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Artist Statement
I took an inspiring art class with Mike Bailey (NWS) called Watercolor Beyond the Obvious. Using the same subject, we had to paint two large sheet paintings (22" x 30") every week. I chose a wooden elephant which my parents received as a wedding gift more than 40 years ago. Painting the same subject over and over again for 10 weeks, we begin to paint beyond what is obvious and start exploring line, size, shape, direction, color, value and texture - which was our mantra. I did 25 paintings and no two are alike. In this exhibition I would like to share the creativity journey I took with the little wooden elephant.
Artist Biography
Born in Bangalore, India, Chetana's art lessons started early when her aunt took her to the local art school one summer when she was about 5 years old. She won the first prize in a state wide art competition in high school, but art took the backstage to academics which sadly did not include art in the curriculum. After getting her Ph.D. in computer Science and moving to the Silicon Valley to work, she started taking evening classes and numerous workshops with teachers like Skip Lawrence, Donna Zagota, Mike E. Bailey, Ferenc Besze and others. She was an active member of the Santa Clara Valley watercolor Society and served as co-chair of the workshop committee until she moved to Lexington last year where she lives with her husband and two children. She is a computer engineer by profession and serves as adjunct faculty with Tufts University. She continues to be passionate about watercolor and paints in her spare time.
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