With a double master’s degree in science and a career as a nurse anesthetist, Ebba Navas is an expert in human physiology and knows a lot about how the brain works.
“I do artwork so my right brain can be happy,” she said. “It’s brain balancing.”
Golden Stream by Ebba Navas. 8 x 10 digital ink on paper
Working a high-stakes job in a hospital surgery department, Ebba finds creating art to be a great stress reliever. “It’s necessary for my existence,” she said. “I would go crazy if I didn’t have my art.”
Joining HQGallery earlier this year, Ebba is currently the featured artist, displaying a collection of abstract mixed-media pieces that incorporate gold, silver, and copper leaf and sari silk over backgrounds of color rolled onto the canvas.
“I’m a real textile nut—crochet, felting, anything with textile and texture.” She enjoys marrying her love for science with her passion for art, and particularly the experimentation that it allows.
With her penchant for the avant-garde, Ebba is driven to discover the next thing that strikes her artistic fancy. Her art forms have spanned handmade jewelry, pottery, and wreaths, in addition to various kinds of painting. She became enamored with poured acrylic painting and developed specialized techniques that she has taught to other artists. She also creates digital paintings on a 12-inch iPad using an app called ArtRage that lets her paint with a stylus as well as with her fingers.
“I love the abstraction you can create,” painting digitally. “It’s almost photographic in 3D.”
For her next artistic adventure, she plans to combine her digital work with multimedia collage.
See more of this inventive artist’s work online at www.ebbiesdigitalartandmore.com.
The HQGallery, located at 333 First Street, Suite D, in Benicia, showcases the artwork of more than 25 established and emerging artists working in a wide variety of media: oil, acrylic, and watercolor paint; fabric and fine needlework; clay; mixed media; photography; and printmaking. The gallery is open Thursday through Sunday from 12 to 6 pm. Find more information online at www.hqgallery.net.
