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Nancy Clement lives and works in La Antigua Guatemala, where she is well known for her watercolor miniatures.  She has, over time, meticulously documented the architecture, gardens, and landscape of the Colonial City on paper the size of an average postcard.  With their extraordinary and minute details, these small treasures attract and charm both local residents and visitors from around the world.

Ms. Clement is basically an observer, and as she wanders daily through the city, its flowers beckon to her.  She explains: “I talk to all the neighbors and their gardeners.  I inquire about the names of flowers in Spanish, and I ask them for permission to draw in the gardens.  There is both a friendliness and formality about this interchange.”  The ten miniatures in the exhibition reflect some of this give-and-take during local jaunts.

Technically, Ms. Clement is not a botanical artist.  She considers herself simply a decent illustrator, an observer who records nature with precision and detail.  As a watercolorist, however, she is in full control of her craft, and her style is very distinctive.  She is interested in visual delicacy and strength over scientific accuracy, and as a result, her miniatures are primarily decorative.  It is for this very reason that her work is so highly collectible.

Ms. Clement works outdoors.  She rarely paints cut flowers or photographs her subjects.  A flower, she points out, “becomes a landscape of ridges and valleys, contours and colors.”  It is, for her, an intimate scenery which she admires with a passion.  “Flowers,” she says, “are nature’s most open and accessible messenger.”

Her materials are light, portable, and simple.  She requires only a container of water and some brushes in order to capture the most complex, delicate, and dramatic impressions of nature.  The muse mini or notchy postcards have a deckle edge, and she believes their size is perfect for duplicating the intensity of colorful lush vegetation.  Ms. Clement draws with a Castell HB pencil and a kneaded eraser in hand, and she paints with a #2 round red sable brush.  She prefers tubes of Winsor & Newton and Grumbacher watercolors which she mixes on the lid of the box.  Occasionally, she goes over the pencil drawings with a crow quill pen dipped in Higgins India ink.

Ms. Clement’s neighbors and their gardeners are familiar enough with the great emotion in her work.  However, her many fans abroad are more likely to appreciate first the precision and clarity of her miniature watercolors.  For the artist, ultimately, her flowers are a record of the simple pleasures of life.  She notes: “After a painting is finished, I can look at it, and I can feel again the sun on my head and hear the humming of the insects.”

Click on images of watercolors for details: