Surface and Depth
Oct 2, 2026 - April 23, 2027
Monday - Friday 9:00am-5:00pm
Coldwell Banker Bain
7808 SE 28th St #128
Mercer Island, WA 98040
Surface and Depth
Oct 2, 2026 - April 23, 2027
Hours: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Coldwell Banker Bain
7808 SE 28th St #128
Mercer Island, WA 98040
Surface and Depth — Curatorial Statement
Surface and Depth brings together two bodies of work that explore how light and atmosphere transform our perception of landscape, both above and below the water’s surface.
The works in Imaginative Observations emerge from sustained observation while swimming. Painted from memory and imagination, these watercolor paintings translate the experience of immersion rather than depict a specific underwater location. Shifting light, suspended depth, currents, and dissolving forms are layered through translucent washes and fluid marks, creating spaces that move between observation and imagination.
Reflective Grounds examines the changing relationship between light, water, and land. Oil paintings on wood panel incorporating Dutch metal, alongside mixed-media works on paper, explore reflections, wet surfaces, seasonal change, and the atmospheric conditions of landscapes shaped by water. Surfaces become both subject and material: reflecting, absorbing, and transforming light.
Together, the works move between looking into a landscape and looking across it: beneath the surface of water and across its reflective presence in the land. Both bodies of work are grounded in direct observation and developed through repeated looking, drawing, photographing, and reworking in the studio. Through shifts in color, transparency, texture, and form, Surface and Depth considers how light continually alters what we see and how our perception and memory of a place changes with it.
My work explores how light, material, and constructed space shape our experience of place. Through painting and drawing, I trace how surfaces hold memory—where architecture, landscape, and perception meet and shift.
Erin Power is a multidisciplinary artist whose work examines light, perception, and the built and natural environment.