Artist Statement
I love Toulouse-Lautrec’s posters, Wayne Thiebaud’s woodcuts and screen prints, and vintage travel posters like the National Park Posters created by WPA Artists in the 1930’s.
So I should be a printmaker…
What I don’t love about printmaking is the nasty chemicals, the sharp knives and the clean up.
But I am a watercolor painter. No other medium flows quite like watercolor. When the paint flows across the paper, pigments mix, mingle, push each other around and create glorious glowing colors. So fun! No nasty chemicals, no messy clean up.
But the “look” of woodcuts or screen prints is just not there.
The “ah-hah” moment came one day when I was playing around with pouring liquid watercolors from cups onto wet paper. As the color dried I realized I had created perfectly flat colorful shapes with no brush strokes.
As I continue to experiment, I find that I can achieve glowing colors with each poured layer. Each painting can have as many as twenty layers. My “drawing tool” is masking fluid applied with a palette knife which I use to create shapes and protect completed poured areas. My watercolor brushes lay idle most days, only used for detail work.
My finished paintings become graphic and resemble the “look” of a silkscreen print… yet I paint with my beloved watercolors.
Artist Biography
As a little girl growing up in Fort Jones California, Sandy Delehanty dreamed of being an artist some day. She enrolled as an art major at California State University at Chico where she earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Secondary Teaching Credential. She continued her education by hitchhiking through Europe visiting art museums and immersing herself in European culture. She financed her travels by selling sketches to tourists. Eventually, Sandy had to put her art aside and take a “real job,” in the business world.
In 1985 Sandy’s husband introduced her to his aunt, Betty Lynch AWS, a nationally recognized watercolor artist. The introduction set Sandy on a new path as a passionate watercolor painter, and the old dream of being an artist surfaced again. Painting after work and on weekends Sandy worked at perfecting her skills. She started a critique group, entered juried shows, and took workshops during summer vacations. Eventually she began showcasing her art during open studio tours and it did not take long before she had a list of people wanting to take lessons from her. She began teaching Saturday afternoon watercolor classes and found representation in a local art gallery. With classes under way, a gallery selling her paintings and her husbands support, the time had come to quit the “day job,” and become a full time artist.
Today Sandy has earned Master Signature Status in American Women Artists (AWA), and Signature Status in the American Watercolor Society (AWS), Watercolor West (WW), and the California Watercolor Association (CWA). She has had a painting accepted in the American Watercolor Society's International Juried Exhibition in New York three years in a row. She has also had paintings in seven juried museum exhibitions. Sandy has had many gallery shows, both solo and group shows, and has been accepted into 64 juried competitions. She taught watercolors for 25 years in the United States, Bali, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece and Spain. Sandy serves on the Board of Directors of American Women Artists.