View From my Studio - Watercolor on Paper 22'' x 15'' Award-winning artist, Marc van der Leeden, crafts sensitive watercolor interpretations of cities and their natural environs that are an absolute pleasure to behold. With deft rendering skills and a near weightless handling of paint, trees and hills, buildings and bridges appear as if out of a mist. His style coincides with the character of his medium as forms retain the quality of their watery birth which applies beautifully to organic forms but even more so to architectural ones. The buildings convey the notion that all is transitory; they do not feel hard and permanent. In this way, van der Leeden rejects realistic textures in favor of a multitude of flowing forms, harnessing the power of abstraction within a realistic work. The images are infused with energy, forms pulse and explode towards the horizon. Natural light is beautifully expressed and pairs well with the areas of shadow. Van der Leeden’s palette is usually limited to two colors and his style remains largely impressionistic, capturing the essence of a locale rather than its fine details. He deploys minimal strokes in his composition, often using a great deal of white space or allowing edge fidelity to become lost within the whiteness of the paper. Van der Leeden has shown his works throughout the Northeast, USA. His paintings have been featured in several leading publications.