Recently most of my posts have been about watercolor sketching. I try to experiment with it every day. I am interested in the process of creativity, with the goal of being able to visibly express emotions that I feel.  The great Paul Klee once said that “Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.” 

Yesterday I was able to partially ‘make visible’ a pictorial idea that was in my head. I imagined it with my mind’s eye.  Where is the image produced by the ‘mind’s eye’ located? Is it an image at all?  In my experience a mind’s eye pictorial image is not same as a dream image which for me, are very vivid. Those images are in front of me, as if I am seeing them while I am awake.  I can ‘see’ my mind’s-eye images while I’m conscious, with my real eyes are open, looking at something else. I am certain that some neuroscientist somewhere is looking into this issue, and I look forward to reporting on that some day. Not today, however.

Today’s experiment

I started today’s watercolor as a pencil sketch. I did not have a pictorial image in mind, but wanted to play with the idea of lines that did not enclose space.  I drew a several gentle curves at the top of the page and at the bottom, almost defining a planar surface but leaving them disconnected from each other. I also left enough space for other lines to intrude on the incomplete planar forms.

In my watercolor sketch, I approximated the same drawing on watercolor paper. Application of watercolor paint, to the drawing would tend to change the linear quality of the drawing into one of a more planar character by virtue of the fact that the paint would add a second dimension to one-dimensional line.

I tried to minimize this effect by using the wet-on-wet technique and applying my paints to the edge of the lines.

Below is the result:

I am happy with the way this turned out and think it is a good place to start a series that investigates lines and planes and their relationship with each other.

I assumed that a person looking at this composition would follow the gently curving arcs from the funnel-like opening on the left side of the composition, to the narrow opening toward the right-hand side. I placed a red blob further to the right on the page as the ‘target’, or resting place, for the viewers’ gaze.