Watercolor Perfection of Natural Water
Residing in Turkey, Ms. Rukiye Garip is famous for painting water scenes. She beautifully depicts ripples reflecting their sparkling lights and mossy pebbles under the transparent surface of water in a realistic and natural way. In addition, she also exquisitely illustrates the embankment surrounding pools and ponds, and subtly represents reflections. All of these elements come together to make her paintings unbelievably pleasing and present a sense of verisimilitude.
Watercolor is her main medium because it allows her to paint freely and often allows for unexpected results. Her keen sense of nature is mainly manifested by using variable colors, delicate brushstrokes, and a three-dimensional application of layered inks to express the beauty of nature in a true and unconventional form.
Perhaps it is because of her peaceful inclination and comprehension of nature that her paintings are so full of artistic conception and aura. In this hectic modern life of ours, her painting is like a bathing light that washes away people’s secular worries, purifies people’s hearts, and leads people to a peaceful and relaxing state of mind.
We are honored to be able to ask Rukiye about her painting philosophy and experience. I hope you enjoy the following interview:
Q: Your watercolor paintings are exquisite and beautiful. Please share your training as an artist with us and why you focus on watercolor as the main medium for your artwork.
A: After graduating from high school, I chose my favorite Academy of Fine Arts. In the following 20 years, during my painting teaching career, I tried various painting techniques and used different mediums such as oil, pastels, charcoal, and mixed techniques. But in 2014, after I painted my first watercolor painting, I turned my focus on using watercolor to paint.
After trying many techniques, the excitement and the sense of creativity using watercolors was exhilarating and gave me the motivation to wake up with happiness every morning.
Watercolor brings together various branches of art that I love and puts them into a visual form with paint and water; the poetic meanings, the harmony of the music as I work with my brushes across the paper. I can feel its harmony and the fluid dynamics of the dance.
The satisfaction of experiencing a fast, exciting, and surprising adventure from start to finish led me to focus and engage with the watercolor technique with passion.
Q: What does water mean to you as an artist? Does it reflect your mood, fluidity of thoughts, or something else?
A: In addition to water being the source of our life, for me, the most important feeling is that water can relax and express my inner feelings. Since my childhood, I have observed the transparency of water, its reflections, energy, the colors that have brought life with it to all the areas it contains, carries, seeps, reaches.
Reflections allow me to see the cycle and reality of life. When we see what is reflected in the water, we can simultaneously see the depth of the area that includes both the surface and the contents, the surroundings, and the sky. Seeing different areas at the same time; the effect of this fabulous atmosphere has always been inspiring for me.
As an artist, water reflects my mood. I think transparency, fluidity, peace, happiness, and the life energy that I care about are all in water.
I am able to reflect the flow and transparency of water with watercolor; while I am painting the water, I can feel myself in water and move with it.
Q: Where is your source of inspiration? Do you paint at the scene or from memory?
A: My place of birth, childhood, and current place of residence are all sources of inspiration for me. My childhood, adolescence, and the present are the things that nourish and push me forward and can make me feel at ease; they contain all my memories and so the things that I care about the most…just like water.
We have been carried along by our accumulated experiences since childhood; we have progressed by reflecting upon that flow; sometimes we feel exuberant and sometimes we feel calm… like water.
My memories make me feel every drop of water. I visualize my paintings by observing and photographing water; by opening myself to nature which repeatedly inspires me. I combine the reference photographs with the ones in my memory and redesign the compositions.
Q: What are the typical mistakes people tend to make when painting water?
A: Water is fluid and transparent. It reflects the color of the atmosphere. The biggest mistake to be made when painting water is to act against its nature. Mistakes occur when you do not represent what appears under the transparent surface of the water, the things that float on the water, and what is reflected above the water.
While I am painting the water, I act in accordance with its state in nature. First I paint things at the bottom, then the water that covers those things, and then the reflections.
The most typical mistakes I have seen are those with reflections of atmosphere and reflection of things at the water’s edge. It is very difficult to portray the reflections of light and the transparency of the water. To do so convincingly it makes better sense to feel nature’s own dynamics and to paint water’s aspects in the order that they occur in nature.
We are very glad that Ms. Rukiye Garip was able to take the time to answer our questions, and we hope that her words and paintings bring you meaning and admiration.
Rukiye’s Instagram