Watercolor Patterns

Color, Watercolor on Paper

Francis' earliest foray into artistic creation after he was given a case of watercolor paints by Lina Rae, he began by creating what appears to us as simple patterns. Often these would follow a branch-like form, tracing the connection to his feeling of familial relationships with trees. But others were more basic collections of circles and other semi-geometric shapes, often imperfect by design.

It could be the work of a newcomer to these materials, testing them out to see how they work, but Bill Vernon theorizes that their organization in form is likely a result of Francis wanting to know how our three-dimensional brains created such organization and linearity. He was trying to emulate us in order to see what that emulation would look and feel like to him.