Watercolor Artist – October 2019

6 Watercolor artist | OCTOBER 2019

Happenings

/ MAKING A SPLASH /

Jesse Bransford

tive paintings into a book, and that’s

how Th e Book of Staves was created.

Bransford used the Hávamál as the

“organizing principle,” since the poem

narrates a series of spells. Th e artist

illustrated them in the tradition of

the historical manuscripts he’d been

studying. “Symmetry and geometry

are at the heart of all visual art,” he

says. “Many cultures eschew the pic-

torial in favor of pure geometry.”

Bransford’s choice of watercolor was

strategic. “Watercolor has a relation-

ship to paper that’s akin to the spells

and manuscripts I was looking at,” he

says. “Th e small scale really allows the

subtle color shifts that watercolor can

create to come to the fore.”

Entranced by the history of folk magic

traditions, artist Jesse Bransford

(jessebransford.com) visited a friend in

Iceland, excited to explore the region’s

well-known culture of the supernatu-

ral. Th e two went to the Museum of

Icelandic Witchcraft and Sorcery, where

the artist found inspiration for years of

research. “We took a big risk given the

weather and went to the Strandir

Coast,” he says. “It was early spring,

and the entire region was empty. You

could feel the spirit of the natural order

there. Th e work that emerged came out

of that folk magic and is very much

indebted to those traditions.”

Soon, publisher Fulgur approached

Bransford about making his interpre-

CLOCKWISE

FROM LEFT

Hills Become the

Sun (watercolor

and graphite on

paper, 6½ x4)

COLLECTION OF

THE ARTIST

Ægishjálmur (9)

(watercolor and

graphite on

paper, 7½ x5½ )

PRIVATE COLLECTION

To Hide

Something

(watercolor and

graphite on

paper, 6½ x4)

COLLECTION OF

THE ARTIST

Stave for the

Unspoken

Charm (18)

(watercolor and

graphite on

paper, 7½ x5½ )

COLLECTION OF

ZAHAR VAKS