Blue Waterfall 1932

Albert Bloch’s ‘Blue Waterfall’ is a landscape painting, made with watercolor, gouache, and graphite. The materials used are traditional fine art supplies, yet the painting evokes a sense of the fantastical. Bloch has layered the colors and textures to build up a landscape that seems to float between reality and imagination. The effect of the watercolor gives the image a fluid and dreamlike quality. The application of paint, using techniques common to both fine art and illustration, allows Bloch to capture the scene's atmosphere and emotional resonance, conveying a sense of solitude and mystery. He engaged with the traditional techniques of watercolor painting, a practice with a long and esteemed history in fine arts and illustration. It is this use of the traditional art materials that gives the painting its particular power, challenging the divide between high art and craft. The combination of materials and making opens up our understanding of the artwork, reminding us of the importance of context in interpreting its meaning.