VOID — Or The New Theory of Watercolour
Here is my New Artwork Serie, VOID (-Or The New Theory Of Watercolour) that I started miniting on MakersPlace on 26th July 2022 after a long reflection. After more than 3 years of extensive use of Watercolour in my work, becoming my main medium of expression, I started to question it.
Why Watercolour?
The story did not really start 3 years ago. It started in my childhood. Many reason for it.
1/ My dad loves watercolour. He is not an artist (or at least, he would not want me to name him as an artist), but he loves watercolour. I spent my childhood in Normandy (France) on the sea side, and the colour palette is sumptuous in the nature, from mellow green, soft grey sky, gentle light blue, golden sand, filtered yellow, deep blue sea and agitated waves… It is an heaven for soft gentle colours, similar to a watercolour palettes. It is non unusual to meet sunday watercolourist on the sea shore, avid to depict the peaceful landscape unfolding before our eyes. My dad was egally attracted to the painters, and would spend time to understand how they use their palette, and hidden at home, he would try to reproduce Art he would have seen, trying to create similar effect. So I saw him enjoying watercolour a lot. With my mum, for Christmas we even bought it a quality watercolour palette and some special paper. That really brought me joy. When I enter the NFT Space, I even try to make him some room and he sold some of pieces ❤
2/ I remember as well that my first souvenirs and memories of painting while being a child, was the joy to mix the paint with water — it mesmerized me. I preferred the mix in my water pot to the actual painting itself. The softness, the glittering and the smoothness were everything to me
3/ And time passed. I have tested a lot of mediums, from Ink, silversmithing, Pastels, Jewelry, Crafting etc. But with the work, family, etc. I was not that active on an Art level. But one day, a dear friend of mine, Katarina, gave me a voucher for an Art & Craft shop, as she realised that I should still create — and I went there, and saw this watercolour palette from Winsor and Newton, back in 2019, at this very same point I was discovering #cryptoart and #NFT — and it clicked in my mind: I wanted to try and being a mum, it was quick and easy to deploy, to clean, and transport with me during holidays. All made a lot of sense. And I was going through a period where I was drawing all black and white, and felt the urge for some colours. This is how it started.
A Love Story with Watercolour
The love was instant. and the funny thing is that I was learning to paint in watercolour at the beginning of my NFT and Digital Art journey. And all starts to blend in my Art journey too. When I was Digitising my painting on the Editional App (a 2019 app to create NFT), there was also a small software with some digital tools. This is where I started to flip the colours and play with the HUE. And I really felt I found a new Aesthetic that was bringing me some sparkles in my soul. the softness of the watercolour starts to shine like a neon. This is what I branded “Augmented Watercolour” as I was playing on the reality of an analogue watercolour that was twicked and augmented. I became the first watercolourist on the CryptoArt Space thanks to two unrelated incidents.
Since, I animated watercolour, Augmented Reality with Artivive, made Generated Art, Dynamic Art — all based on Watercolour — and still today, with The Mignonverse, I and Tagachi (co-founder of Mignonverse) are still pushing the limit of Watercolour into the Digital and the Blockchain worlds — From Physical to Dreams and beyond.
Watercolour — Until when?
I went through a phase of doubts and wondering that now I was a full time artist, I don’t have anymore the constraints of having to worry about a self contained medium. So I started questionning my extensive use of Watercolour.
But I had to admit it, even if I was wondering if people would be getting mored to see mainly watercolour from me, I was still feeling a lot of pleasures painting and extend the watercolour beyond the paper
And I realised that I researched a lot the Digital aspect of Watercolour, but have so far overlooked the watercolour itself — and I wondered why — Because, the pigment, the water and the paper was like in itself an experiment — like a scientist with her pots, mixing the ingredients. And The digital was good to play with the pigment, but was lacking of research on the Paper and water itself. What about playing better with the lack of pigment, the grain of the paper.
This is how I started to work on VOID
The paper and the water were the layers, same as when I draw on a Procreate® programme — but all was physical.
So I played with the emptiness of the painting, and create layering.
With the help of a Liquid masking, I separated the layers, starting from the softer colour, to the darker. 4 to 5 layers of different colours, paced with the shape of the VOIDS, making the viewing wonder what was underneath and what existed before.
The Space after the Big Bang, but with a view on the past — Like a star still shining million years after it disapeared.
The Volume and the depth was instant, and the eyes is troubles as the lighter seems in front… but is behind.
Back to Physical
The Artwork is sold as a GIF Art — as I loved to add a little more Star Gazing spirit ❤ — Though, The collectors will be offered to claim the Physical Artwork if they want — as I love to know that the physical painting can have also its hour of glory
