Alexandra Blum, ‘Autumnal Flight’, watercolour on paper, 23 x 30.5 cm, 2025.
Colour itself is part of the subject matter in this series of images and, similar to the multiple drawing languages I’ve used in monochrome work, when making this image it felt as if I were switching between different ways of thinking about and using colour. For example, alternating between naturalistic colour, which is closely observed and tied to the colour I could see in the landscape, particularly amongst the foliage, and areas where colour is intuitively juxtaposed in response to the tonal values I observed (within the buildings on the left for example), in order to recreate the luminosity and radiance I saw within that particular area of the landscape, at that specific stage of the year. In other areas single colours become drawing tools, ultra-marine blue for example describing the flight of a bird as it flits, close up, past the edge of the building I’m looking out of, momentarily becoming the focus of my vision, the dense city briefly receding in relation to its individual life-force.
Scroll down to see close ups ...
Alexandra Blum, Detail from: ‘Autumnal Flight’, watercolour on paper, 23 x 30.5 cm, 2025.
Alexandra Blum, Detail from: ‘Autumnal Flight’, watercolour on paper, 23 x 30.5 cm, 2025.
Alexandra Blum, Detail from: ‘Autumnal Flight’, watercolour on paper, 23 x 30.5 cm, 2025