72 Artists Magazine June 2020
A SERIES OF CHALLENGES
AND REWARDS
Habets divides her work into three series that have evolved
organically over her career: cityscapes, dancers and figura-
tive stories. “The urban scenes and dancers are mostly
intended to convey a mood or emotion through color, edges
and detail, or lack thereof,” she says. Of her figurative paint-
ing, however, she says that they “often use symbols and
details to spell out an idea or opinion I want to express.”Each series presents different challenges and rewards.
Habets began painting the dancer series for an exhibition
several years ago and has enjoyed watching the pieces
evolve from detailed realism to a blend of realism and
abstract shapes and forms. “I continually need to challenge
myself, or I get bored,” the artist says. “The more I paint
a subject over and over, the more experimental I become
with colors, edges and
backgrounds. This is
where I have most of my
plateau breakthroughs.”
With each new painting
in the dancer series,
Habets reimagines her
subjects and explores the
limits of which elements
she must keep in the
composition and which
she can merely imply.
Habets’ second series
of paintings are the
urban scenes she began
when she moved to
Pittsburgh and found
herself enthralled by her
surroundings. She’d bask
in the quirky alleyways
and towering views on
the walk to her studio.
She wanted to convey
the specific feelings she
had, for example, when
rounding a corner and
finding the light stream-
ing onto the street and
falling onto telephone
wires. Small moments like
these piqued the artist’s
imagination in a way
that seemed surprising
to those around her, and
she felt drawn to explore
this through her artwork.
She says this relatively
new series is constantly
evolving as she discovers
its full potential.
Her series of figura-
tive stories vary in size
and style, dependingSampsonia Way
watercolor on paper, 36x29