Steven Dragan's work is available for viewing in the BGT Lobby at 1 Ward Parkway during the second quarter.
Watercolorist Steven Dragan uses his art to create connections to places—in much the same way he selected rocks to carry home to remind him of his annual childhood vacations.
Between those summer adventures and a career as a fine artist, Dragan became an architect, fascinated with perspective, scale and depth and thrilled to create something that didn’t exist before.
During a trip to New Mexico, Dragan’s love of perspective found a new platform. On a whim, he sketched the simple things he encountered on his journey—gardens, plazas, restaurants. When he returned home, he realized his sketchbook was serving the same purpose as the rocks of his youth, connecting him to the places he’d visited and the memories he’d made.
Dragan explains that each of his pieces has its own meaning and story. He tries to let the place speak for itself and focuses on capturing the “life in the perspective lines, the mood of atmospheric depth, the linearity and rhythm of shadows, and the seemingly abstract shapes of people who inhabit the scene.”
As he continued to capture places, Dragan noticed detail he’d never seen before: layers of the sky at dusk or the ornamentation on the chairs at the café he visited. That’s because painting slows him down, he says, forcing him to look beyond what he normally glances over. Sometimes he will look for hours at something, savoring it, searching for the specific detail that makes it what it is.
Although watercolor is Dragan’s primary medium, he allows that there may be some oil and acrylic on the horizon.
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