ARTIST STATEMENT
My Implied Horizon watercolor series began while exploring what happens artistically when different colors come together along an axis, implying a horizon. As a child of the Midwest, horizons hold special importance: Northern Illinois, a land of flatness, makes it easy to see a straight horizon line while gazing at the landscape. Any time we’re in nature and look into the distance, we are gazing at a horizon, formed from the meeting of earth and sky (or by water and sky, if you’re at a lake). This effect becomes more pronounced around sunrise and sunset, when we look to the east or west and see the Sun hovering low in the sky. These experiences inspired me to create a watercolor series that reflects this beautiful symbolism and the deeply spiritual feeling of the horizon. My artistic process took on a new freedom, embracing a spirit of play and experimentation while painting that resulted in works filled with loose and energetic brushwork, with colors and paint strokes guided by intuition. Some of the Implied Horizon paintings are pastel, while others present bright colors with high contrast. I loved seeing how I could combine dramatically different colors and still evoke a feeling of peace. I also experimented with papers, from traditional, lightweight watercolor papers with classic straight edges to the thickest, heaviest, most rigid watercolor paper available. In many cases, I tore the heavy paper to get the size I wanted and achieve a deckled edge on all sides; for these almost sculptural paintings, I chose float framing to display the entire painting “floating” above a mat so the paper’s edges are visible. Let these paintings draw you in to an imaginary landscape (or waterscape), where you can float in nature and enjoy movement and color as you let yourself walk forward, toward an inspirational “implied horizon.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Award-winning artist Anne Nordhaus-Bike paints colorful watercolors inspired by nature. She also creates mixed media art. Anne’s art has appeared in numerous solo and group shows as well as many arts programs, presentations, and performances. Her work has been published in periodicals and books; covered in numerous print publications; and featured in broadcast media, both on television and in feature films. She received a degree in art history, with honors, from the University of Chicago and went on to launch a fine arts column that ran for two decades in a Chicago newspaper, Gazette Chicago, where she served in various capacities since the newspaper’s founding in 1983. She joined Gazette Chicago’s board of directors in 2004, serving until the paper closed in June 2024. She founded her multimedia arts firm, ANB Communications, in 1993, and from 2013 through 2023 she appeared regularly on a national radio station and a regional program syndicated in 15 states as well as guesting on several podcasts. A member of the prestigious Woman Made Gallery in Chicago since 1998, she launched her book, Follow The Sun, with a book signing at Woman Made in 2012; the book includes more than a dozen of her original watercolors. Among her many awards and honors, she was named to the National Women’s Hall of Fame’s Wall of Fame. Anne lives with her husband Bill and cat Sterling in Chicago, where she makes art and enjoys cooking, tai chi, and time in nature.
©Anne Nordhaus-Bike