JOHN WILKISON
ABOUT JOHN
John Wilkison is a Signature Member of The American Watercolor Society and The National Watercolor Society.
With more than 40 years of watercolor experience behind him, he feels that the challenge of painting in this demanding medium is fundamental to who he is.“Watercolor suits me. I love the analytics of it: the process of thinking backwards into a work of art.” This thoughtful, investigative process drives the heart of how he approaches his watercolor work. “All painting is about abstracting and simplifying the world,” Wilkison explains. “Through the act of really looking at an object and it’s situation, you’re taking reality apart, reconfiguring it in your mind – changing it inside yourself – and putting it back out in a way that the viewer accepts and believes these strokes of color and light as objects, scenes, and narratives.”
John aims for a feeling of atmospheric cohesiveness in a visual image, creating work that is grounded and focused. Like any good storyteller, he avoids unnecessarily showy techniques if they conflict with his vision of the larger atmosphere and psychology of a piece. In this guise, abstraction of the situation becomes the foremost act. An awareness of the larger connections drives much of how John approaches his work.