Artist statement
Each of these paintings displayed here are drawn from either a figure, a landscape, or an abstract series.
I have been painting since a wonderful second grade teacher introduced me to the water-based paints common in elementary school. In college I used gouache and oil paints. I added acrylic and watercolors after college. Twenty years ago I was fortunate to discover the incredible possibilities of painting using the computer. Now my paintbox is equivalent to a structure twenty stories tall and occupying 250 rooms. Now even the paint has no limits.
The element that attracts me to painting and drawing on the computer is the act of painting colored light on a transparent glass surface. The medium is light itself. With various applications I can paint colored light over colored light and smear the colors around. The original exists on the screen and in computer memory. Another attraction for me is the incredible speed in which I can create a complex composition.
I have elected to make fine art digital prints because of the high quality of color print manipulation and the capability of making editions. Sometimes I scan in my drawings or paintings and rework them on the computer and use the prints in collage, silk-screen or painting. I am very excited to be able to use traditional materials within this new digital art tool. I work on an Apple Macintosh computer with a Wacom tablet. All my images are original.
—Emily Young, digital and traditional artist.