{"id":5810,"date":"2026-04-23T07:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=5810"},"modified":"2026-04-23T07:37:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:37:00","slug":"water-samples-from-around-the-world-melt-into-dima-rebus-dreamy-paintings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=5810","title":{"rendered":"Water Samples from Around the World Melt into Dima Rebus\u2019 Dreamy Paintings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Water<\/p>\n

The act of painting is often seen as a solitary pursuit; we picture the artist alone in a studio, working through compositional puzzles and experimenting with materials of their own choosing. For Dima Rebus<\/a>, the process is collaborative, although she may or may not know the other participants. In her large-scale works, the London-based artist adds new meaning to \u201cwatercolor\u201d as she incorporates water samples collected from strangers around the globe.<\/p>\n

In her series Floaters, <\/em>Rebus processes these crowdsourced units by freezing them with watercolor pigments, which she then allows to melt across the substrate, creating abstract color fields. She then adds figures and elements of landscape, often with a fluid, rippling effect evocative of light glinting off the surface of a lake, as aquatic themes emerge in the form of pools and swimmers.<\/p>\n

\"a
\u201cNoon Floaters\u201d (2025), watercolor on paper, chemical solutions, rainwater, and water samples from strangers, 140 x 300 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNearly every sample arrives with a letter, opening a dialogue shaped by place, mood, memory, and time,\u201d Rebus says. \u201cOver the years, I\u2019ve built an archive of waters from rain, rivers, seas, oceans, and glaciers, each preserved as both material record and human message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find more on the artist\u2019s Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"a
Detail of \u201cNoon Floaters\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cAfterimage VII\u201d (2025), watercolor on paper, chemical solutions, and rainwater, 110 x 200 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cNothing Matters Until An Empty Sofa Says Otherwise 1\u201d (2026), watercolor on paper, chemical solutions, rainwater, and water samples from strangers, 110 x 86 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cIntuitive Course VII\u201d (2025), watercolor on paper, chemical solutions, rainwater, and water samples from strangers, 42 x 80 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cMorning Floaters\u201d (2025), watercolor on paper, chemical solutions, rainwater, and water samples from strangers, 140 x 300 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Water Samples from Around the World Melt into Dima Rebus\u2019 Dreamy Paintings<\/a> appeared first on Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The act of painting is often seen as a solitary pursuit; we picture the artist alone in a studio, working through compositional puzzles and experimenting with materials of their own…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}