My latest watercolor -- from a dream

Dream by Will Noble/watercolor on paper/ 38" x 24"

I had a dream a few years ago of a golden eagle carrying a tree to barren land. At the time I was so moved by the dream that I created a composite image of it in Photoshop and kept it on my studio wall.
A few months ago I finally felt I wanted to actually paint it.
There are quite a few firsts in this work for me. I have never before painted a bird. (I usually leave that to Barbara Banthien.) I have never used such washes for such large areas as this required. So this was a very different (and much shorter) experience for me.

Completion, acceptance & small works

I recently finished work on the large pencil drawing titled Peggy's Pond, perhaps the most detailed piece I have ever done. The drawing alone took a year. It was just accepted in the Artworks Downtown Drawing show juried by Donna Seager and Suzanne Gray McSweeney of SeagerGray Gallery. The show will be up from May 24 to July 5. Public reception will be June 14, 5 – 8pm. I don't have a photo of this drawing either here on the blog or on my site yet, but I hope you will come to the show to see it!
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Before I get involved in another large project, I am enjoying working in my sketchbook, doing small pencil, ink and watercolor works. Below is one of them, a view from Kehoe Beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore.

With an image size of 9" x 13" I was able to draw and paint it in a number of days, not months. This frees me to transition to other images and experiment with techniques.


Kehoe, a watercolor by Will Noble

Mami Wata

With such rich cultural and political imagery within the African American community, why would I, a black artist, focus solely on the subject of water? Well, perhaps the answer is in the current show at the Cantor Museum at Stanford University titled Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas. 

Zoumana Sane, Mami Wata, 1987. Pigment, glass. Collection of Herbert M. and Shelley Cole. Photo by Don Cole

Most viewers would be hard pressed to see any relationship between my ultra-realistic paintings of water and this tribal collection of sculpture and images. But both my wife and I felt a strong response and sense of recognition. We were reminded of a time in the mid-eighties when we were snorkeling in Hawaii. I am not a strong swimmer but I felt reasonably confident snorkeling above the reefs. Either my absorption with the tropical fish – all that rich color and pattern – or perhaps tidal drift carried me out beyond my ability to touch the ocean floor, and I panicked. I was way out beyond where anyone else was swimming. Off in the distance, very small, I could see my children playing on the beach. There was no way anyone would hear me if I called for help. I was sure I was going to drown, and surrendered to the inevitable.

Just then, out of nowhere, a large native Hawaiian woman was suddenly beside me, telling me to relax and float on my back. Her words immediately calmed me and I did what she said. I turned to thank her but she was gone.
How did she just appear and then disappear? How fortuitous that she showed up at my side exactly when I needed her. Was she a real woman, a goddess, a spirit? Ultimately, it doesn’t matter to me. She saved my life, and I have always been grateful.
But when my wife and I walked into the Mami Wata exhibit, we looked at each other and had a simultaneous ‘aha!’ moment. Mami Wata, the spirit honored by my ancestors, saved me that day. Perhaps she spoke through a real woman or as Hiʻiaka, the Hawaiian water goddess; but however she did it, she was there.
Suddenly the past decades of my painting fell into place. Without questioning why, I have devoted myself to painting water. Now I can see this intense focus as an expression of gratitude to Mami Wata for giving me back my life.