City of Churches 1918

Paul Klee made this little watercolour, City of Churches, sometime in the first half of the 20th century. You can see the hand of the artist so clearly here. Klee is using watercolour in such a way that he is not trying to represent the world. Instead, he’s feeling the world through colour, and he’s building the image up in layers, like a collection of memories or feelings I love how Klee lets the watery ink pool in certain areas. Look closely and you can see little puddles of brown and grey in the foreground, and these sharp, dark mountain shapes looming in the background. This creates a sense of depth but also a kind of dreamlike ambiguity. The black lines dance all over the surface, containing the colours but also breaking free, creating a sense of playful improvisation. For me, someone like Joan Miró comes to mind - another artist who understood that painting is a conversation between the artist, the materials, and the world. The beauty is that the possibilities are endless.