Education and Inspiration

WERE THIS HUMBLE SKETCH of "Japanese Garden" given a subtitle, it would most certainly be "Less is More." Rebecca Allan, a northwest botanical and landscape artist, works largely in watermedia — acrylic, watercolor and goauche. In her small plein air sketches she exerts herself as a master "simplifier." She translates what might otherwise be a messy assemblage of foliage and branches into the lowest common denominator of shapes. A gestural energy — as seen in the sweep of the lawn as it moves back or the red-brown tree trunk in the center that juts sharply up — supports the forms and adds to the overall abstract tapestry. Thus, even the smallest work exists in two worlds, the representational and the abtract.