Paul M. Souza

A series of technically well-handled watercolor washes of comfortable size that, according to Souza, “want to catch the mood in that split-second response to nature, when the eyes are not yet focused—before the intellect begins to separate and label.” And, perhaps, for that brief moment they succeed. However, in nature, with every step and every breath the experience is renewed. Nature is kaleidoscopic, enveloping, rustling; a combination of sight, sound, smell and touch. Souza’s paintings, though mood abstractions, are memories of a moment that, as completed objects, lose sight of the grandeur they portray. They lack the “snap” necessary to remove a twig from Mother Nature’s total tree.

––Henry T. Hopkins