Ed Ferszt  

 “I work primarily in water-based media. Earlier works from the 70s, 80s, and 90s were predominantly acrylic, some were on canvas and some on paper. Currently I create small and large watercolors on stretched paper. Regretfully most contemporary watercolor has been relegated to the level of kitsch, which really underestimates the power of the medium. Watercolor changes over time and it tries to articulate what is, by noting what is not. As Sargent said watercolor is color drawn with a brush. Both preceding contradictory statements are part of what I am interested in.

My paintings use the visible world as a starting point. Frequently I build a set or stage and bring material into the studio to serve as models and reference points. Each painting has an underlying formal substructure or strata on top of which the image is draped or hung.  For example, work from 2013 and 2014, has a formal structure of horizontal lines dividing each work in exactly the same place. My latest series on the four Elements used a structure specific to each element.   For example   “Air” was built on a set of intersecting corners which when viewed in segments create shifting (pumping) box like frames whereas “Water Melting” was built on the molecular structure of Ice.

 There is fluidity in everything and my paintings are attempts to track the remnants or explore what is left after the fluid changes. In this way, I consider the current paintings as archeological excavations unpacking ideas, feelings and images. For example, the last series of four paintings focused on the four elements, which in our western ideology views the elements as external material, or things that we can control or manipulate to meet our interests. Earth is plowed for planting, fire burns and leaves us charcoal, water is made into ice cubes and air is captured in plastic bubble wrap."