In May, 2021 I hung my first watercolor exhibit, “Nameless Colors”. These 10 paintings represent two years focusing on botanical subjects. It’s so exciting to see my work hanging in public and have other people enjoy it!

Video, photography and poetry by Ruth Halpern

Artist’s Statement

I’ve been entranced with watercolor since I was a teenager growing up in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Watercolor combines everything I love: water, of course–rivers, oceans, waterfalls; improvisation in the moment; explosive beauty; and contemplative grace.

At the age of 17, I spent a year studying painting and drawing at the Edinburgh College of Art in Edinburgh, Scotland. Forty years later, in 2018, I took up watercolors seriously, drawn to botanical subjects such as leaves, flowers and fruit. I use only six colors—a warm and a cool blue, red and yellow—and blend the colors directly on the paper. That’s what creates the vibrant “psychedelic” luminosity of the colors. My teachers are East Bay artists who specialize in watercolor, including Ilah Jarvis and Wendy Soneson.

In addition to painting and drawing, my other art form is storytelling and spoken word performance. Somehow even my supposedly inanimate still lifes are imbued with narrative. I also draw comics, combining words and images to tell a story and convey a feeling. But some stories exceed the capacity of words, and that’s where watercolor comes in.

As a performer, I use improv to create stories in the moment, a skill that I also use in the uncontrollable medium of watercolors. Through practice and patience I’ve learned to say “yes” to whatever the paint and water want to create. This state of mind leads to discoveries and delight!

Nameless Colors

by Ruth Halpern
 More and more
 These days
 I stretch my brush towards
 Colors
 That have no name
 Craving the pulse of burnt umber
 Into alizarin crimson,
 Into sap green,
 The nameless tint welling up
 At the margin 
 between
 That and this.
  
 The old magic-woman 
 in a Russian folktale commands,
 “Go I know not whither, 
 to fetch I know not what.”
 It's a fool’s errand, like
 Capturing a moment 
 with a paintbrush and 
 a swash of pigment--
 I’ll never get there
 Without a magical helper.
 Nevertheless, I embark.
  
 In just this way, my faith stretches out its brush
 Tip trembling 
 Towards the nameless presence,
 Straining to dip into
 The heart
 Of mystery
 And feel it bloom.