Echoes in the Trees: A Magical Realism Watercolor Series of Shimmering Silhouettes with Strange Fungi
- architette
- 1 minute ago
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TLDR - Magical Realism Watercolor Series
Echoes in the Trees is a five-piece magical realism watercolor series created for October, blending eerie Halloween vibe mushrooms with shimmering silhouettes that hover between the real and the remembered.
Each 5x7” painting features strange fungi and quiet echo companions... ghostlike presences that explore themes of memory, resilience, and the unseen world beneath the trees.
Behind the Series
Each painting began as a sketch inspired by real fungi species, layered with imagined companions. I used translucent watercolor washes and shimmering pigments to suggest a world both living and spectral.
Each painting is painted in the spirit of magical realism - a genre that weaves a bit of wonder into reality rather than escaping from it. Each one pairs an unusual species of fungi with ethereal silhouettes: companions, ancestors, and presences that shimmer just beside the visible world.
These “echoes” are not fantasy, but reflections of memory and persistence... quiet reminders that the living and the lost coexist in every shadowed space.
The Magical Realism Watercolor Series
1. Quiet Watcher - Green Elf Cup (Chlorociboria aeruginascens) A lone figure sits within a vivid green cup suspended between solitude and awareness, as if the forest itself is watching back.
2. Moths in Reverie - Wrinkled Peach Fungus (Rhodotus palmatus) Three spectral moths drift through a midnight canopy above the coral-pink folds of the wrinkled peach. Their flight blurs the boundary between decay and grace.
3. Where the Quiet Ones Linger - Green Earth Tongue (Geoglossum viride) Echo cats roam and rest among slender green tongues emerging from the soil. They seem both guardian and ghost, embodying stillness in motion.
4. A Silent Swarm - Devil’s Fingers (Clathrus archeri) Crimson tendrils unfurl while echoing bees circle in hushed orbit. A meeting of beauty and unease.
5. A Shimmer of Hums - Bleeding Tooth Fungus (Hydnellum peckii) Did you know a grouping of hummingbirds is called a "shimmer"? This trio hovers above drops of crimson resin. As the final piece in the series, it closes the cycle on the theme of life and renewal.
Closing Reflection
Echoes in the Trees continues my exploration of presence and loss through natural forms. Mushrooms embody cycles... breaking down what was, nourishing what is, preparing for what comes next.
These works are my way of honoring what lingers... the quiet watchers, the silent swarms, the echoes that remind us that in grief, life still holds traces of memory, resilience, and unseen companions who shimmer beside us still.
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