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Paint Swirls in Water to Create These Foggy Landscapes

Using paint and a water tank, Kim Keever creates fantastical landscapes and swirls of color.
Images courtesy of the artist

The natural landscape is one of the most classic compositions in the history of painting. But for Kim Keever, the idea of capturing landscapes took on new life when he started creating his pieces using an unlikely tool: a water tank. His photographs offer a different approach to the classic subject matter.

“In 1985 I realized I was bored with painting and decided to make landscape models on a table and photograph them,” Keever tells The Creators Project. “At first I made mountains out of plaster and painted them, but I was never satisfied because they appeared to be on Mars since there was no discernible atmosphere. Eventually it dawned on me that paint in water would solve the problem. A friend was getting rid of a 100 gallon aquarium which turned out to be perfect timing.”

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The artist often builds each scene by placing objects in front of and behind the tank. But the real magic happens when he releases paint into the water and lets it take its own shape.

Keever’s knack for creating ethereal landscapes caught the attention of Joanna Newsom, who featured his video “Small Mountains” during a performance of her song “Leaving the City” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. As her nimble fingers moved across the harp and her signature voice skillfully hit every note, Keever’s landscape images flickered in the background.

Although his landscape pieces might seem ominous—draped in fog, lacking any sign of habitation—Keever insists that he didn’t intend to seem anti-social or cryptic with the pieces. Instead, he simply creates visions of nature as he enjoys experiencing it.

“I would say I have always enjoyed being alone in the landscape and imagining there was no one around or that the time was long before people,” writes Keever.

With each piece, he hopes viewers will also reflect on their own relationship to nature. “It is my hope that the viewer gets a sense of my own love of the landscape and of the beauty and mystery therein,” he writes.

His abstract photographs—pieces that include no other visual components except for thick swirls of paint—take the idea of paint in water even further by embracing unpredictability. The pieces show color in motion, paint unfurling in the water at different patterns. Works with several colors show the hues intertwining, creating rainbow swirls. Keever lets the paint take its own path.

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“I don’t have a lot of control of where the paint goes,” writes Keever. “Where I do have control is in cropping the image later on. Sometimes certain areas stand out to me and I can isolate those areas and go from there. Once the paint is in the water, there isn’t much I can do to manipulate the composition. If I try to stir the water it immediately loses color and turns to a muddy blur… I just let the water and paint take over.”

Keever will be displaying a selection of his pieces at the Wynwood Art Fair from February 12-15. To learn more about his work, click here.

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