"These selected watercolors represent a retrospective of work created over many years, particularly those created as a series or a related body of work. I first learned watercolor skills and the process of painting in the transparent medium during my sophomore year at Western Maryland College, (now McDaniel College), under the excellent tutelage of Wasyl Palijzuk. Wasyl’s painting exercises taught us to start with loose and undefined washes of color. From these soft, patchy shapes we learned to derive concrete imagery, and Wasyl equipped us with equally concrete painting skills to define with detail the images we envisioned. Fifty years later, I continue to be grateful to my teacher for enabling me to combine spontaneity and control in my watercolor paintings."

                                                               — Ellen Elmes