Eileen Goodman, Valentine's Day Sweets

Valentine's Day Sweets is a sensuous, playful, and vibrating watercolor. Eileen Goodman creates unexpected effects of tonality, layering of color, and luxuriant texture in a medium often difficult to control. One of the few artists to use watercolor on such a large scale, Goodman has said, "The larger scale forces a fluidity and freedom that I could not achieve in smaller formats, and working larger allowed the color I was using to become even more intense and deeper." There are four additional works by Goodman in Woodmere's permanent collection.

Raised in Montclair, New Jersey, Goodman moved to Philadelphia to study illustration with Jacob Landau at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts). Painting classes with Morris Berd and Larry Day convinced her to abandon illustration in favor of figure and still life painting.

Listen to Pamela Birmingham, Woodmere’s former Curator of Education, talk about the bounty of this piece and the artist’s process.