Mushroom Watercolors with Shimmering Echoes: A 16-Piece Series
- architette
- Sep 30
- 2 min read
TLDR
In September, I painted a 16-piece watercolor series rooted in fungi. What began as an Instagram challenge hosted by @tinykatecreates and @suefield66, unfolded into something more layered: a meditation on grief, memory, and unseen presences. Each mushroom study carries a shimmer echo beside it... ghostlike silhouettes that suggest the quiet life force that remains even when the body is gone. Through washes of watercolor, I sought to render not only the visible form of mushrooms but also the unseen companions that linger at the edge of reality.
A Month of Mushrooms in Watercolor
The project’s spark came from a community challenge, but became more than specimens of fungi. I found myself thinking of presence and absence, with memory and transformation. The fungi gave me a grounded framework; the shimmer echoes pulled the work into magical realism, where reality holds space for what cannot be seen yet still insists on being felt.
Process: Sketchbook Maps, Layers of Atmosphere
The series began in my sketchbook, thumbnailing compositions while thinking of the color palette.
Meaning: Renewal, Echoes, and Altered Scale
Mushrooms embody cycles... breaking down what was, nourishing what is, preparing for what comes next. Placing ghostly silhouettes beside them opened a dialogue between this cycle of renewal and memory. These echoes are not phantoms of fear but quiet companions, suggesting that life leaves traces of residual threads of energy, essence, and love that outlast the body.
Grief alters perception... with the fungi rising monumentally... dwarfing the figures This shift in scale mirrors how loss makes the ordinary strange, at once vast and impossibly delicate.
Building Momentum Through Art Series
This collection follows my first challenge: Polymer Clay Moth Sculptures: A Four-Piece Collection. It also runs concurrently to my in-progress Monthly Moon Paintings and the early sketches.
Working through themed series has been both grounding and revelatory while processing the sudden loss of my dad at the end of last year. Each project offers the rigor of discipline while also opening space for reflection, allowing art to hold both structure and mystery.
What I Learned Along the Way
Thumbnails can carry rhythm – mapping a flow to give cohesion across all pieces.
Palettes can evolve with mood – softening tones created unity and calm.
Mixed media expands depth – metallic watercolor, pastel, and gouache brought atmosphere, depth, and resonance.
Closing Thoughts
This series began with fungi but transformed into a meditation on echoes... those shimmering presences that remain when physical life has passed. By pairing fungi with silhouettes, I wanted to honor the liminal space where grief meets renewal, where presence outlasts form.
These watercolor studies reminded me that the natural world is not separate from our inner landscapes; both hold traces of memory, resilience, and unseen companions who shimmer beside us still.
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