AN Archives: Ruth Cobb’s Expressive Watercolors
Ruth Cobb (1914–2008) was an acclaimed American artist based in New York City, renowned for her captivating paintings that visually explore the depths of color, form and texture. Her work has been featured at galleries and museums across America and Europe. In a 1979 article from American Artist magazine, she provided insight into what inspired her psychologically charged still lifes—the need to express a profound connection to nature—and described her creative process.
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Influences. Cobb was influenced by several artists throughout her career. She became enchanted with watercolor after steeping herself in the riches of the Oriental (now Asia) collection at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. She was also inspired by Georges Braque’s (French, 1882–1963) Cubism, which organized composition and emphasized the flatness of the picture plane. The subtly organized and chromatically rich paintings of Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867–1947) drew her to color, as did the work of her husband, Lawrence Kupferman (American, 1909–1982), along with the works of Paul Klee (Swiss-born German, 1879–1940) and Morris Graves (American, 1910–2001).
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Materials. An experimenter at heart, Cobb worked with a large palette and an array of brushes. While any one painting might feature just six or seven colors to ensure color harmony, she had many paints on her palette while working. These included Winsor red, alizarin, Winsor yellow, cadmium yellow pale, cadmium yellow deep, Hooker’s green, Winsor green, viridian, emerald green, Winsor blue, cobalt blue, cerulean, Payne’s gray, cobalt violet, Winsor violet, permanent magenta, raw sienna, raw umber, burnt umber, sepia, burnt sienna, Venetian, Davy’s gray and permanent white. She also used Sumi black paste ink. As for brushes, she worked with a 1 1/2-inch wide flat brush, several smaller short flats, as well as round sable and bristle brushes in sizes Nos. 10, 8, 6 and 4.
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Process. Cobb started a new painting by soaking wet paper in a bathtub for about 10 minutes before spreading it, unstretched, on a plywood board. She mixed two or three separate washes in china bowls and then poured or brushed the washes onto the paper in arbitrary designs. This underpainting technique jump-started Cobb’s creative process. While the underpainting dried, she sponged away heavy spots or added new ones, and she used frisket to protect white areas and delicate lines.
The artist worked the first wet stages while the paper was flat but then worked vertically to take in the entirety of the composition. She’d rotate the painting or reflect it in a mirror to identify problem areas in the composition. At that stage, she would tape strips of white paper over brown tape to approximate the look of a mat to visualize the finished work.
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