Eðli Water : Botanical Paintings 2025

Mamakan
Eðli Water
Aotearoa, Spring 2025
Collection of Original Artworks

This new series, Eðli Water, portrays the native botanicals of Velskov through a practice of growing connection. For each plant, I steep it in rainwater from the regnsalr (rain-hall/sky) of its home. Through this immersion, the water becomes eðli water—a medium infused with the plant's essence, which I then use to paint its portrait. No sketches, freehand.

The term Eðli (pronounced roughly like 'eth-li' with a soft 'th') is a Norse word that translates most closely to "nature," "essence," or "innate character."

Eðli means the living core essence of a being, rooted in ancestry and its original state.

In water, this essence expresses humility, harmony, and openness to change — humbly flowing downward, moving peacefully around obstacles, and changing form.

The eðli of a forest is this same spirit: the symbiotic network of root and mycelium, the shared language of the canopy, and the memory held in the ecology.

To paint with a plant's eðli water is to engage directly with this essence, honouring the indigenous principle—shared by Norse and Māori worldviews—that the forest is family.

Ultimately, Eðli Water is my quiet protest. I stand up against the colonial tradition of botanical art, which sought to catalogue and possess, instead of crafting portraits of kinship.

Media: Eðli water, watercolor, and “encre de chine” ink on Hahnemühle Leonardo 600gsm paper, 100% cotton, acid free, resistent to aging, natural white.

All works are 25 x 25 cm, with handmade edging suitable for floating mounting and/or multiple works in a solid box frame.