Using the same palette as yesterday, and the same stabbing brush strokes, I created the watercolor below.

Untitled
12″x9″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

My friend Kerfe (of method two madness) kindly pointed out the ambiguity in yesterday’s watercolor. I am pleased about this because a painting or any work of art is not just the output of the artist; the viewer has a role as well. Ernst Gombrich, renowned Art Historian, called this the “beholder’s share”.  Eric Kandel, Nobel Prize winning Neuroscientist, writes, in Reductionism in Art and Science: Bridging The Two Cultures:

“Because the extent of the viewer’s contribution depends on the degree of ambiguity in the image, a work of abstract art, with its lack of reference to identifiable forms, arguably puts more demand on the beholder’s imagination than a figurative work does.”

I initially entitled the work above ‘Fireworks’. I even had this in mind while I was painting it. However, in the interest of ambiguity and allowing the beholder to exercise his or her own imagination, I did not state that information up front.