Gloria Tseng Fischer – Check Mate

Description

Gloria Tseng Fischer has always been drawn to the medium of watercolor. Returning to it while practicing architecture and raising her family, she recalled the feel of the brush stroke during her childhood calligraphy lessons. It is this attentiveness to the relationship between brush, water, and paper that defines her work, which has been described as classical and yet contemporary. She employs a technique of “visual editing”, a practice she developed as an architect, in which she strategically uses the paper itself as part of the composition. By revealing the white of the paper, particularly in the highlights, she repositions it as an active participant of the painting. Her process rarely involves preliminary pencil sketches. Instead, she paints directly on hot press paper. The smooth surface allows water blotches and stains to emerge, creating textures rendered through dark, light, and washy tones. This approach results in works that are explosively loose yet deliberately guided. It is this sensitivity to how pigment settles, spreads, and dries that gives her work a distinctive naturalist, rather than realistic, character. Gloria Tseng Fischer’s artwork spans various categories, including landscapes, still life, floral, and edible subjects.