The places of my childhood did not have television or radio. There was no internet, no social media. Sometimes there was electricity only a few hours a day. What I did have was family and friends, nature and life. The coral reef-encircled, lavender-hued lagoons of my early years were exploded with life. My youth was filled with fortune, my childhood was magical. I remember these times as a prolonged and deep experience of happiness. My art is imbued with my love of the natural world observing it, feeling it, painting it. The island beaches and lagoons, the redwood groves of my youth were places that invited deep contemplation. Places such as these were abundant with life and spirit. They were sacred spaces.
My home is now in the coastal mountains of Northern California. The forests of my youth have burned, and the land is parched. The landscape bears scars everywhere I look. In the South Pacific much of the coral reef is bleached and lifeless. It is hard to look at the devastation, but impossible not to see it. Nevertheless, I have no movement to contribute a brushstroke to mourning the loss. My intention is to paint equanimity, balance, and vitality. What is beautiful should always be remembered and served. And I have found that a painting can invite that same deep contemplation, that same thoughtlessness that the forests, mountains, and oceans offer.
Watercolor has been my primary medium for the last 25 years. I am drawn to color. I saturate the paper with paint, and apply multiple layers to create bright, rich, and strong colors. I also apply gold leaf to many of my paintings. The gold reflects light beautifully, accentuates forms, and adds brightness to the watercolor. I draw inspiration from the masters of Japanese painting and woodblock printing, and from the Japanese art aesthetic altogether. Most of all I am inspired and moved by the heart feeling of being, the feeling of the mystery, the living of happiness. That is what I invoke as I paint.
My intimacy with the natural world has always been spontaneous and immediate. My painting is a ceremony of restoration and renewal. It’s not longing for the past or the future. It is always a celebration of the beautiful. I want every painting that I do to be pregnant with life, full of happiness. So, I paint what I love, what my vision is.
narapilgrimwood.com/
nara@narapilgrimwood.com
