Cornucopia is a series of watercolors characterized by a playful inventiveness, while seeking to exploit the fluid energy of water. As such, it allows Hopkins to pursue a looser integration of his earlier sculptural ideas. The "wet-in-wet" approach
gives the work a gestural immediacy while employing a referential "loop-based" structure -- inspired by Hopkins' Circadian Loops. In addition, it utilizes color more freely than previously seen in Hopkins' work, thereby charging his images with
an animating energy that leaps off the "paper".
Watercolor Works: Overview
Cornucopia
Viscera, 2003
Oxidation Studies
Nebula, 2002
Oxidation Studies is a watercolor series that emulates and simulates the oxidation process, with particular inspiration from the Rust-Stained Works series. In so doing, Hopkins is engaging in a playful meditation on the common denominator of water as a catalyst for both watercolor painting and metallic rusting. In conceptually mixing the chemistry of mineral-based pigments and the metal oxides of rust, Hopkins clearly enjoys blurring the distinction between realism and abstraction.
Fluid Loops Series
Ellipsoid, 2001
Fluid Loops is a watercolor series characterized by a "wet-in-wet" gestural approach -- a two-step process in which clear water is first brushed onto paper, followed by a second layer of watercolor pigments, with the aim of allowing both layers to bleed together.
According to Hopkins, the "twisting-loop" shapes of Fluid Loops are inspired by the twisting forms of his Circadian Loops wall sculptures. Although they are "riffing" on a theme, they are also meant to be gestural departures, seeking to navigate their
own paths of discovery.
