The interplay of lights and darks on the ground of a shaded forest, the elusive reflections on a sunlit lake, and the pattern of clouds on an overcast afternoon are among the attractions that landscapes hold for me. Nothing in nature looks the same on any two given days, or even at any two given moments. It is this transitivity that makes nature such a compelling subject matter, as well as one that is such a challenge to capture on paper. And it is precisely this transparent, ethereal quality of watercolors that make it the ideal media for painting the landscape.

I work both from life and from photographs, enjoying the benefits of both methods. While photography allows me to freeze a particular moment and provides me with the freedom to study the scene at my leisure, there is nothing that compares to the lighting, color range, and the liveliness that can only be achieved when working on site. I prefer, therefore, to work on site for the beginning stages of a painting and to use supplementary photographs to complete the details."

Beth Kantor, November 1999