Miniature watercolors part 2

A jungle for the small, a pillow for the big...

Marvels of Maldives

Unexpected encounter in Maldives lagoon

The dancing light

Nothing else

These miniature watercolors are part of the thousands (yes...) painted during a period of roughly 15 years of traveling the world alone, and getting completely intoxicated by its captivating landscapes and the magic light on them.

One had kept a very simple and compact apparatus to produce this kind of work.
Basically two or three brushes were used.
One, anonymous (without brand) from Japan, not to big, neither to small, to paint the larges washes of color of the skies, the seas and the lands.
The other one used for the details, was the Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Brush size 000. The finest.

This Series 7 is quite famous, since the story tells that in 1866, Her Majesty Queen Victoria gave orders that Winsor & Newton should produce the very finest water colour brushes in her favourite size; the No.7. And since the reputation has never failed. If you happened to paint with it, you probably have been enchanted by its crisp point, the even and consistent flow of the color, and its durability. We tried many other fine brushes, none had these qualities to that extent.
It is really important to use the best tools and instruments when you get involved in a artistic production of high quality. It inspires you to push further, to push the envelope if one may say...

The colors were also from W&N, Artist Series. Our favorite colors were Indigo, Warm Sepia, Burnt Sienna, Payne's gray, Blue Cerulean, Sap green, French Ultramarine, Gambodge yellow, and others. Of course, we never used White. The white of the paper was left without color. Nothing else could match its brightness.
The paper was a 300g paper from France (Canson Montval, since the Arches was either too thick or too grainy for this miniature work). The sheet of paper was cut in small rectangles of 60x80 mm and also 40x65 mm. There was also another tiny size of approximately 20x30 mm, which was produced for a period of few years. These three sizes were called Micro, Mini and Maxi...
And the name of this miniature artwork was Miniatures d' Art or Md'A.
The funny thing was that the 3 letters MdA are forming the backbone of Medam, the name of its creator...

Water? Well at a point, since it was such a ritual to re-create reminiscences of the natural world, we used Evian water from he Alps, to be sure to have the purest water with no chlorine or chemical substances able to alter the quality of the paint.

The spirit of the Md'A could be seen like " producing the maximum effect while using the minimum material " and also " to paint One portrait, the portrait of our wonderful planet in all its nuances..." and also " to be able to carry one's gallery in the pocket, so one could at any time, any place, almost any circumstances, unfold and display this Artwork for a little time and then fold it again and forget about it.

In fact it was created not so much from a painter's point of view, but rather from a musician's mind. Indeed, just like a music that starts, plays, ends without leaving a trace, except a reminiscence in the mind and a feeling in the heart, these paintings (and later drawings) were to CREATE a space when necessary, but not FILL the empty space with their presence.
No encumbrance, no heavy burden, just the pure essence of the landscape and color. As a result, many thousands of people of any age, culture, social condition, or education have seen and responded to this work. Almost always with the same and same first reaction of surprise, amazement or joy ( not easy to tell) keeping the portfolio in their hands almost like if it was a new born child and saying " I have never seen anything like that, it's beautiful". And then after a while, asking " How much time does it take to paint one like this?"

Well, time has never been a valid factor in the generation of this work. Just replace the word "time' by "love". Then it becomes " How much love does it take to paint one like this?"
And that is a very tough question to answer...

L'homme d'Art