26 October 2022
What makes so many people obsessed with living with a lake or near the ocean? Some psychologists might show it is our desire to go back to the womb where all of us floated in a liquid world that protected us through harm. We emerged through that watery world, yet our bodies remain over fifty percent water. It is no surprise, consequently , that in countless ethnicities the world over, water serves as the most common symbol of the unconscious thoughts. This connection to what Carl Jung referred to as the “collective unconscious” may explain, simply, why so many creative people cannot resist the water allure of water mass media such as watercolor, gouache plus acrylic. Prime examples of all of the three are now on watch at the South Carolina State Art gallery as part of the 45th Annual Nationwide Exhibition of the South Carolina Watermedia Society. Included in the show are usually works by 69 artists, forty-four of whom live in Sc. The variety of subject matter is amazing: abstracts, portraits, still-life renderings, genre studies and scenery, both focused and wide-angle. Let me highlight just a few, a lot of them coincidentally singled out by Charleston-based juror Linda Baker. A great example of the wet-on-wet likelihood of transparent watercolor is Athens, GA, artist Kie Johnson’s “Irresistible, ” a close-up view of two diminishing feet cut off at the ankles, making progress across tide-drenched sand. Johnson admirably catches how the water eddies close to each foot. There is a genuine sense of motion in the placement and position of the feet and the whirling of the water.
Food Information & Features
Another outstanding piece of transparent watercolor is definitely Greenboro, NC, artist Alex Lavine’s “Beauty is Only Epidermis Deep. ” This tongue-in-cheek title captures Lavine’s tour-de-force achievement. In what is essentially the genre study, a rendering of a scene from everyday living — in this case the work of the body painter — the particular artist captures both the bizarre design applied to the surface of the women model and some sense from the flesh beneath. Lavine’s selected subject is one for which watercolor is so perfectly suited. Occasionally watermedia can achieve an opaque result, as is the case along with gouache. A skillful combination of gouache and watercolor are available in “The Blacksmith” by Belton, SC, artist JoAnne Anderson. Here is yet another genre research — in this case a long-haired young smithy at their forge. The open open fire behind his right glenohumeral joint casts half of his physique in partial shadow as the molten metal that he lbs upon his anvil casts light upon his encounter and forearm. Anderson provides chosen a fine subject through which to showcase the reflecting quality of both watercolor and gouache, achieving a highly effective blend of light and darkish.
Food News & Functions
One of the most impressive acrylics in the present show features a very topical ointment subject, the Russian attack of Ukraine. In this subjective piece, entitled “Conflict within Kharkiv in Apt. 5K, ” Charleston artist Renee Khan depicts a moment associated with aerial bombardment. Most of the painting is taken up with what seems to be an apartment block rendered within geometric shapes of lively pastel colors; in the top right is the outline of the missile in the olive boring green often used by the particular military. The off-kilter geometric configuration provides a sense associated with imminent catastrophe. All the performers represented in this landmark exhibit have produced works making use of media diluted with drinking water, offering further evidence possibly of what some researchers call our “blue brain, ” the effect that drinking water has on our happiness plus productivity.