Geraniums

Watercolor on Arches cold press paper

14 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches

In successive layers of wet paint dropped onto wet paper, astringent Geraniums emerge from a gray blue atmosphere representing the natural forces of wind, rain, earth and growth. Their movement bypasses the melancholy of vanitas—that sense that all earthly pleasures are temporary—in a kind of poetic magic rendered in plein air. In this painting one senses the “light, dew, breezes, blooms and freshness” mentioned by John Constable (1776-1837) as the qualities we sense in the fleeting states of changing nature.