The Blessing 

Odilon Redon made this watercolor, "The Blessing," during his Symbolist period, though it's difficult to put an exact date on it. Watercolors are made by suspending fine pigment in a water-based solution. The paint is then applied to paper, usually in thin washes that allow light to reflect from the surface. Here, you can see Redon built up the composition layer by layer, and the resulting image has a luminous, dreamlike quality. Redon’s choice of watercolor is significant, as it defies any sense of labor, or politics, and seems to have been chosen specifically for its non-materiality. You could say that in comparison to the scale and detail involved in painting with oils, Redon's artistic approach almost seems to challenge the prevailing idea that artmaking involves intense labor. Next time you see a watercolor painting, consider how it’s subtle materiality contributes to the meaning of the work.