Watercolor: A Stroke of Genius
In college I had a design professor who often told us of elaborate watercolor painting he’d create by a river of a French countryside. Each stroke soft yet thoughtful, painting impressions of the landscape with beautiful abandon. At the end of each session, once the painting was complete, he’d gently slide it into the river and watched as the flowing waters reclaimed the liquid strokes as one of their own, the hours, even days of work dissipating into nothingness as it floated away. For him it was an exercise in letting go and not being afraid to start all over again.
I think of that story now as I contemplate my own love of watercolor. At once a romantic wisp of color and a graphic show of mixing and bleeding colors, watercolors are my favorite of mediums. By their very nature they are untamed and organic, yielding “happy accidents” all about the canvas. I love their range of semi-opaque to opaque hues with colors over lapping in layers that create new colors. Their applications are endless; a fabric, a painting, a kite, a postcard, a rug, a brooch, a pillow, a wallpaper, a tea towel and so the list goes on…
They are a beautiful marriage of manmade and natural.
To say I have an artistic crush on this liquid chroma is something of an understatement. Please enjoy some watercolor lovelies I’ve assembled…
Curious Curiosities
While searching for artwork for a client, I came upon something most unusual. Unusual, yes, but beautiful. Christopher Marley is an painter whose medium is not the brush, a storyteller whose utensil of choice is not the pen, but the bug. Inspired by the beauty of nature’s designs, Mr. Marley crafts meticulous compositions made up of butterflies, dragonflies, preying mantises, and the like, creating elegantly framed design that play off the once-living creatures’ physical features. I love the play of positive and negative, the interaction of colors, the repetition. In his own words Marley says, “It has therefore always been my intent to let the masterful work that has already been done speak for itself. For this reason, at times I consider myself more of a designer than an artist, more of a storyteller than an author.”
With it wide array of specimen selections and colors, this is fantastic way to introduce a reference to traditional botanicals and specimen prints in a modern way. For more on this collection see www.formandpheromone.com .
