Lichen on Stone Blue
Lichen on Stone Blue
Details
Year: 2026
Medium: Watercolor on panel
Size: 6 × 12 in
Status: Framed
Price: $400.00 USD*
Note
A lichen is not a single organism. It is a symbiosis, sometimes centuries old, between a fungus and one or more photosynthetic partners, typically green algae, cyanobacteria, or both. The fungus provides structure and protection. The photosynthetic partners provide food. Neither can form a lichen alone. A single rock face can host a dozen species in overlapping territories, each with its own chemistry and growth rate, competing and coexisting over decades. The blue-grey and indigo washes in this painting are the stone, its mineral character rendered through watercolor. The pale areas left as bare panel are a crustose lichen, a form so intimately fused to the rock that separating organism from substrate becomes difficult even at close range. The ochre-gold passages are a distinct species, likely a xanthoria or similar nitrogen-loving lichen whose pigmentation comes from secondary metabolites produced by its fungal partner. Where different species meet, their boundaries are not sharp lines but slow negotiations, each colony advancing or retreating by fractions of a millimeter per year.
Other Paintings in the Series
My Promise
10% of proceeds from every purchase are donated to the World Wildlife Fund to support the protection of endangered species. Thank you for supporting my work and the ecosystems that inspire it.
*If you love this work but the price is out of reach, please feel free to contact me.