Nature paints like the Harlot

The colours of nature are sometimes timid, sometimes absorbing and sometimes extremely exuberant. ‘Nature paints like the harlot’ Melville wrote in Moby Dick. For Melville, the truth of colour is unbearable, almost insultingly superficial. He describes the colours in nature as subtle deceits; not inherent in substances, but only laid on the surface.

Colour has always meant the less-than-true and the not-quite-real. It is seductive, adorning, superficial, and deceitful, like make-up. The idea that colour is superficial and cosmetic raises questions for Esmee Seebregts: Is colour on the surface of things? Or does color have a place within things? Did the world once begin as a colourful haze from which all forms and meanings emerge?

Lunar water, 2024, casein and gelmedium on wood, 59 cm Ø

Bloodmoon, 2023, casein on wood, 61,5 cm Ø

Bioluminescence, 2022, egg tempera on wood, 50 cm Ø

Dandelion, 2022, egg tempera on wood, 50,5 cm Ø

Prussian Blue Cadmium Yellow, 2022, egg tempera on wood, 32 cm Ø

Night Flower, 2021, spraypaint on glass, 29 cm Ø

Rhizaria, 2021, egg tempera on wood, 60 cm Ø

Turkeytail, 2020, eggtempera and spraypaint on wood, 60 cm Ø

Thrive, 2020, egg tempera and spraypaint on wood, 70 cm Ø

Agate, 2020, egg tempera on wood, 64 cm Ø

Indigo Flower, 2020, egg tempera and spraypaint on wood, 60 cm Ø

H2O, 2020, egg tempera on paper, 46 x 10,5 cm

Malachite, 2020, egg tempera on etching paper, 37,5 x 14,5 cm

Macaw, 2020, egg tempera on wood, 45 cm Ø

Macaw, 2020, egg tempera on wood, 45 cm Ø

Quartz II, 2021, egg tempera on paper, 23,5 x 14,5 cm

Quartz, 2020, egg tempera on paper, 35,5 x 15 cm

Watermelon Tourmaline, 2020, egg tempera on wood, 45 cm Ø

Quartz, 2020, egg tempera on wood, 45 cm Ø

Quartz, 2020, egg tempera on wood, 45 cm Ø

Quartz, 2020, egg tempera on wood, 45 cm Ø