Emotional Ties
Garip was the Grand Prize winner of International Artist magazine’s Challenge No. 111, Seascapes, Rivers & Lakes.
Using classic watercolor techniques, Rukiye Garip is able to translate the elements of the natural world in a style that is realistic but filled with emotion. She takes photos in nature of scenes that have strong light, shadow, texture, atmosphere and the details of the subject matter. “What I feel about the subject is effective in adding elements and leaving out others,” she says. “Sometimes I make the changes that I want when I see a negative effect that does not meet my feelings in the drawing or painting stages.”
Garip grew up in the small town of Bartin, Turkey, and started painting around the age of 4. As a child she was surrounded by nature and all of those elements spark her memories when she paints. “The positive emotions, such as naturalness, peace and calm, that I want to covey to my viewers are completed with the
psychological effects of lines and color,” she explains. “There is a longing for the clean nature I want to see in the colors and forms that dominate all of my works. I want to make people feel the value of beauty that has gone unnoticed, the happiness of our youth, our old age and all of our memories.”
One of the subjects Garip most admires is a willow tree found at the edge of a waterway. She has visited it in all seasons, and it has continued to captivate her attention. Describing Lonely Willow, she says, “A willow tree left all alone by the water, in the water. Its age and experience have shaped its trunk; its roots reaching deep into the water that no longer threatens it. A serene and wise willow tree standing on the shores of an island village.”
Garip turns to the water in other works, including Autumn Reflection and Fish and Fishermen, the latter painting being a figurative work depicting life at the sea. She also paints close-up images of stones and roots to show some of the overlooked natural beauty.
Roots and Stones is one such work. “The roots of the trees are maybe the most magnificent part of them,” Garip says. “Yes, we always get distracted by the grand timber or the glorious maze of branches and leaves, sometimes the beauty of flowers…but what holds it all together, feeds it, keeps it alive and raises such weight above its shoulders is the roots beneath what we can see.”
The techniques Garip uses for each painting depend on the subject and how she wants to translate her emotional connection to the scene. “In order to create an original work, it is best to use the instruments as they come from our inner-self,” Garip elaborates. “This makes us free and original. What I mean by being free is the freedom to create and apply our own truths and our own techniques that are unique to ourselves. Being free, original and transparent is what I care about in terms of watercolor technique and style. Transparent is both the transparency of the technique and the transparency of my emotions.”