Fritillaria 1915

Charles Rennie Mackintosh rendered Fritillaria with watercolor, in a way that feels like he's mapping a secret garden. The colors are muted, almost like a memory, but the shapes are so clear and defined, especially in the checkered pattern of the flowers. It’s a delicate balance between precision and letting the watercolor do its thing. Look closely at the way he's built up the flower petals, it’s not just about color, it’s like he’s trying to understand how these forms hold the light, how they exist in space. There’s an area where the green of the stem meets the purple of the flower, and you can see the ghostly outline of the stem beneath, it shows the process so clearly, with nothing hidden. Mackintosh reminds me of Hilma af Klint in that the two share that same fascination with organic forms, each on a quest to capture something beyond the surface. Both embrace the idea that art is an ongoing dialogue with the world around us. They invite us to see beyond the obvious, to get lost in the details, and find our own meaning within the work.