Typically and in a world lacking imagination, nature exhibitions are the inevitable collection of welwitschias, mopane trees and wildlife gazing from across a waterhole that makes one want to retch a little and skip them altogether.
Not so with ‘Mikrokosmos der Natur’ a display of whimsical and enchanting watercolours by veteran visual artist Barbara Pirron currently illuminating the walls at the Goethe-Centre until the end of May.
Wonderfully abstract with names like ‘Schwarze Rose’ and ‘Skyloaded,’ Pirron jettisons rote replication to present roses whose swirl of petals take centre stage framed by deep greens and blues etched with fine dark lines.
Enamoured by roses, much like most women in the world, Pirron presents three before moving on to more elusive items like ‘Impression’. An artwork that is faithful to its name in that it offers very little in the way of strict subject and focuses instead on creating a mood that can be discovered in its colours, contours and through contemplation.
In fact, this is true of most of Pirron’s works which are all caches of colour melting into each other hinting at emotions and objects which can be seen from up close or afar.
Other works like ‘Diagonal Komposition’ are much easier to fathom and, in this instance, Pirron presents a stem that cuts the canvas in half as leaves float lightly on either side. Here, though the image is not easily identifiable as any scene we can see in nature, the artistry is in the composition’s mood and balance.
In ‘Arachnida’, Pirron introduces insects. A spider traverses the green with limbs like twigs in a piece that seems to indicate that animal mimics fauna or vice versa.
A series called ‘Sketches’ boasts a collection of rocks. Paintings of rocks which catch the light or look wet with water. In terms of subject matter, The ‘Sketches’ collections seems to speak to ‘Distant Blue Mountains’ a painting that presents dark rolling plains in hues much deeper than her prevailing palette of greens, blues and browns.
At this point Pirron has presented plant, animal and mineral and the troika in nature seems to be complete. But not quite.
What’s next is the nature of humans. In ‘A Voice Within’, Pirron’s inner nature is depicted in a piece made of pinks that are strangely cool and calming.
Though each piece speaks and stands alone, the dominant aesthetic is one of whimsy and personal perception.
Leaves are not just leaves, trees aren’t simply trees instead nature bends and swirls and clamours with colour that is highly personal and quite beautiful to behold.
