Aura and Atmosphere through Color
The colors in Viktoria Prischedko’s watercolor paintings correspond to the emotional state of the scene
The colors in Viktoria Prischedko’s watercolor paintings correspond to the emotional state of the scene
What is art? What is a painting? Why do artists paint? Such questions arose early while I was studying at the Academy of Fine Arts of Kiev, Ukraine. To me, painting means learning to focus and a yearning to understand. With time a painter improves his or her technique and tries to develop his or her own style, but subconsciously there always remains the quest for understanding. Essentially, my paintings are about visibility (making the invisible visible.) Invisibility is hard to grasp. Is everything we see real? If so, how do we express this emotionally? Whenever I decide to represent something on paper, I choose elements I care about. For my work, the real world is not significant but my thoughts surrounding this reality are real. Expressing thoughts is difficult but transposing ideas and feelings to paper is not necessarily easier. Of course, there are things we all see and recognize in a similar manner. They, however, are being blurred through thoughts, feelings, emotions and actual situations. My paintings are actually an illusion about real depictions veiled but recognizable elsewhere. When I started to paint, I used to go on location to learn more about shapes and visual laws. Gradually I disconnected myself from objects. My emotional reaction toward objects had become more important than the objects themselves. This development meant one more step away from reality. The result is no abstract art but a combination of reality and elements of abstraction and at the same time the visual recollection of an object. The purpose of the painting process has shifted. Experiences and feelings are playing a more important role; the documentary character no longer stands in the foreground. Nevertheless, I stick to the idea of the character on site. Drawing from memory, I experience that the true essence of a particular moment is maintained. Every location, no matter how often it is painted, never recurs visually in an identical manner because new thoughts, emotions and memories emerge each time. When choosing an object I never use photographs but develop an idea based on several sketches that I put together using my imagination. I choose a composition, collecting points of reference about elements seen before but now transposed to an interpreted structure. Each moment, each day varies. Whenever I remember something today or think about it tomorrow, it is again linked to a different expression and a different atmosphere. The perception is subjective. When asked about the technique, I ponder carefully and find that it also corresponds to preliminary thoughts. I like the fact that the watercolor technique “wet in wet” comes close to the natural development and process of life. This spontaneous medium combines action and reaction including three basic tools: water, pigments and a wet sheet of paper. However, we have to take into consideration the drying process that requires 30 to 40 minutes. In other words, the painting has to be completed very rapidly. At first, the pigments flow fast and spread quickly over large areas. Gradually, this process slows down while the paper goes on drying. On account of this, the composition has to be thoroughly thought through before I get down to work. This will help me to fully concentrate on the flowing color and interact with it, quite a sensitive procedure involving a series of factors such as paint, brushes, paper, room temperature, etc. Before painting, I prepare a rough pencil drawing with accents and contrasts serving as a basis for the composition. Furthermore, I pay attention to relationships and proportions in order to create a recognizable reality. Later, the sketch will enable me to focus solely on the flow of watercolor pigments. The painting becomes then an interplay between lightness and weight, light and shadow, shape and form resolution. Sometimes I need several weeks before deciding on a composition I like. But I also leave room for creativity. During
the painting process, sudden changes will occur and be integrated into the composition. The result will vary according to the materials used and the degree of humidity. The drier the surface, the more concrete the outlines and contrasts become, suggesting the illusion of spaciousness and depth. Color plays a significant role in creating aura and atmosphere. I do not paint a concrete object photographically but associatively. With color, I get away from reality. Different motifs are associated with various colors. Colors do not correspond to a specified image but convey an emotional state and connect all existing elements together. Colors flow into each other regardless of the boundaries of objects. However, the color flow must remain under control. A blurred color flow on the sheet expresses a dreamy quality of the visible. You can immerse the world in any harmonious color scheme, using, for example, red, blue and yellow. Colors are a connection between reality and unreality, authenticity and dream. Personally, I select a limited number of colors: lemon yellow, ultramarine blue, orange and violet tones. These colors are generally used without mixtures that would diminish the luminosity. The intensity of these colors is due to the density of the pigments in particular areas. Nevertheless, they may also interact with each other on the surface of the wet paper. The size of a sheet can enhance visual effects profoundly. The larger the size of the paper, the more powerful and expressive color sequences can appear. It takes experience to learn how pigments are distributed on a wet medium and how to control the interactions. One acquires this knowledge gradually. In any case, the final outcome is always a mix of personal vision and the mind of the medium itself. Although the whole process implies a lot of thinking and planning, time and knowledge, the result should be light and airy and touch the viewer emotionally.