A Portrait of the Artist: Deb Cohan

Deb Cohan has only been painting for the last five years, but her exquisite use of color and masterful technique convey a deep understanding of watercolor and its potential.

"As a young child I was always interested in arts and crafts," Cohan said. "During my adult life, I painted in the closet, so to speak."

Cohan spent many years working as a special education administrator, and as she approached retirement she began looking for an outlet for her creative streak.

"I am largely self-taught, although I have taken classes through the Art League in Alexandria and other local venues. I've especially benefited from and enjoyed workshops with nationally renowned teachers and artists:Susan Herron, Peter Ulrich, Nicholas Simmons and Skip Lawrence," she said.

"As I spent more and more time with painter friends, my work improved vastly," said Cohan, who discovered her innate talent after retirement.

When she travels, Cohan looks for quaint subjects. She searches for unusual architectural details and urban coincidences, such as a Buddha she discovered in the middle of the woods in San Francisco. She zooms into tree bark to extract the abstract quality of their texture.

"I recently purchased an iPad and discovered that I could easily magnify portions of my photos so that I can see what's going on in the shadowed and less defined areas," said Cohan, who paints mostly from photographs and adjusts her photos in Photoshop to conduct value studies.

Her piece "Individuality" won Second Place in Watercolor in the 25th Annual Spring Gaithersburg Fine Arts Association Show, and is on view at Kentlands Mansion until the end of May 2011. "Nouveau Roma," another watercolor received an Honorable Mention award.

"Most people think that 'Individuality' is an abstract piece. I see it as a close-up of something very real – tree bark from trees I photographed in Mendocino, California," she said. She painted "Nouveau Roma" from a photograph she took of an Art Deco revolving door that had been integrated into an older building in Rome.

Cohan loves to paint urban reflections, she said.

"I look for things that are important to people in cities. I've painted several typical San Francisco buildings reflected in glass windows," said Cohan. She travels often to the Northern California city to visit her son who lives there.

"Reflections add complexity to a situation. The painting process becomes like a puzzle. My challenge is to learn to communicate what's reflections and what's inside, behind a glass pane," she said.

Cohan is a prolific painter and continuously produces new work.

"Currently, I am working on a painting called 'The Bell Jar.' It integrates a window from an antique shop, a dress, stuffed peacocks, an old typewriter and a needlepoint pillow," she said, emphasizing the importance of combining various challenging elements in one composition. "My work is about creating and capturing impressions and telling a story. It's not about photorealism. For instance, in my painting 'The Guardian,' I included the owner of a flower shop in Barcelona in my painting of his shop because he caught me taking a photo."

A frequent and avid traveler, Cohan spent three weeks in Spain. She has also spent time in Rome and the Amalfi Coast in Italy and even made her way to Peru in South America.

When she is not painting out of her home studio or with her group at Asbury Methodist Home, Cohan supervises interns at George Washington University. They are young students who aspire to become secondary special education teachers. She also teaches classes on special education.

Cohan is from Baltimore and currently lives in North Potomac. She is a member of The Art League of Germantown (ALOG) and the Gaithersburg Fine Arts Association (GFAA). Her work has been in past GFAA Spring Shows at Kentlands Mansion, as well as in ALOG's annual shows at Blackrock in Germantown.

This upcoming fall, from Sept. 14 to Nov. 28, she will be exhibiting artwork at the Sandy Spring Museum in Sandy Spring, MD, alongside other ALOG members.