Here you will find a few words, alongside the works.
Living Next Door to Alice
I need to talk about Alice.
The above book was gifted to me. I completed it last week. It chronicles the biography of a female watercolorist who lived independently and earned her keep through watercolor during a time when this wasn’t the norm. She elevated watercolor and, using it, shared with others stories of the time and place in which she lived. Her life story reached into others and left its mark through her mentorship and generosity.
“A shadow is not dull gray. It has reflections of the colours all around and it has light within the shade. Open your eyes to the life in a shadow.”
Following reading the book, I listened to a conversation about it Walter Edgar held with South Carolina artist Jonathon Green. And I want to say, Mr. Green described the creative process and watercolor in a way that I so appreciate. Few know and understand the medium. “It can be unforgiving,” Green states. That is so true and a watercolorist knows the sinking feel when you know you’ve passed the point of no return. Watercolor painting is a delicate timed dance between the paper, the water, and paint. Alice was skilled in this. She painted “what she knew”. A confidence in the artist emerges when they are true to themselves and in my opinion Alice did that.
Her work explores the natural and historical environment in which she grew up. Coincidentally as I was reading this book, I learned more about the Charleston Rice Plantations through Episode 2 of Netflix’s High on the Hog. Smith chronicled the experiences of the enslaved in the Charleston area working these plantations. Some say these paintings are romanticized, others say they hold empathy and dignity. I believe the impression is left to the viewer.
As an artist, she documented her world as she saw and experienced it. In a world of Insta-artists, I am inspired by those who sought to learn mastery in painting as opposed to marketing. While she had her fair share of early work in promoting her paintings. her steadfast commitment to “water-colour” (as she penned it) itself leaves me feeling that there is not enough time to learn all I wish.
An exhibition featuring the work of Alice Smith at the Florence County Museum is on view through December 5, 2021.
I thank Alice for her artistic honesty and generosity.
P.S. Blog Title is a nod to a little song by Smokie that some may recognize from any German fest ever attended. So since I didn’t visit any this summer I though we’d enjoy a little Ohrwurm today. You’re welcome ;-).
Weltschmerz
As the pandemic weeks have continued on, I intentionally chose a background in which I could lose myself in, silence the rhetoric and find a quiet space.
The grief I have felt is laced into this one. It is easier to paint than to find the words to describe the paralysis and deep sadness I have felt. Almost, as if stuck on a dilapidated fence observing a destructive political garden party.
Study of Christina
watercolor with gold leaf
10” x 8” on paper
Charity currently wears a scarf or a mask, considering the well being of others. It works in isolation yet extends kindness as it hopes to protect.
This is an image of my sister, taken April of 2020. It is a study in monochromatic underpainting of watercolor within portraiture. I plan to create a larger scale version of it. It feels incredibly iconic to me and has a zeitgeist feel.
Christina lives in New York City. I live in South Carolina and my other sister in North Carolina. We are experiencing opposite ends of a pandemic’s spectrum. The differences are vast yet still linked.
UPDATE August 10, 2020
Below is the final painting completed from the study described in this blog post.
Zeitgeist
watercolor with gold leaf
22” x 15”
When God is Silent
There is an often overlooked and very quiet Saturday which occurs between Good Friday and Easter. It is where the Silence of God is encountered. To me one of the most purposeful of the Holy Week Days and this year to me the most poignant.
It is where we grieve and we remember that hope is a thing with feathers.
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.”