Shared Ground
by Ellen Fogarty and Mary Breshike
What is a collaboration between two artists of different styles, mediums, and supplies? It is a creation created from trust—trust in each other's vision, trust in the process, and a trust that the collaboration doesn't dilute each artist's vision of the project. Shared Ground is a collaborative effort of two distinct art forms that typically don't merge well when combined. This collaborative exploration demonstrates how distinct artistic voices, techniques and perspectives can meet to overlap and ultimately unify into a single visual language.
The collaboration began with watercolorist Ellen Fogarty creating the water- color underpainting on pastel paper. Her watercolor foundation established the atmosphere, movement, and the emotional flow of the project. The use of soft washes defines the sky, land, and water. Subtle transitions suggest distance, and fluid marks create the rhythms of the land. Watercolor's natural tendency to flow, and blend sets the stage for this landscape. It allows the watercolor composition to breathe and remain open. From that foundation, Mary Breshike introduces pastels to build depth, texture, and clarity. Her role as the pastelist was to respond to the existing creation, not overwrite what already existed. She creates enhancing forms that draw forward areas of focus, anchoring the scene with tactile details. Pastels' immediacy and opacity offer contrast to watercolor's translucence, allowing color to intensify, edges to emerge, and the landscape to feel grounded and dimensional. The imagery itself reflects this exchange. The winding path, shared horizon, and clusters of wildflowers speak to connection and coexistence -separate entities growing within the same terrain. The land becomes a metaphor for collaboration: varied textures and colors thriving side by side, shaping a unified whole.
This piece grew from a shared respect of the process, and a willingness to trust what emerges when control is gently exchanged. Each medium retained its voice, yet neither dominated: instead, they entered into dialogue. Shared Ground stands as a visual testament to the idea that when different approaches merge with intention and respect, a creation emerges that is richer, deeper, and greater than the sum of its parts.
