Daniela Werneck’s watercolors exude a seductive dreaminess. Though her style is realistic, the mood is that of a fairytale. They beckon the viewer to join the young women in peaceful repose as they gaze off into internal worlds, diffused sunlight casting intricate patterns on their skin. One wishes to inhabit the magical realms where children are visited by wrens and sparrows and hummingbirds attracted to the innocence of youth. 

Werneck presents a new body of work—perhaps her most stirring yet—in Metamorphosis, a solo exhibition opening at RJD Gallery on February 3.Talking to a Hummingbird, watercolor on aqua board, 20 x 16"

Metamorphosis—which the dictionary defines as "the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form"—is an apt name for the show. The models for the series of paintings were two teenagers who the artist grew to know while they sat for her. “They talked mainly about uncertainties of life…they are full of dreams and doubts about their future. They sent me back to my past,” Werneck says. “They made me feel again this transition from childhood to adulthood.” 

Werneck was also looking for something new in her art career. “I was searching for challenges to make me better at what I do, to help me grow,” she says. “I want to grow more and more in every work I do, I want to transform but never stop. Our actual level is always immature in relation to the next one we can reach.”In Full Bloom, watercolor on aqua board, 16 x 20"Born in Brazil into a Portuguese family, symbolism and imagery from Portuguese culture regularly show up in her work. Titles, such as In Full Bloom, The Eclosion of a Butterfly and Talking to a Hummingbird also allude to Werneck’s past. On the most basic level hummingbirds symbolize joy. “But also, I see the girl as a flower blossoming into life and the bird that is always close to the flower is the hummingbird,” she says, adding that the Portuguese word for hummingbird translates into “flower kisser,” which she finds particularly romantic.

“My background always influences my work; my art is my language. They remind me where I came from…by painting them I show my roots to the world.”

After graduating from the Fine Arts School of Rio de Janiero in 1999, Werneck worked in interior design until moving to Australia in 2008. She and her husband lived there for three years until his job in the oil fields brought them to Houston in 2011.The Eclosion of a Butterfly, watercolor on aqua board, 12 x 24"“These big changes between countries are like new beginnings because you arrive on soil that you don’t know anything about,” she says. “You don’t know anybody; you start to live in a culture that you have no idea of—and it makes us grow…It changes us forever in many aspects.”

Although she had painted as a hobby for 30 years, it wasn’t until 2015 that Werneck became a full-time artist. A self-taught watercolorist, her pieces have a uniquely contemporary look and are executed with a level of realism difficult to achieve in the medium. She paints on clay panels, not paper, that she varnishes to get the effect of a framed canvas. When the Love Blooms, watercolor on aqua board, 8 x 8"Werneck applies her imagination to photos of models to create her paintings, often adding backgrounds, birds and objects that were not in the photograph. Sometimes she creates compositions on photoshop out of pictures she took and drawings. “At other times I start painting the figure and then I let my imagination finish it while I am painting it,” she says. “It happened while painting Talking to a Hummingbird, for example, in which I ended up painting a part of a very romantic Brazilian song.”

Primavera was the first painting in the series she completed, with Spring Blossom soon after. They are small works but were very challenging because it was the first time the artist attempted the lace-filtered light patterns on the model’s skin. 

The models for the series was a childhood friend of her son and her niece who lives in Portugal. “It was late winter, and here in Texas the weather was already warming up. They posed at my entryway, close to my front door, where the sunlight is very beautiful. It enters through the glass of the door and ‘bathes’ my entrance,” she says. Primavera, watercolor on aqua board, 9 x 12"Some of the shadows were not planned. Werneck was trying to minimize the intensity of the light on the model, but “when we hung the lace for the first time, the shadows over her pale skin were so intensely beautiful, visually transforming that winter day into spring.

“I really wanted to paint that light. I love the sun; I need its light in my day, I like to feel it on my skin…light means energy to me; it is life; it is hope. It warms my life, it brings happiness.”

If there is anything Werneck wants viewers to take away from her work it is just that—hope. 

“That's the keyword that brings this magical dreamy look into my art,” she says. “I believe hope is the last thing we can lose, it is always there in a certain way—when we lose hope, we lose life.”

The Eclosion of a Butterfly and In Full Bloom were the last pieces she completed, and one can see how her shadow-work became more purposeful, the patterning more detailed and defined, as she developed her skill and the series evolved.Little Birds Told Me, watercolor on aqua board, 8 x 8"“I enjoyed the time I spent producing this series,” says Werneck. “Each of them had a specific challenge to overcome. They are part of the process of the transformation of my art career. They are the metamorphosis of my art.” —

RJD Gallery
227 N. Main Street • Romeo, MI 48065
(586) 281-3613 • www.rjdgallery.com 

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