Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

There’s Beauty in Death in Watercolors by Cai Vail

Boston based artist Cai Vail renders her ornate, and sometimes grotesque images with a combination of watercolors and digital touches. The beauty of death is a common theme in her flowing figures and animals in a state of decay. Here, humans and animals morph together into surreal beings. Historically, anthropomorphism in storytelling allowed hunters to sympathize with their hunted animal kin. Seeing them paired together like this, one can’t help but imagine Vail’s victorious huntress and her kills perishing poetically. Take a look at some of Vail's recent work after the jump.

Boston based artist Cai Vail renders her ornate, and sometimes grotesque images with a combination of watercolors and digital touches. The beauty of death is a common theme in her flowing figures and animals in a state of decay. Here, humans and animals morph together into surreal beings. Historically, anthropomorphism in storytelling allowed hunters to sympathize with their hunted animal kin. Seeing them paired together like this, one can’t help but imagine Vail’s victorious huntress and her kills perishing poetically.

“Spark” (2014), ink, watercolor and digital

Vail shares similarities to watercolor artists Kikyz1313 (featured here) and Caitlin Hackett (here), with references to Art Nouveau, not only in flora and fauna, but in her line work. What seperates Vail artisically is a visual tension between organic shapes and graphic compositions that shouldn’t work, but do. In her ink and watercolor “Spark”, flowers awkwardly obstruct her subject’s face but balance is maintained between the fragile blossoms and heaviness of the silhouette. The result can be described as dramatic, yet delicate and emotional at the same time.

Her recent illustrations depart from her previously softer palette to explore bold colors while implementing the same graphic elements. She blogs her process which takes us from lush, rendered graphite drawings, artworks in their own right, to the inked finish. Take a look at some of Vail’s artwork below.

Process work:

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Hi-Fructose's own Annie Owens just released a new limited edition print of her "Yee Naaldlooshi (Skinwalker)" by Pressure Printing. At their blog, Pressure Printing writes, "When we saw Annie’s Skinwalker watercolor on Instagram almost a year ago, we were entranced. And we weren’t alone – when we re-grammed it it garnered more likes than anything we’d posted before, and still has more likes than anything we’ve posted since. Small wonder: the Navajo witch who can transform into any animal she chooses is a being both evil and mysterious, and Annie’s painting embodies that magic."
Los Angeles based artist Edwin Ushiro (featured here) was raised in Maui and we get to relive his tropical childhood in his upcoming solo show “Gathering Whispers”. Opening July 12th at Giant Robot’s GR2 gallery, Ushiro’s new show is a ‘gathering’ of memories that feel familiar even if you didn’t grow up in Hawaii. His dreamy images capture tiny scenes taking place in overwhelming landscapes. Sometimes, they are split in half and a little wavy, as if we’re peering through a fractured mirror. Get a preview courtesy of the artist after the jump.
The watercolor paintings of Turkish artist Yiğit Can Alper carry a ghostly quality, their creatures disappearing into sparse backdrops. Alper's drab figures and structures seem to be part of a dilapidated world. And the textures of the material render each component as a temporary apparition.
Born in Brazil, living in New York City, Marcelo Daldoce gives substance and heft to watercolor portraits.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List