Manchester
Date1974
Artist
Elizabeth Osborne
(American painter, born 1936)
MediumWatercolor on paper
Dimensions30 1/4 × 22 5/8 in. (76.8 × 57.5 cm)
Credit LineGift of Dr. John E. and Carol Hunt, 2009
Object number2009-97
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextElizabeth Osborne is a Philadelphia-based painter who trained and taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Inspired by the color field painting of Helen Frankenthaler, Osborne immerses herself in the landscape, creating on-site studies of the natural world around her. Manchester is a fine example from the artist's body of work made during her trips to the seaside town in Massachusetts. Osborne's palette and application of the watercolor medium—flat washes and softened edges—create a luminous drawing that attempts to encapsulate one's emotional and psychological experience with nature. The artist’s use of complementary colors—blue and orange—amplifies the glow in the foreground against the dark landforms jutting into the sea. A watercolor sketch such as this would often serve as a study for Osborne's large, equally brilliant acrylic paintings from the same period.