Kathy Barry | Watercolour and pencil works

This body of work takes as a point of departure Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, from 1931. Jeanette Winterson writes in an introduction to a recent edition of the novel, "She wanted to write about the vast unknown uncertain continent that is the world and us in it. This continent is not a landmass. It is not solid, it is not stable. It shifts, it storms, it drowns, it is both the simple surface of things and their depths…To try and tell the truth about life is to admit that truth is not found in any one place, but swarms plankton-like in any scoop of water we draw up. The sense is in the pattern and the pattern is always changing. The pattern looks different in different lights. We try to make order but our order is always provisional and the trick is to know that and not get caught up in the certainties of too much sun.” Or as Bernard said, a central character in the novel: “When we sit together, close … we melt into each other with phrases. We are edged with mist. We make unsubstantial territory”.

These drawings/paintings engage the inherent material qualities of watercolour: translucency, fluidity, light and colour. Initially they are built-up over a period of several days with the application of layers of diluted brushstrokes, creating puddles of color, which bleed into one another. As they slowly dry, patterns of colored-ring formations are created. These are then drawn over in fine pencil-line, where every rim of colour, or outline of brushstroke - and its watery dissolution - is meticulously traced. This process invites both precision and an element of uncertainty, or randomness, to enter the work.

Stephanie, 2006: Watercolour and pencil on paper