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Palm Readings
Maru Aponte

BFA 2020, The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp
A THESIS SUPPORT PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF FINE ARTS EMILY CARR UNIVERSITY OF ART + DESIGN 2023 ©

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Fig. 1. Maru Aponte, Gringo on the hammock, 2023, watercolour on paper, 4.5 inches x 3.5
inches

Table of contents
List of Figures
Land Acknowledgment: Canada and Puerto Rico
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Palm Readings
Chapter 1: Research Questions and Artistic Method
Chapter 2: Al aire libre: Plein Air Painting and Accordion Books
Chapter 3: Watercolour and Infinity pool
Chapter 4: Calor y color: Heat and Colour
Conclusion
Works Cited
Works Consulted

List of Figures

Fig. 1. Maru Aponte, Gringo on the hammock, 2023, watercolour on paper, 4.5 inches x 3.5
inches
Fig. 2. Maru Aponte, Amores en Piñones, 2022, watercolour on paper, 4.3 inches x 5.5 inches
Fig. 3. Maru Aponte, picture of working at Punta Borinquen beach
Fig. 4. Maru Aponte, Punta Borinquen, 2022, watercolour on canvas, 5’5 ft x 5.8 ft
Fig. 5. Maru Aponte, Indicators playa, 2022, watercolour on paper, 16 inches x 4 inches
Fig. 6. Maru Aponte, Los salvavidas de Luquillo, 2022, watercolour on paper, 16 inches x 6
inches
Fig. 7. Maru Aponte, Navidades en Luquillo, 2022, watercolour on paper,15 inches x 3 inches
Fig. 8. Maru Aponte, Vacia Talega, 2022, watercolour on paper, 10.5 ft x 2ft
Fig. 9. Maru Aponte, Twinfalls, 2021, watercolour on paper, 13.5 ft x 2 ft
Fig. 10. Maru Aponte, El Infinito,2022, watercolour on canvas, 4ft x 4ft
Fig. 11. Maru Aponte, Mi casita, 2000, mix media on paper, 29 inches x 22 inches
Fig. 12. Maru Aponte, Infinity pool,2022, watercolour on canvas, 7ft x 6 ft
Fig. 13. Maru Aponte, Sunset by the pool, 2022, watercolour on paper, 14 inches x 4 inches
Fig. 14, Maru Aponte,El Mix, 2022, watercolour on canvas, 5.5ft x 5.8 ft
Fig. 15. Maru Aponte, Pressure Point, 2022, watercolour on canvas, 3.3 ft x 3ft
Fig. 16. Maru Aponte, Details of: Caribbean Gaze, 2022, mix media on canvas
Fig. 17. Maru Aponte, Andres en playa sun bay, 2023, Watercolour on canvas, 4.5 ft x 3.75 ft

Land Acknowledgment: Canada and Puerto Rico
I wish to acknowledge that I learn and paint in is situated on unceded, traditional and ancestral
xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and səl ̓ilw̓ ətaʔɬ (TsleilWaututh) territories.
I also wish to acknowledge that I grew up and began painting in Puerto Rico, what once was the
land of the Taínos, the historic indigenous people of the Caribbean.
Finally, I acknowledge the people, the landscape, the sunsets, the waves, the more than human
inhabitants of Puerto Rico including the flora and fauna, especially the coqui, the native frog of
the island and the energy found on this land that I have the privilege to call home.

Acknowledgements
I want to thank my parents, Adriana y Juan Carlos, who have made big sacrifices to support me
in a practice that they understand little of. Thank you for your faith in me. To my brother
Guillermo, who has always pushed me to want more, thank you for being you. To my
grandmother Martha who I grew up with as an example of perseverance, and a woman who
has always been unique and herself, thank you for igniting my creative passion. I would like to
thank Randy Lee Cutler, who has been a constant support in the MFA program and in writing
this paper. I want to thank Marion, Gwenyth, and Jimena who have been exemplary women
during my time in Vancouver and in the program. To Andres, thank you for sharing your light.
To Georgia O'Keeffe, thank you for making your watercolours in 1916-1918. Finally I would like
to thank my mentor Elizabeth McIntosh. Thank you for believing, adding, questioning, and
engaging with my practice with so much passion and enthusiasm. To all the people who have
been supporting me and believing that I could do this, you were right.

Introduction: Palm Readings

Fig. 2, Maru Aponte, Amores en Piñones, 2022, watercolour on paper, 4.3 inches x 5.5 inches

"Reciban de mí siempre mucha paz, pero sobre todo, mucho, mucho, mucho amor."
-Walter Mercado

“Always receive a lot of peace from me, but above all, a lot, a lot, a lot of love.”
-Walter Mercado

Have you ever thought that writing about something that doesn't exist is like telling the fortune
of an art piece? Back In the Caribbean, I was always reading palm trees, their shape, their
silhouette, lines, colours, movement and actions. Now In Canada I am writing about paintings
that I have started but not yet finished. It’s like I am also reading palms here, the palms of my
hand in action. I am reading the traces, actions, lines, marks and decisions my hands have
already made to tell the fortune of a painting that doesn't yet exist. Each brushstroke, each
gesture is recorded, and it gives certain information, leaving one thinking about the future of
painting. In this way, being a “palm reader” is how I make observations, and perhaps even
predictions.

Chapter 1: Research Questions and Artistic Method

Fig. 3, Maru Aponte, Beach in Puerto Rico, 2022

This thesis document titled Palm Readings is informed by entangled topics that take up plein air
painting, watercolour as a primary medium and the relationship of colour to the Caribbean
island of Puerto Rico. The specific questions that I address in the work are:

How can plein air painting in the Caribbean function as a form of deep acknowledgement of
place?
What is the potential of watercolour as a contemporary artistic medium?
How can colour represent the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico and its culture?

Each chapter of this thesis addresses these questions and is anchored by different visual
examples of my Thesis Project. It has taken me a while to solidify these questions. I think it is
because I enjoy the looseness that watecolour and plein air painting afford and have been
resistant to fixing meaning. But I realize now that I can articulate these three questions without
losing the fluidity, abstraction and flexibility of the Thesis Project.
I feel like every time I paint, I am asking a question through materials and my artistic method. In
this sense I wonder if watercolour is both a noun and a verb. Working with this medium is
slippery. It is often dismissed as; not serious, for amateurs, as studies for final paintings in a
different medium or as a means to draw rather than paint. Historically, watercolour has been
associated with the term ‘Sunday Painters' which is associated with hobby painters, painters
that paint in their spare time or are not academically trained. That's not me. I have had the
opportunity to educate myself in painting at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, The
Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp and now at Emily Carr University of Art and Design,
Vancouver. Despite or perhaps because of my educational experiences, watercolour is the
medium I am most connected to. While developing my Thesis Project it became very important
to demonstrate that the medium of watercolour has the capacity to stand on its own, that it is
at the level of any other painting medium, that it can function on many surfaces and be a final
work and most importantly, watercolour is a medium with the capacity to make innovative
artworks in contemporary times. In my time in Vancouver I was introduced to Silke Otto
Knapp’s artwork. I was inspired by her work exclusively in watercolour at a large scale and the
potential she demonstrates by incorporating interesting configurations.
Watercolour is an intriguing medium for how it represents and translates colour. It is direct,
transparent, and doesn't hide physical gestures or mark making. It has a strong character and
simultaneously is delicate. It provides the capacity to use saturated and pure pigments when
you learn to use it, it has the ability to keep colours fresh and luminous, even from a distance.
For me it possesses the brightness of stars in the sky when viewed from Earth .
My research questions are informed predominately by visual research, observation and
thinking through doing. While I do integrate various citations in this text, I am inspired
predominantly by the physicality of experiential learning. My research occurs in the action of
painting and what comes up in the process. When I have questions, I look to other artists'
practices and processes to see possibilities and how they might have addressed similar
concerns that I encounter in my studio activities.
As a young woman growing up in Puerto Rico, I did not have the opportunity to be exposed to
many women artists. It has therefore become important to search for inspiring women painters
and learn from their experiences with this medium. I have been looking at Georgia O'keeffe,

Hele Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, Marlene Dumas, Vivian Suter, and finally I have been
influenced by the guidance of my mentor, Elizabeth Mcintosh.
In my MFA project I have been learning to unlearn. In “On the Value of Not Knowing: Wonder,
Beginning Again and Letting Be”, Rachel Jones states, “Cultivating wonder is a way of remaining
open to the otherness of the other without seeking to appropriate or assimilate them.”
Drawing on her attention to wonder, I have been learning to follow materials and to embrace
their mutable nature. I need to know the rules to then challenge them and find new ways of
exploring a material’s potential. Being curious has become integral in my practice and so has
letting go. I bring my curiosity to exploring each new painting that I make through material
investigations. Letting go of what I expect the paintings to be has also opened avenues for
embracing chance and what occurs within each painting. I never really know what the final
outcome of each work will be, even when using my small plein air watercolours on paper pieces
as a starting point. The material of watercolour never repeats itself, therefore making it
impossible to remake or fully copy another painting.

Artistic Method
My artistic method evolves directly from my research questions. I am inspired not only by the
history of plein air painting but what it might mean in this contemporary moment. Having spent
so much of my formative years in the Caribbean, it is not surprising that I paint outdoors as
much as I do. Learning about plein air painting once I left the island has given my practice a
context both in terms of art history and Puerto Rico. Plein air painting has made me more
aware of my homeland, its history, the climate, and the cultural atmosphere. Working with this
method, I have become more aware of what and how I add to a particular location. In this way,
I am responsive to what the landscape adds in my development as a person and as a painter.
In the past few years, before starting the MFA program, I spent more time away from the island
than on it. Simultaneously, I have been using painting materials such as oil, acrylic, spray paint,
ink and watercolour in their various liquid states. What I missed most about living on an island
is the accessibility to the water. Working with different turquoises and blues has produced an
elusive poetic transparency often found in close proximity to each other. Diluting the various
mediums that I worked with became an opportunity for me to connect to the diverse qualities
of water that I was used to interacting with everyday.
Working with multiple locations both inside and outside the Caribbean, I realize that my
connection to the Puertorrican landscape informs everything that I paint. By this I mean that I
have chosen to paint Puertorrican landscapes while living in Vancouver. The distance allows me
to see the features of the island clearer and perhaps in a more heightened way.

My artistic method during the MFA program has been focused on watercolour allowing me to
cultivate a degree of depth with this material. As Helen Frankenthaler commented, “The only
rule is that there are no rules… The picture unfolds, leads, unravels as I push ahead.”
Frankenthaler’s practice is inspiring for her commitment to the liquidity of her materials, her
experimentation with works on paper and lastly, her exploration of watercolor itself.
The liquid nature of watercolour is especially profound in my research. Watercolour pigment
needs only water to be activated. There is a freedom in its liquid nature but also a loss of
control. Letting go is a kind of freedom, and in a way how I collaborate with the medium. The
material flows in the direction that it wants to go, making many decisions for me. I don’t have
control of how the pigments mix, combine, sit and dry. I can only predict and later react to what
happened. In a way, I fool myself into thinking that I am not responsible for making all of the
decisions that are involved in creating paintings.
This loss of control creates a kind of abstraction and demands that I am flexible, mentally and
physically, with the process. This flexibility eventually becomes an instinct and is embodied in
my gestures. The majority of my reactions need to unfolded with agility because of the fast
drying material. In the thesis project I have found different ways for my body to be integral with
the process of painting watercolour and how it influences the image.
Finally, my artistic method is informed by colour both in relation to the kinds of colour available
through the watercolour medium but also how it connects to my homeland. The intensity of
colour has been part of my aesthetic sensibility since childhood. Growing up on the island and
absorbing so much light from the sun, I have a tendency to only use saturated colours. Using
saturated colour is the most honest way for me to make paintings that represent the Caribbean
culture of Puerto Rico. Because of the complex identity found on the island, there is a diversity
of cultural influences (Taino,Europe, Africa and the United States) as well as the intersection of
different religions that contribute to what is Puerto Rico today. Because of migration from
various places, the richness of different languages and multiple traditions and ceremonies, it
feels necessary to reflect this complexity by using saturated colours. For me, the intensity of
saturated colour comes to represent the intensity of the Puertorrican experience,beautiful,
cacophonous and very honest.

Fig. 4, Maru Aponte, Punta Borinquen, 2022, watercolour on canvas, 5’5 ft x 5.8 ft

Chapter 2: Al aire libre, Plein Air Painting and Accordion Books

Fig. 5, Maru Aponte, Indicators playa, 2022, 16 inches x 4 inches
How can plein air painting in the Caribbean function as a form of deep acknowledgement of
place?
There was a moment when I was doing my undergraduate degree that I wondered whether I
had chosen to be a painter because someone had told me I was good or because I really
wanted to be a painter. When I was introduced to painting plein air in my first year at the Royal
Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium, I felt that I had found the answer to this question. I find the
experience of painting outside reaffirms my connection to painting, to place and the powerful
energies that it affords. I find harmony in being able to pair two things that I love and that
ground me, painting and being outside breathing fresh air in the landscape. When I feel
overwhelmed or stuck I like to go outside, breathe fresh air and remind myself of my
inspiration.
Plein Air painting was pioneered by John Constable in 1813 in Britain and became very popular
in the 1860s with the French Impressionists. This approach of being able to make paintings
outside was facilitated by the technological innovation of painting tubes. Plein air painting
offered something fresh and new to the long history of painting more generally. It also allowed
artists to connect more deeply with their local context, the topography and the quality of
atmospheric light. In this way, the origins of plein air painting allowed for a deep
acknowledgement of place. Its popularity among artists and their viewers meant that the work
produced outside wasn't just a sketch but a finished and complete work.
For plein air painting, it is important to utilize lightweight materials so that one can move
around easily. I use watercaps as pigment holders, a metallic box because it is compact and

lightweight to carry in my bag. For the surface, I enjoy using cold-press handmade cotton paper.
With my thesis project I have focused on this paper because it is very porous and I appreciate
how the pigments are absorbed and sit on the rough surface. I consciously selected cotton
paper because I associate it with cotton towels that are essential to have in Puerto Rico. I enjoy
handmade paper because they are unique and have irregular textures. I enjoy it so much that I
exaggerate it by selecting big sheets of paper and tearing the paper myself, allowing for the
edges to be sincere, rough and imprecise. The tearing of the paper reveals its fleshy fibers and
shows in an honest way, the liveliness of my process. As none of the torn paper ever results in
the same tears, each sheath is unique. This ensures that each completed watercolour has its
own original scale and format. A paper’s individuality is integral to my decision making of what
to paint.

Fig. 6, Maru Aponte, Los salvavidas de Luquillo, 2022, 16 inches x 6 inches
The accordion books that I made at the start of the MFA program deepened my connection to
painting plein air. The small scale which made it portable allowed me to better understand my
relationship to the landscape and the particularities of a place. I explored both horizontal and
vertical orientations which encouraged me to view familiar vista from fresh perspectives.
Working with small accordion books that are folded at intervals allow me to abstract the
painting process and focus on sections rather than the vista in front of me.(fig. 6) Seeing my
work abstractly has been an important part of my artistic method with these small works.
The accordion format continues to come in handy because of the practicality of folding the
paper for greater portability. This allows me to carry as many papers as possible. In the process

of using the accordion book each individual square influences what I
focused my observation on. Working with two to five successive squares.
Each one functions as a view catcher of what is in front of me. Each square
ensures that I concentrate on a small section of the larger image and work
on specific aspects of the landscape. In this way I move between a singular
square and the series of squares that make up the complete image. This
way of viewing allows me to focus per section and in a way, think
abstractly. To think abstractly opens up the possibilities of immersion for
myself as the maker and the viewer. I have made more than 50 accordion
pieces since the beginning of the program. At the same time, the small
accordion format also functions as mini artist books. Each one offers an
aesthetic encounter with watercolour on an intimate scale. When I look at
a series of complete books it is one of the most exciting parts of the
process.
In my first semester in Vancouver I did some plein air sessions in different
areas of Vancouver. I was amazed by how the river water and the
waterfalls at Lynn Canyon were vibrant phthalo green. I returned many
times to capture the intense greens of the water. In this process I made
many watercolour accordion books and noticed that the Pacific West Coast
of British Columbia, specifically of the Lower Mainland had a different
colour palette than Caribbean Antilles island of Puerto Rico. In addition to
the incredible hues, I was also inspired by the monumentality of the
geology. I was especially attracted to the Twinfalls Bridge waterfalls. I
enjoyed the zig zag movement of the water as it fell to the ground. Doing
the small accordion book for this site, I felt the need to scale up the work in
order to fully capture the feeling that a force of water transmits. This
scaling up in response to the site would later inform my Thesis Project
which consists of large scale watercolours on canvas.I will pick up on this
thread in the next section.

Fig .7, Maru Aponte, Navidades en Luquillo, 2022,watercolour on paper, 15
inches x 3 inches

Returning to my research question: How can plein air painting in the Caribbean function as a
form of deep acknowledgement of place? Coming to Vancouver, I simultaneously learned about
the Aboriginal Land Acknowledgment and this incredible land itself. Through plein air
watercolour painting, I discovered a connection to this land and its complex history of
habitation. I think that this sensitivity to the Land
Acknowledgment has made me more aware of my own homeland and how important it is for
me to celebrate and honor Puerto Rico. In this way, I continue to be amazed with how this
technique opens up the possibility for understanding where I am situated, the practice of
painting in its many forms and how they are always entwined. In the same way that plein air
painting during the Impressionist period connected artists to place, and rural settings, my own
engagement with this form has allowed me to discover a deeper connection to and
acknowledgment of Puerto Rico. The studio can be anywhere whether the watery settings in
Puerto Rico or the lively forests of The Lower Mainland. The flexibility of water regardless of
place is echoed in the flexibility of watercolour as a medium.
In Puerto Rico, our art history is traced back to the Taino aboriginals. They made art for
religious and communication purposes. After the arrival of the Europeans, the Spaniards
brought religious painting panels. There are very few recordings, documentation and preserved
artworks since the island has always been exposed to massive hurricanes and earthquakes. On
the island, I grew up knowing that natural disasters are part of the island life. This mentality and
experience has informed my ability to be flexible to adjust to a given moment and accept the
adjustment. Like my father says in Spanish, “hay que bregar con lo que traiga el barco”, “We
need to work with what the boat brings.” Thanks to technological advances in painting and
materials, plein air allows us to be able to paint under any conditions, and anywhere. Painting
outdoors is accessible to anyone. For me painting outdoors has become an important way of
acknowledging the power and history of a place.
I am moved by the fact that my research in Vancouver informs my relationship to my
homeland. To be able to paint in situ, on site, away from the studio, has allowed me to be more
connected to where I am painting. Even if I have a studio space, it is essential to be able to
begin the painting process on a specific site. This process has made me more aware, when I
return to the island. I have a different gaze, a different perspective, looking with fresh eyes. I
now better appreciate the mundane and daily interactions back home but also the ocean vistas,
the shape of the waves and the incredible vegetation.

Inhabiting a strange entanglement of nostalgia and diaspora. I see the action of plein painting
as an opportunity to better understand my relationship to the island, its diverse cultures and
my sense of home. Beginning a project outdoors, I get to experience the land with more
complexity. I am acutely aware of the light, the colours, the vegetation, the people and endless
shifts in weather patterns. Indeed, it is a different way to experience being present. In a way, I
am deciding what I want to remember by what I choose to paint and with what colour. Colour
allows me to access memory through my senses. I can remember and be transported to an
experience with colour. By practicing active looking and painting on site, my visual memory is
engaged and captures elements of the landscape that might be forgotten later.
While I am working, I respond to how the land interacts with my paintings through its specific
location. I am inspired by the Swiss Guatemalan artist Vivian Suters painting practice. Her studio
in Guatemala is open to the outdoors. Wild animals enter her space as do the seasonal
mudslides. She also leaves work outside to allow the weather to complete or finish the image.
Suter makes works with, not of, the landscape, she explains: “It’s all around me, and I don’t see
much further; it is enclosed, but outside.” (Suter)This way of being with the elements also
informs how I embrace and am directly affected by the natural elements of a site. If I am
painting at the beach and the wind picks up speed, the paper occasionally flies away while it is
still in process. Often, the pigments combine with the sand. In fact, many of the final
watercolours have additional components including sand, leaves and grass which add to the
work. I enjoy this because it feels that I honestly capture the materiality of the land and the
moment. In a way I am collaborating with the land and its particular weather patterns. I am
welcoming an intimacy with place into the paintings. Daniel Birenbaum’s writing on Suter sheds
light on this way of working. Invoking Timothy Morton in his book Being Ecological (2018),
Birenbaum quotes the philosopher: “We are beings symbiotically entangled with other beings”.
Birenbaum sees a connection between Suter’s work and Morton’s reflection on our
entanglement. “You are breathing air . . . evolution is silently unfolding in the background.
Somewhere, a bird is singing and clouds pass overhead. . . . You don’t have to be ecological.
Because you are ecological.” (Birenbaum) I appreciate these sentiments for how the
relationship of making landscape paintings seems to seamlessly integrate with the experience
of being in the landscape.

Left side:Fig, 8 Vacia Talega, 2022, watercolour on paper, 10.5 ft x 2ft
Right side:Fig, 9 Twinfalls, 2021, watercolour on paper, 13.5 ft x 2 ft

Chapter 3: Watercolour and Infinity pool

Fig.10, Maru Aponte, El Infinito,2022, watercolour on canvas, 4ft x 4ft

In this chapter I ask the question: What is the potential of watercolour as a contemporary
artistic medium? It is important to share through my work that watercolour is a powerful
technique that can transcend itself. As American painter Lee Krasner states,
“Painting for me, when it really happens, is as miraculous as any natural phenomenon…
One could go on forever as to whether the paint should be thick or thin, whether to
paint the woman or a square, hardedge or soft, but after a while such questions become
a bore…But the painting I have in mind… transcends techniques, transcends subject, and
moves into the realm of the inevitable.” (Krasner)
Though she worked predominantly with oil paint, often diluted, her comment speaks to my
own understanding of watercolour painting as miraculous, especially how its liquidity is part of
the process and as Krasner offers, moves into the realm of the inevitable. When I reflect on my
painting practice, using the word inevitable is the perfect adjective to explain how and why I
use watercolour as my main medium. I was introduced to this material as a child. Now, looking
back at the few works that my mother saved, I appreciate their energy and freedom of
expression. It encourages me to create with more looseness. The immediacy that watercolour
had on my creative expression many years ago continues to be reflected in the way I approach
painting today.

Fig. 11 , Maru Aponte, mi casita, 2000, mix media on paper, 29 inches x 22 inches

When I was making oil paintings during my undergraduate degree in Belgium I decided to
return to watercolour. This liquid medium possessed a kind of practicality for me. It is a
material that allows for movement in making an image and capturing movement in the image.
Watercolour has the capacity to be immediate without too much material or surface
preparations. I can do many studies quickly with a loose hand. In Spanish, we describe this as,
“calentar motores” in other words it heats up the engine, so to speak or loosens and stretches
the muscles.
What used to be a medium for sketching has evolved to become my primary focus.. It allows for
a rapid trial and error that promotes confident thinking because you cannot go back - there is
not layering or editing in watercolour. The liquid aspect of watercolour continues to inform my
understanding of abstraction. The material flows in the direction that it wants to go, it interacts
with the colours that I introduce to the paper but it is a very independent medium. In this sense
it has a lot of character, it can be saturated, bold, unexpected, ruthless, gentle and transparent
at the same time. It is honest, it doesn’t try to hide any spills or harsh marks. I believe that I
have found a material that I can identify with deeply.
In the past, I used watercolours for many years as studies for my bigger acrylic or oil paintings
on canvas. I saw them as studies even when I was secretly more connected to the work on
paper. Watercolour painting came more naturally, I could let my guard down and not have high
expectations, allowing for surprising results. There is a hierarchy of materials in the European
system. You are a successful painter if you can make large format oil paintings on canvas.
Looking at specific artists such as Henri Mattise, I learned that paintings were made with oil or
acrylic paintings using watercolour studies as reference. This was an important realization. So I
tried this method. After using creamy oil for many years I slowly started mixing media by
bringing the different mediums to their most liquid state.
When I started the MFA program I consciously worked with water based spray paint, ink,
acrylic, and watercolour on canvas, expanding on the fluidity that I found so inspiring working
with just watercolour. From this process I learned the different characteristics of each medium
and how they reacted with each other through layering each medium in different
configurations rather than focusing on the image or final piece. Utilizing mix media created
some interesting moments in terms of collage and juxtaposition of ideas, but I had a strong
desire to ground the work in the more direct process of watercolour derived from the first hand
observational plein air studies.

Fig. 12. Maru Aponte, Infinity pool, 2022, watercolour on canvas, 7ft x 6ft
Working with watercolour paper on a large scale was something that I wanted to do since the
start of the MFA program. Because of the pandemic circumstances in 2021, I had to order the
large format paper from another country. Working with large format paper has changed the
way I interact with my painting practice. It is more physical. My entire body is engaged in
making gestures and in the process - I cannot see the work until it is dry and I can stand it
up;Because watercolour is a liquid medium I have to work flat and because of the scale I have
to work on the floor. Making my thesis project work, I had some limitations with the studio
space at Emily Carr University but I solved it by using the Grad Gallery as my studio space. This
is similar to how American painter Laura Owens made her series Twelve Paintings in the gallery
rather than in her studio. She comments that “painting in the studio has become very
conservative…” (Interview). Similarly, I always adjust to the spaces that I work in. Instead of
thinking that the studio is conventional, I understand the studio as being everywhere. Using
bigger spaces outside of the studio has allowed the work to go larger. I am more flexible in scale
and format and I can paint all at once instead of focusing on one area. Painting on the floor I

can walk around and on the paper. This method has provided another context for
understanding the power of scale and how my work relates to the physical body. This is
reminiscent of Laura Owens who states, “So if I am going to make a painting I am going to think
about all the things painting does and exhaust them and slam new things into them…Something
that painting does it can actually relate to your physical body.” What has also felt important
about working on large format watercolour paper is that I use big quantities of pigment. When
you scale up an image, the identity of the colour shifts and transforms another persona.
As I continued to work, I reflected on why I am trying to make other painting mediums act like
watercolour. Why can’t they just be watercolour? In this way I came to work exclusively with
this medium and on a large scale. In July 2022, I wanted to transfer this approach to working on
canvas. With much research and determination, I found a way of preparing a canvas surface so
that it has the handmade qualities of watercolour paper that I enjoy. This artistic research has
brought me to the present moment working on large format watercolour paintings on canvas.
This feels natural and authentic to what I love about painting - I can scale up and down
allowing the medium of watercolor to shine. Previously I was locked in by the history of
watercolour painting even though it is the very medium that inspires me to paint. I now honor
the medium by embracing every aspect of it.
I have come to love the inevitable aspects of watercolour as well as those qualities where I have
no control. It is a medium that celebrates the physical process of painting, leaving traces of the
process that I don’t want to hide anymore. I have come to appreciate the transparency about
this process. My goal in painting isn’t to make pretty paintings but rather transmit with honesty
how I experience a place and the process of painting. Creating large format watercolour
painting was a challenge that I took on for my thesis project. It is important for me to give my
watercolors the honor they deserve in teaching me how to become more flexible, to listen and
to be open to possibilities.

Fig. 13, Maru Aponte, Sunset by the pool, 2022, watercolour on paper ,14 inches x 4 inches

I understand watercolour as being similar to the architectural features of an infinity pool.An
infinity pool has no apparent borders making you think that there is no separation between the
water and surrounding landscape features. Its water appears to flow endlessly. I see this
phenomenon as similar to my watercolour paintings. It is a medium that is never finished, at
least in my eyes. It can always be reactivated with humidity or water; the climate is part of the
paintings. In the time that I have been developing my thesis project I have been in endless and
ongoing contact with water, as an activator of the medium, as a motif, and in my daily routines
both in Vancouver and Puerto Rico.
At the moment in my thesis project I have made up 12 paintings on canvas using watercolour as
a medium and water as a motif. There is something about the infinity of the ocean and not
seeing beyond the horizon that makes one feel small. Large format paintings can provoke the
same feeling. When you look at large format paintings from afar they feel small but the closer
you get to the picture plane, the smaller you become. This reminds me of how when swimming
in the open sea, I become just a small particle of water. Water is so important in my practice
that I felt the need to increase the canvas size to allow for more surface so as to further
represent the weight and importance of this element.Painting water with water is my little
inside joke.
Reflecting on my process, “Infinity Pool” feels like an anchor to many of my realizations. This
painting began by studying one of my plein air sessions in the north west municipality of
Aguadilla, Puerto Rico (fig. x). In the past three years I have been visiting and being connected
to this area because my brother Guillermo lives there. My relationship to this side of the island
has grown deeper and stronger because of my brother and how he has shared his experience of
the land with me. Being a surfer and loving the ocean, Guillermo has shown me areas that only
locals go to including a magical infinity pool. I was amazed by the view and how the
architecture made me feel as if I was part of the landscape.

Chapter 4: Calor y Color (Heat and Colour)

Fig. 14, Maru Aponte,El Mix, 2022, watercolour on canvas, 5.5 ft x 5.8ft

How can colour represent the island of Puerto Rico and its culture?
In my artistic practice I use colour to represent my experience growing up on the Caribbean
island of Puerto Rico. In this chapter Calor y Color (Heat and Colour), I will demonstrate how
colour represents the energy of the island of Puerto Rico, the local people, the contemporary
landscape and lifestyle. Colour functions as a sense activator that makes me engaged, curious
and eager to create. I am passionate about how colour has the capacity to capture the energy

and sense of a place, a person and life. As seen in the painting El Mix, (fig,X) the palm tree
functions as a sign of the tropics. I use colours to reinforce the signs that represent Caribbean
culture from an insider perspective even though I am not currently living on the island. In my
paintings, colour has the power to change the temperature of a space and the location where it
is situated. For example, I see them quite differently in Vancouver than I would in Puerto Rico.
While making an image, I aim to transmit my Carribean energy into a painting by producing
colour combinations that are bold and provocative. Colour is why I paint and show up everyday
to my studio. Georgia O’ Keeffe once said, “I found I could say things with color and shapes that
I couldn’t say any other way - things I had no words for.” This is similar to my own experience
where I see colour as the vocabulary that is fundamental to my painting language. Writing this
paper is much harder than doing paintings . I can communicate more accurately with colour
and shape how I see, feel, and think. I believe my first language is painting, then Spanish with
English as my third language.
The reason that I make paintings is to play with colour. As Albers says in Interraction of Color, I
too like to “reverse the academic order by putting practice before theory, which, after all,is the
conclusion of practice” (Albers 1 ). The interplay between colours is one of the main inspirations
for my creative practice. Growing up with so much sunlight, everything in my surroundings was
very bright. My island birth place has contributed to my sensitivity towards saturated colour.
My experience in Puerto Rico, with its complex and colourful culture, is a vibrant, saturated,
chaotic place. I consciously use saturated pigments that coexist on the same surface to create
rhythm and harmony, especially harmony within chaos. In chemistry, saturation is the degree
or extent to which something is dissolved or absorbed to the maximum possible. Saturation for
me is the most intense form of colour pigmentation that can be found and I use it to represent
and evoke the intense energy found in the people and lifestyle of my homeland.

Fig. 15, Maru Aponte, Pressure Point, 2022, watercolour on canvas, 3.3 ft x 3 ft

During the thesis project I have been observing the different colours that I bring into play in my
paintings. I see the colour phthalo blue character or subject of my work in the form of
watercolour. When I was exploring with mix media, I struggled to find the same harmony of
blues that I had discovered with acrylic and spray paint. It became visually apparent that even if
the painting tubes were composed of the same pigment, the state in which they coexist makes
them different. The same colour often has multiple readings and personalities in the same
painting. A similar experience occurs when painting with watercolour. One of the qualities I
have observed about using colour with watercolour format is that the same colour never has
the same consistency, this allows for the transparencies to make the same pigment be different
colours.

Fig. 16, Maru Aponte, Details of : Caribbean Gaze, 2022, mix media on canvas

I grew up with normal weather being 90 degrees to 100 degrees (32-37 celsius). Sweat is
common in Puerto Rico, so painting with warm colours kind of feels like sweating. My colour
decisions represent the warm and humid weather found in Puerto Rico. Colour has the capacity
to change the climate and provoke heat in painting. Calor y color means in english heat and
color. I use this term to describe what I like to provoke with colour especially in my large format
works on canvas. From the outside, the paintings do function as warm light sources. With the

intense colour and large scale, the paintings function almost like sunlight lamps for seasonal
depression.
In the last ten years, the Carribbean has been getting hotter. I use warm colours as a way of
addressing and pointing out this increase in temperature. The heat stress has affected livestock,
coral reefs, labour productivity and human health. The all year warm weather attracts many
tourists and visitors to the Caribbean, but it is important to bring awareness to how the climate
crisis is affecting this region. In my most recent paintings, I have been working with colour as a
means of addressing this phenomena. I am still exploring whether this operates as a warning
that can communicate how the rising heat is affecting people and the landscape. I have been
thinking about using saturated colours similar to how many small frogs have saturated colour.
The brighter and more saturated their colour, the more poisonous they are. In this way, colour
can be a warning sign of danger …and death. The hotter the summer gets, the stronger the
hurricanes will become. I have made plein air paintings on the island of places that used to
exist. With the endless hurricane in Puerto Rico, many of these sites have disappeared.

Conclusion
Working on the thesis project has helped me question actions and decisions in my artistic
practice. It has made it possible to ground the important role watercolour has to the process,
the final paintings, and how I understand creative research. During the MFA program, I
developed my investment in this medium by showing diverse ways it can be rethought in
contemporary times.
I have paid more attention to my colour choices and found potential in how saturated colour
can be a metaphor to reflect my Caribbean culture. In addition, the use of warm colours
function to change the climate of a space by bringing awareness to contemporary climate crisis
concerns found on the island of Puerto Rico. I have become very conscious of how scale and
colour collaborate to draw attention to the paintings and simultaneously allow for a slower
impact on the viewer. I intend to continue working on large scale paintings and engaging even
further with the landscape format. I want to address the gaps and missing perspectives that
have informed my experience as a female painter from Puerto Rico. While conducting research
on my Thesis project, it came to my attention that there is very little exposure of woman
painters doing plein air painting in the Caribbean. This thesis project has deeply informed how
important it is for me as a woman painter from the Caribbean, to paint outdoors.
I see this Thesis Project Palm Readings as a good base to continue developing my connection to
watercolour, water itself as a medium and water as subject matter. As a “palm reader,” I will
continue using observations of natural landscapes and expand this way of looking to consider
other genres such as still life, the figure, etc. I appreciate that watercolour has further potential
and will continue exploring this by making more artwork to show the future of this medium. I
am excited to continue manifesting my creative energies and importantly, sharing and passing
the knowledge I have learned working on Palm Readings over the past two years.

Fig17, Maru Aponte, Andres en playa sun bay, 2023, Watercolour canvas, 4.5 ft x 3.75 ft

Work Cited
Albers, Josef. Interaction of Color. 50th anniversary ed., 4th ed. / Josef Albers., Yale University
Press, 2013. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=cat04308a&AN=ECUAD.121
641191&site=eds-live.
Birenbaum, Daniel “Daniel Birnbaum on Vivian Suter.” Www.artforum.com,
www.artforum.com/print/reviews/202201/vivian-suter-87454.

Brindley, Liz. “Visual Vocabulary.” Okeeffemusuem.org, 6 July 2015,
www.okeeffemuseum.org/visual-vocabulary/.
Di Napoli, Claudia, et al. “Heat Stress in the Caribbean: Climatology, Drivers, and Trends of
Human Biometeorology Indices.” International Journal of Climatology, 24 June 2022,
https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.7774. Accessed 15 July 2022.
Jones, Rachel. ‘On the Value of Not Knowing: Wonder, Beginning Again and Letting Be’. Lecture
for the Symposium ‘On not Knowing’, hosted by Kettle’s Yard and New Hall College, Cambridge,
29th June 2009
Krasner, Lee, LEE KRASNER'S PERSONAL NOTES AND LECTURES, 1977-1979,
UNDATED,https://transcription.si.edu/view/21123/AAA-0703-000010
Owens, Laura “Laura Owens - 12 Paintings at 356 S. Mission Road - the Artist’s Studio MOCAtv.” www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s74fES8qLY.
Wilkin, Karen. “HELEN FRANKENTHALER: ABSENCE of RULES.” Finest.ha.com, Mar. 2016,
fineart.ha.com/itm/paintings/helen-frankenthaler-1928-2011-tantric-1977acrylic-on-canvas691-4-x-67-1-2-inches-1759-x-1715-cm-signed/a/5258-69207.s.
Works Consulted
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Di Napoli, Claudia, et al. "Heat stress in the Caribbean: Climatology, drivers, and trends of
human biometeorology indices." International Journal of Climatology 43.1 (2023): 405-425.

Reflections after the thesis show

For my thesis exhibition, I presented four watercolour paintings on canvas. These paintings
have different scales and formats. I deliberately explored the landscape format, which was new
to me. I wanted to explore the long history of the triptychs in painting and rethink the
possibilities of the triptych in today's world. Henri Matisse's "Moroccan Triptych", painted

during his visit to Tangier in 1912-1913, inspired my version of the triptych, which I called
"Puerto Rican Triptych." In the process, I discovered that my Puerto Rican Triptych consisted
not of three paintings, but of four. I saw the need to take action myself and rethink the purpose
of the triptych. 'Verde tahiti' deals with the interior of the island in the south of the island,
'Andres en Playa Sunbay' with a contemporary Puerto Rican man taking a nap on the beach,
‘Indicators’ looks from the inside out at my brother and his friends surfing in Rincon. ‘Palm
reading’ represents the saturated light of the island and my close observation palm trees.

Fig from left to right
Fig.18, Maru Aponte,Verde Tahiti, 54 x 45 inches, watercolour on canvas, 2023
Fig 19, Maru Aponte,Andres en Playa Sun bay, 54 x 42 inches, watercolour on canvas, 2023
Fig 20, Maru Aponte,Indicators, 7 ft x 6 ft, watercolour on canvas,2023

Fig.18, Maru Aponte,Verde Tahiti, 54 x 45 inches, watercolour on canvas, 2023

Fig 19, Maru Aponte,Andres en Playa Sun bay, 54 x 42 inches, watercolour on canvas, 2023

Fig 20, Maru Aponte,Indicators, 7 ft x 6 ft, watercolour on canvas,2023

Fig. 21,Maru Aponte,Palm Reading, 5.5 ft x 5.8ft, watercolour on canvas, 2023