INTERVIEW: Ottavia Huang on finding beauty in the little moments
Watercolor: The Morning Crowd, Uncommon Grounds, Western Ave, Albany, provided
“What’s beautiful about Ottavia’s pieces is how she captures the natural moment, one that we all easily walk by, but hold an intimate space in time and memory for the participants living the moment.”
The walls of Uncommon Grounds in Clifton Park are always adorned with artwork, showcasing the world through the eyes of talented local artists. For the months of December and January, patrons of the coffee shop see their familiar Capital Region surroundings cast in watercolor, painted with care and intention by Ballston Lake artist Ottavia Huang.
I was able to meet Ottavia in this very cafe, surrounded by her pieces depicting the likes of Vischer Ferry General Store, Albany International Airport and Yaddo to talk about not only this show, but her overall work in the area.
Prior to living in Upstate New York, Ottavia was a researcher in the field of creative industries, running a journal in the field at a university in Taiwan. With both an MBA and a PhD in Creative Industries, it’s clear that she’s a multifaceted talent, though she didn’t find her love for watercolor until after moving to the United States with her partner, now husband, for his work. While she had loved drawing and doodling for a lifetime, watercolor was a new medium to experiment with.
“I took a watercolor workshop in a local community center in Malta because that's where we moved to. And then something clicked; I've always been drawing with ink or doodling with pencil, but now I can color it!” she chuckles. “From there, I found a local group that sketches on location — Urban Sketchers in Albany.”
As it turns out, Urban Sketchers opened doors for Ottavia not just as an artist, but as someone freshly transplanted into the area. “By joining the group,” she says, “I got to know different locations, new places, meet new friends, and then just sketch on location. I really fell in love with sketching on location.”
Having lived in the Capital Region my whole life, and therefore defending it to natives and tourists alike, Ottavia’s work thrills me in a way that fills me with pride and camaraderie, even before meeting here. On her page on the Albany Artist’s Group website, there are several examples of her work illustrating scenes around the area. There’s “Morning Walk, Saratoga Spa Park,” which depicts two folks, each clad in a warm, autumnal color jacket, each holding the leash of a dog as the pup wades into a shallow brook amidst fallen leaves. Immediately, I felt the love I had for this location, having run with my cross country team there each year in high school. While you can’t see the people’s faces, you can tell through their relaxed posture — a hand in a pocket, facing the dogs and the stream rather than forging straight ahead — that these walkers and Ottavia, too, feel at home and at peace in the quiet of the park.
What’s beautiful about Ottavia’s pieces is how she captures the natural moment, one that we all easily walk by, but hold an intimate space in time and memory for the participants living the moment. When I ask her how she chooses what to focus on while she’s sketching on location, Ottavia discloses, “Sometimes I don't know what I'm going to paint, so I'll just sit there and start working on a piece. Then suddenly, something interesting pops up.”
She recalls one of these times at Yaddo Gardens in Saratoga Springs. “There's a fountain, and I feel like, I'm just going to sketch this and see how it goes. But in the middle of sketching, there's suddenly a family and a young boy, probably this tall,” she pantomimes to the height of our booth. “He suddenly climbed over to see what's in the pool, and I thought, ‘oh, that's so cute!’ I added him in, and it became one of my favorite sketches.”
Watercolor: Albany International Airport, provided
Working among Urban Sketchers, meeting more and more of the art community, and strengthening her own talents, Ottavia was offered an artist-in-residence position with Arlene’s Artist Materials in Albany. Going on four years of her time there, she says about the community at Arlene’s,
“I felt like having a home base, a community that supports you, really helped me to grow as an artist. Before, I was just this random sketcher joining this crew, going to different places. But [in the residency] it's not just the studio space that they provide. [They ask] ‘What do you want to pursue? We'll make it happen.’”
One such project that Ottavia was able to pursue was the painting of one of the brand new Nipper statues that graced the Albany streets this past summer thanks to the Albany Downtown BID. Her pup, “Paws on the Map,” sponsored by the Opalka Gallery at Russell Sage College and Clinton Market Collective, draws from her own move to the area.
“I thought from my experience moving here — I learned a lot of different places from the sketch group, from friends. And some of those places are a little bit like hidden gems. So I thought maybe I could transform it into a map of all the hidden gems in downtown Albany that I’ve learned so far,” she explains.
The process itself was quite the undertaking as it involved projecting a Google Map version of Albany onto the 3D sculpture and plotting out points one by one before she was able to start sketching. The finished product now sits outside of The Palace Theatre and features traditional Albany icons like the Capitol Building and The Egg, as well as Albanite favorites — a plethora of murals from local artists, the Cohoes Mastodon peeking out of the NYS Museum, and yoga in Washington Park, to name a few.
As she has grown more into her own practice as a watercolor artist, Ottavia has begun to help both budding and experienced artists grow as well through teaching in her residency. At first, she approached the opportunity with skepticism, thinking to herself, “I’m a baby artist! What am I going to teach?” before realizing that all she had to do was teach what she liked to do.
“That's how I started teaching watercolor and sketches. And now I love teaching. I'm a super introverted person, so if I imagine myself seeing 20 people, 15 people… you know, it was so hard for me. But now I feel like it's fine!” she ends with a smile and a shrug.
For all levels of artists, her workshop on travel, urban, and everyday sketching is designed to “[help] us slow down and sketch the little moments around you using watercolor and ink,” as reads the description on her website. Throughout 2025, she also taught Plein Air classes in which artists set up their canvases outdoors to sketch and paint, as well as classes at Mohawk Valley Art, which will continue into 2026.
“Everyone can just jump in and start drawing,” she encourages. “All they need to do is start!”
If you’re looking to see Ottavia’s art in-person, get to Uncommon Grounds in Clifton Park before January 31st, or check out her website msotterstudio.square.site and Instagram @ms.otter.studio to keep up to date on her upcoming shows. Both of these sites also offer information on upcoming workshops, projects she’s working on, and pieces for sale.
