Em Echeverria

The Gallery

Drawing, painting, and collage, 2019 to 2023

Studio work in charcoal, ink, graphite, acrylic, and cut paper. Most sections hang more than one object: the subject beside the study made from it, the stages of a piece beside its finished state, or a study in gray beside the same subject in color.

Each pairing shows what stayed, what changed, and what the hand chose to leave out, which is the same question every design problem asks.

Still Life, Pencil to Charcoal

Photograph of a single pink rose in a clay pot against draped white cloth. — Potted Rose

Pencil line drawing of the potted rose: petals, leaves, and pot drawn in outline only, with no shading. — Rose, Contour, 2019
Graphite on paper

Light pencil drawing of a shelf holding a glass, a jug, and a bottle, with a potted rose and a striped jar on the table below. — Layout in Pencil, 2019
Graphite on paper

Pencil study of a hand hanging over the edge of a box, a second hand resting on top, and a potted rose drawn in outline. — Hand and Rose, Study, 2019
Graphite on paper

Charcoal drawing of a potted rose and a seashell on a table, with a cast of a hand on a dark box behind them and deep shadow across the floor. — Still Life with Rose and Shell, 2019
Charcoal on paper

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Flowers in a Jar, Gray and Color

The gray painting taped to a board on a studio table, with the real pink flowers in a jar standing behind it. — On the Studio Table

A black, white, and gray painting of flowers leaning out of a glass jar with a handle. — Flowers in a Jar, in Gray, 2021
Acrylic on paper

Painting of a pink flower with dark green leaves in a glass jar, set on a gray surface against a flat yellow-ochre wall. — Flowers in a Jar, 2021
Acrylic on paper

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Stalk and Bottle, Three Abstractions

Photograph of a dried stalk leaning out of a blue glass bottle under a bright studio lamp. — Dried Stalk in a Blue Bottle

Faint pencil drawing of a bottle and a long stalk branching toward the upper right of a large sheet. — Underdrawing, 2019
Graphite on paper

The same drawing with the bottle filled in by a dense net of small ink marks and the stalk still in pencil above it. — Ink Begun, 2019
Ink over graphite on paper

Ink drawing of a bottle and a long branching stalk built from a dense net of tiny marks, with scattered ink drops across the empty right side of the page. — First Abstraction, 2019
Ink on paper

Ink drawing in which the braided stalk enters from the upper left and dissolves into streaks, drips, and heavy blots of ink falling down the sheet. — Second Abstraction, 2019
Ink on paper

Abstract ink drawing with no bottle or stalk left: ink spatter on the left, a hand-drawn lattice of small cubes on the right, and torn white shapes crossing both. — Third Abstraction, 2019
Ink on paper

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Figure in a Skirt, Drawn and Reassembled

Ink drawing in a sketchbook of a standing figure seen from behind, with hair in a bun, a pale top, and a wide dark skirt above two thin legs. — Figure in a Skirt, 2019
Ink on paper, sketchbook

Notebook page holding cut pieces of the ink figure: the bun, the skirt's dark edge, and the legs, set apart with pieces of blue and black wash. — Figure in a Skirt, Reassembled, 2021
Cut ink drawing on grid paper

Final

The Page in Motion, 2021

Video, 17 seconds

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Ink Line Drawings

Five sheets pinned to a white studio wall: three covered in fine black lines fanning out from a center, and two solid black. — On the Studio Wall, 2019
Ink on paper

Two large framed line drawings hanging side by side above a bed, each nearly as wide as a pillow is long. — Framed and Installed, 2019
Ink on paper, framed

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White Charcoal on Black Paper

Drawing on black paper of a spiky plant in a rectangular black vase, surrounded by loose white strokes that radiate outward from the leaves. — White Charcoal on Black Paper, 2019
The paper is black. The white is drawn on, and the plant is the paper left bare.

Second drawing of the same plant and vase on black paper: sharp black branches against an even gray-white background, with a thin white outline around them. — White Charcoal on Black Paper, 2019
The paper is black. The white is drawn on, and the plant is the paper left bare.

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Ink

A full white sheet covered with the same black ink bursts, larger and more widely spaced. — Ink Blossoms, 2021
Blown ink on paper

A pool of black ink blown into long branching streaks across tan paper, resembling a bird with spread feathers; the words bird in flight are handwritten in the corner. — Bird in Flight, 2019
Blown ink on paper

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Cut Paper

Collage of hundreds of small paper squares stepping from pale blue to navy, forming the silhouette of a figure with one arm raised. — Figure in Blue Squares, 2019
Cut paper collage

Collage of overlapping paper squares stepping from pale yellow at the left through orange to deep red at the right. — Sunset in Squares, 2022
Cut paper collage

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Tinsel Tree, Two Paintings

Photograph of a small silver tinsel tree holding a red, a white, and a dark knitted stocking. — Tinsel Tree with Stockings

Gray painting of the tree in which each branch is a row of paired dashes in a herringbone pattern, with pale stockings shown as flat shapes. — Tinsel Tree, I, 2021
Acrylic on paper

Second gray painting of the tree, built from scattered leaf-shaped strokes, with two dark stockings at the center and vertical brush drags in the background. — Tinsel Tree, II, 2021
Acrylic on paper

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Agave, 3 Hours vs 30 Minutes

Painting of a spiky agave plant with rust-brown outlines and gray-white leaves, against a dark green background of horizontal brush strokes. — Agave, 3 Hours, 2021
Acrylic on paper

A smaller, quicker painting of the agave in brown, set low against a blue-gray ground with thin pink streaks. — Agave, 30 Minutes, 2021
Acrylic on paper

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Sketchbook

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Charcoal Trees

Charcoal drawing of two bare trees side by side, the right one dotted with small marks for leaves. — Two Trees, 2019
Charcoal on paper

Charcoal drawing of five tall, narrow trees standing along a dark horizontal band. — Row of Trees, 2019
Charcoal on paper

Two large charcoal trees on adjoining sheets, with a charcoal-blackened hand resting at the bottom edge. — Two Trees, with Hand, 2019
Charcoal on paper

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Life Drawing

Abstracted painting of a reclining form divided by black outlines into flat planes of gray and blue, with stippled red along some edges. — Reclining Figure in Blue and Red, 2023
Acrylic on paper

A sheet of five quick, loose charcoal sketches of crouching and reclining figures, drawn close together and overlapping. — Five Short Poses, c. 2019
Charcoal on paper

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Stag, Two States

Drawing on black paper of a stag's head facing forward, its antlers and muzzle picked out in white and the body left dark. — Stag, First State, 2019
White charcoal on black paper

Drawing on black paper of a stag from the chest up, dark against a gray ground, with a white rose in the lower left corner. — Stag with Rose, 2019
Charcoal and white charcoal on black paper

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Blue Tree, Two States

Six canvases arranged in two rows forming one painting: a short trunk with brown branches spreading through dense blue brush marks, against pink and peach. — Blue Tree, 2021
Acrylic on six canvases

The same six-canvas tree with about a dozen raised, crumpled white blooms attached among the blue marks. — Blue Tree with Blooms, 2021
Acrylic and mixed media on six canvases

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