Elaine Chu

Artist Statement

ELAINE CHU
ARTIST STATEMENT

Both memory and the natural world feature prominently in my paintings. For me, memory is about being an outsider, looking into another world. It is through the natural world that I am offered a portal to a lost time and place. Both memory and nature embody a feeling and a mood: elusive yet alive. Watercolor is the perfect medium for meeting the challenge of capturing their intangible quality: the fluidity of water is at once indomitable while the pigment defines. I believe a work of mine is successful when the life force of a painting has emerged out of the living spirit of nature, and the immediacy of memory can be felt.