ELYSE LITTENBERG

Miami, Florida

"I think the most common misconception about water-based media is that they are somehow lesser than oil paint," says Littenberg.  "For me, water-soluble paint allows greater flexibility than I would have with oils.  It dries faster, which means I can work quickly and achieve spontaneity and freshness in my paintings."

The artist works in mixed media, attaching painted paper fragments to the surface of her monotypes.  She finds fast-drying water-based paint to be perfect for her process.  "I can quickly achieve the kind of relief surface I like, and, when I choose to, I can use a retarder to slow down the drying process."

Since the early 1980's, Littenberg has produced abstract mixed-media aerial landscapes.  In addition to affixing painted paper fragments to her monotypes, she also sometimes starts with a painting and then prints and collages over it.  "the Landscape as a subject holds great interest for me, especially as it appears from the air," she says. 

Living Series: the Field is an aerial landscape with dual perspective: The viewer looks down on the earth from above but also looks across it toward the horizon where earth and sky meet.  It's part of her ongoing series on American landscape, a series inspired by the beauty of the land and its vastness, particularly as viewed from the air.  "The expansiveness of the earth from this perspective is something I have always found awesome," Littenberg says.

"My abstract paintings focus on the topography of the land aerially.  There is an emphasis on the flat and raised two-dimensional picture plane.  The abstract landscapes are created by paintings, mono-prints and collage. They are faceted with color and depth.  The mixed medium artworks are combined with paint, strips, squares and organic forms borrowed from old mono-prints and paintings and reassembled to form the aerial landscape on paper and canvas.  These artworks are conceptualized as imaginary environments that can resemble reality. Recent artworks consist primarily of oil on canvas," says Littenberg.