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Jan Heaton: Watercolors
Jan Heaton's watercolor show at Wally Workman Gallery contains luminous treasures. Crisp and refreshing, these works on paper take full advantage of the properties of the medium.
Although the recognizable still lifes in the show have their appeal, Heaton hits her stride with her more abstract work. For example, several intriguing vertical works feature tiny paintings placed in a series like a film strip. A grouping of four works, Fragments II, III, and IV and The Garden II, generously matted to accentuate the square format, have abstract circular and sinuous forms. Water Patterns III is another particularly strong work, in which the broad fields of color are broken up with delicate threads of line. The Kiwano melon series also merits a second look. In this series the transparency of the watercolor accurately depicts the translucent flesh of a fruit, while abandoning representational boundaries.
While a good conceptual challenge in artwork adds considerable savor, it can also be a simple joy to look at well-conceived abstract art that works on another level - as a balm for those times when we tire of challenges. These works lack the grit of the abstract expressionist works they resemble; instead they offer the refreshment of that last good peach at the end of summer.
Jacqueline May, The Austin Chronicle
Reference: September 19, 2003
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