I’ve been watching some YouTube videos of a guy called Titus Meeuws and it has inspired me somewhat to look at watercolour again and see where that could take me. I want to do some paintings that look like early enlightenment paintings but darker and weirder, a slight edge of surrealism and science fiction but firmly rooted in the late mediaeval tradition of botanical and scientific painting. I’m not 100% sure how to go about combining this wide range in styles and mediums into a single painting or series of paintings, I think these paintings would probably have to start as watercolours possibly have layers of acrylic and even oil paint over the top

I’m not sure exactly how I would go about creating this style that I’ve got in my head and it’s really difficult to even describe it it’s just a vague feeling. I really like the look of late mediaeval and later renaissance, botanical and scientific paintings and architectural diagrams from the 17th and 18th centuries. I have a dark green glass jar with a label on it looks almost like something from an apothecary or chemists and that was all it took to inspire a whole series of things happening in my mind around paintings.

I’m going to start exploring this avenue of thought and images and see where it leads me. It might take me in a completely different direction or it might lead me down to a dead end. However, I think it’s important route to look into this because it’s resonating really strongly with me and I always get good results when I follow those leads.