Spheres: Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, 10 x 14 inches, watercolor
on paper.
KEEFE ORTIZ met her husband while working as a
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WBM may 2018
university secretary, but it would be a few more
years before she returned as a student herself,
after earning bachelor’s degrees in studio art and
art history as well as a Master of Education.
Early in her studies, she experimented with ges-ture
drawing — a technique using line alone to
capture the most basic essence of the subject and to establish mood
and tone. This was formative to the development of her personal style.
“I started with gesture and went from there,” she says. “It had a
huge impact on my work. I wanted to do a lot more, and have done
a lot more, but gesture is my favorite. It’s really in everything I make,
and I still find it so beautiful.”
This influence is visible even in her most heavily abstracted pieces.
In a series of watercolors made at Wrightsville Beach and Fort Fisher,
she captures the core spirit of North Carolina nature by allowing the
elements themselves to influence her.
“I sat there with my paper and brush and looked around me,” she
says. “I let the wind move my hand across the paper and let sand
blow it and let nature paint the painting. I wanted to let go of trying
to control it, to stop getting in the way.”
Celebrate, 4 x 3 inches, watercolor and ink on paper.
Sheila Keefe Ortiz makes a gesture drawing of a still life in her studio.
ALLISON POTTER
Pears at Attention, 5 x 6 inches, ink and wash on paper.