This month we’re featuring Dee Ann Layton for the Capitol Hill Art League’s Mind of the Artist feature. Read their story and check out their beautiful artwork below.

My name is Dee Ann Layton. My art style is a fusion of East Asian brush painting with Western transparent watercolor. I use handmade rice papers, silk, watercolor papers or watercolor canvas. 

What sparks my choice to paint? I feel line, rhythm, repetition, saturated color in basic shapes, the overlooked and hidden places that change one’s perception of the flow of light. I enjoy the uncontrolled movement of watercolor on a surface, joined with sound design principles, often executed in sumi-e ink.

As an adult, my formal art training took place in Chicago, Illinois with several members of the Illinois Watercolor Society. My undergraduate minor was in Studio Art from the urban school, Roosevelt University; my major degree was in Computer Science.

I have received private cross-cultural art training in East Asian Brush painting from three separate Chinese born/ trained sumi-e master artists. I am also a member of the International Sumi-e Society of America, and the National Capitol Area Sumi-e Society (NCAS.) Since 2011, I have been the artist-in-residence at a Stafford Country winery, Hartwood Winery in Fredericksburg, VA. 

In 2019, I was accepted into the Hill Center Galleries “TREEmendous” Juried Exhibition with my fusion piece, Rose Park-Georgetown in Springtime. I have also shown sample artworks in the areas of figurative work, animal example, landscape and abstract artwork.