Exploring Blue Hues: Ink Art and Seascapes 2023
Let’s be honest, blue is the main color in my life. It is not a short phase. But in 2023 I did the following artworks that are very representative of how I use this hue and work with it, so let’s call it my Blue Era ’23.
These artworks are all made using solely calligraphic ink which I mix with water using water brushes and regular brushes, and then I refine and add all the details with also a calligraphic pen. I try to emphasize the texture and the shapes that the inks take when dissolving them in water. I find that in this way is not only my will that dictates how the final painting will be but where I guide the flow and the ink and the water do their own thing, interacting with each other, the surface and the different colors.
Abstract Blue
This abstract is the clearest example and the first study to develop this idea of using the shapes that the mixture and dissolution of the ink make.
Sea Horizon
A wavy landscape of a blue day at sea, an exercise to recreate the wavy and trippy effect of the water. It could be any winter morning, with calm days and slight winds building up.
The next wave
Here’s another piece, similar to the previous one, in which lines are also used to give texture, but here you can appreciate also a greater sense of direction. The dynamism of the waves, the foam, all blend together in color but are so different from up-close. When we observe nature, we can find textures inside textures, visual patterns that look different from different distances and reveal more and more detail of the subject… until we are too close to keep seeing it – or too far away.
Bloom
I like to work with type and lettering from time to time, and it can be a subject by itself or it can add meaning as well as being the framework for art. This one is pretty straightforward, but you’ll find it is not so different from the seascapes in creating visual textures and patterns .
The Sea is Love
This was my favourite artwork of the year. It merges the word Love with the shape of a wave, while creating a seascape in which we can look to the far horizon, with blue skies and clouds but also submerge just below the water. Plus a bit of mediterranean floral decorations – and a sailboat. What’s not to love?
Health is Wealth
We live a moment heavily focused on the acquisition of material things and money, it almost seems that the pursuit of life is to get wealth and be rich. This false construction of the importance of wealth can fall apart when dealing with the great turns of life, in front of diseases, death and uncontrollable events, even the greatest sums of wealth and money can’t do anything to solve some problems. In any case, health should be considered as building blocks and foundations for wealth and a good life. With health, we can achieve wealth, probably it’s the greatest wealth we could have… but just with richness wealth can still slip through our fingers.
The Shore Warden
Following the coastal paths, pine trees stand adorning the beach views and providing shadow, with their green leaves and curvy, deformed branches. You can see in them the weather of so many years passed. To me, they are part of the mediterranean beach view, even if they no longer have a place in many beaches. They are interesting characters and also the audience to the most beautiful, and to the most brutal, sea views.
Worries and troubles
The inner thoughts create meshes that hold our movements and fog our minds. Just worrying it’s useless but we sometimes can’t stop doing it and those worries become feelings that affect us as much as the origin of the problem. And sometimes we use worry as a kind of prayer… If we can get some perspective, maybe we can dance with those fishy thoughts like if we were just playing with water…
Xmas tree
There’s no better season for art than Christmas, and it’s really the season of waves… So I decided to make a very special art-postcard for the festivities that would merge my world of waves, sea and blue ink with the season greetings. Maybe it will not look joyful for those who don’t ride the waves but it’s totally giving winter vibes.
We’ll have to see how my Blue Era continues or would it be evolvle? Keep around to see more… and, do you have a favourite?
August 23rd, 2024|
