Morandi’s Watercolors

In the last post called Yogurt Holds the Blueberry, I talked about thinking of everything in a composition as an active shape, painting the spaces between things, instead of painting an object floating on nothing.

If we are painting the space between things, we start to see the “background” as an active shape on the page. Instead of an object on a background, it is one shape pushing up against another shape, like two friends sitting shoulder to shoulder. In real life, a house would fall over if it was pressing against still air, but a painting is color on paper. How would you paint still air as it presses into a building, to hold it in place?

In this way, instead of negative space, you can imagine that everything in your painting holds every other thing in place. This doesn’t work automatically, and not all shapes push back equally. They require some attention from the artist to activate each shape and make it work. When activated, a “blank” shape can push into a painted shape, and hold it there. Do you see it?

Take a look at these watercolors by Morandi, and see what you think about the idea we’re calling “yogurt holds the blueberry.”