ERICA HIRSHLER: I think one of the amazing things about Gourds is the variety of techniques he used to create it. There are some areas like the big hanging fruit that's in the center where there's practically no paint at all. He uses the paper to create the lightest area of reflection and sunlight. So it's very, very thin with a translucent wash of color. And then there are other parts where the paint is really, really thick and he's taken his brush and used a much drier paint and sort of dragged it across the surface of the composition and left globs of it on the surface. So that difference in texture and in the way he creates the light and dark areas is infinitely varied in this composition and for a watercolor painter it is an amazing tour de force to be able to do all of those things in the same composition and have them all work.