Watercolors by Eric Ravilious

I love how light is diffused through netting, glass, and leaves in these paintings by English artist Eric Ravilious (1903-1942). I recognize the light from nursery greenhouses and outdoor displays with shade netting where I  browse each spring. I also love the incidental beauty of plants under cultivation for use and sale rather than landscape decoration.

I think these paintings appeal to the child in me who loves enclosures that aren't our regular habitations--tree-houses, forts, tents, green-houses, odd little attic bedrooms.

I found this painting of a strawberry-bed under bird netting in EmilyBooks.

This greenhouse full of potted cyclamens and green tomatoes is at the Tate Gallery. This was the painting that put me on the Ravilious trail. The symmetrical arrangement of the passageway and growing things feels a little like folk art to me, though I doubt Ravilious had that in mind. That pale diffuse light, reflected on all the cyclamen leaves is so right on. And the tomato leaves are darker because that's how his eye saw them against the bright glass.

This greenhouse full of carnations is being sold as a print on Ebay. I love how the passageway with its warped posts, takes up most of the picture, how the carnations, full and abundant, are pushed to the sides. 

This attic bedroom can be seen at the Fry Art Gallery.

This Ravilious design for a mini-greenhouse can be seen at The Fine Art Society.