R’baahn, The Second Walk, 2021. Watercolour on paper, 105 x 152cm. $4,000. Courtesy: the artist
Amber Creswell Bell
Program Director Emerging Art, Michael Reid Galleries
This work by R’baahn is a spectacular display of skill and control in the medium of watercolour on a vast scale. The detailed mark making in graduating tones and uniformity is an impressive show of patience by the artist. The contrast of the richly layered detail in warm tones surrounding a sparse, quiet centre in cool tones is dramatic and a very effective visual device to draw the viewer in.
Benjamin Clay
Gallery Manager, Olsen Gallery, Sydney
Artist R’baahn’s The Second Walk is a striking depiction of the natural world, veiled or obscured by an intricate net of delicate mark-making. The tension here, between surface and subject, nods to its maker’s ongoing interest in the haunted relationship shared by humans and the organic environment around. R’baahn celebrates her medium’s unique transparency, and layers a variety of pigments to dazzling ends. The result appears to be something of a tapestry, boasting all of the various threads of colour invested in its making.