Carol Woodin’s Hazelnut watercolor, 7 x10 inches,  is the newest acquisition to my inventory.  Painted on McEwen’s vellum, a prized material reintroduced by Rory McEwen, a treasured Scottish botanical artist who revived painting on vellum (animal skin). A prepared gessoed surface applied on top of the skin acts as a diving board for the art to jump off the sheet. The gesso electrifies the paint, adding a depth to the dry-brush watercolor technique.  Woodin has produced some of the most exquisite examples of 21st century botanical portraiture on this substrate, a shared experience with a master who would have celebrated this renaissance of painting on vellum and appreciated Woodin’s stylized compositions.