pieces entitled “Red and Blue Kids” by watercolor and visual art studies major Xan Turner, use ink transfers of vintage photos combined with a watercolor background, separating the work into different dimensions with an in-your-face feel.

“I wanted to make them more than old photographs,” Turner said. “Taking something old and turning it into something new.”

This free exhibit of student work is dedicated to Lisa Tseng, a UNT graduate and watercolor painter who died this past April.