A Summer in Miniature – The World of Wild Companions
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MANO ET ARTE · WILD COMPANIONS
Wild Companions is a series of watercolored nature motifs in which small animals do not stand alone but appear together with the plant world in which we encounter them.
Ladybugs among chamomile, stag beetles in oak leaves, a dragonfly above water iris, or a spider among meadow grasses: I am less interested in the individual animal as a classic nature study. More exciting for me is the small context around it – the blade of grass it sits on, the flower next to it, the light between the leaves, and the question of how much landscape can actually be contained within a few centimeters.
THE PERSPECTIVE
A landscape sometimes begins between two blades of grass.
We are accustomed to seeking landscapes in vastness. Mountains, forests, coasts, or a horizon that lies as far away as possible.
Yet, right before our feet, landscapes exist that are hardly larger than a palm of a hand. A chamomile blossom becomes a white umbrella there, an oak branch becomes an entire habitat, and a few tall grasses suddenly form a small forest.
Only when one changes one's perspective do their inhabitants become visible. Some, like the red ladybug, immediately light up. Others almost completely disappear into their surroundings.
Perhaps that is precisely where Wild Companions begins.
THE SUMMER
From the first beetle to the web in late summer.
Many of the animals in this series belong to a summer as it might occur in Germany. Not in a single place and not on a specific day, but spread across meadows, forest edges, gardens, and waters.
In early summer, beetles appear among leaves and old wood. Blossoms are visited by bees, while meadows grow denser and taller. Later, the grasses stand almost waist-high, dragonflies fly over the water, and the great green bush-cricket often only becomes visible among the stalks when something moves.
Towards the end of summer, the picture changes. The colors become drier, seed heads replace some blossoms, and between the stalks, the webs of larger spiders become more prominent.
Thus, the series can almost be read like a small journey through the warm season.
THE ENCOUNTERS
The animal is only half the picture.
A stag beetle alone would be an animal portrait. Together with oak leaves, branches, and acorns, a place is created.
The same applies to the dragonfly. Only between water, reeds, and iris blossoms does it get the environment that makes its lightness understandable. The great green bush-cricket belongs to the tall summer grasses because it is precisely there that its color almost becomes camouflage.
Therefore, the plants in Wild Companions are not merely decorative framing.
They help tell the story.
Sometimes they stand equally alongside the animal, sometimes they even completely take on the main role on the second side of a cup. This means that when you turn it, you don't get a repeated motif, but rather a small change of perspective – once on the inhabitant, once on its habitat.
THE SMALL INHABITANTS
Not only the pretty ones are allowed to belong.
With ladybugs, bees, or dragonflies, sympathy comes easily. With spiders, things often look different.
That is precisely why garden spiders and wasp spiders naturally belong in this series for me. They inhabit the same meadows, verges, and gardens. Their webs connect stalks and become part of the landscape, even if we sometimes prefer to observe them from a distance.
A garden spider among meadow grasses is no less nature than a blossom.
Perhaps something even changes when you don't look at them in isolation, but where they live. Then the "spider" suddenly becomes a small constructor among grasses – and its web an astonishingly precise architecture.
After all, nature does not sort its inhabitants according to which ones we find particularly pretty.
THE WATERCOLOR
When contours are allowed to disappear.
Watercolor suits these motifs particularly well for me because a meadow also has no clear boundaries.
Grasses stand in front of each other, leaves overlap, light dissolves individual forms, and some animals almost completely disappear among the plants. Precisely this blurring is also allowed to remain in the image.
Colors lie transparently on top of each other. Some lines end before a form is fully described. A leaf may consist of only a few brushstrokes, and the white ground remains visible in many places.
Therefore, the illustrations are not intended to be natural history plates. The animals remain recognizable, but they are allowed to remain part of their environment.
They are observations rather than inventories.
AT THE WORKTABLE
From close observation to omission.
It begins with sketches, individual plant forms, postures, and color studies. A motif does not necessarily grow by adding more and more.
Often the opposite is more difficult.
A real meadow contains countless blades of grass, leaves, blossoms, shadows, and small inhabitants. If one were to transfer all of that into an illustration, hardly anything would remain visible in the end.
So it is reduced. Some grasses remain. A blossom. A branch. A piece of water. The animal.
Enough for a small world to emerge – but not so much that it loses its lightness.
THE WILD COMPANIONS
Ladybugs, beetles, dragonflies, bush-crickets, and spiders.
The series leads through very different small habitats.
Ladybugs and chamomile belong to the open meadow. Stag beetles and oak leaves lead to the forest edge and old trees. Beetles among wild carrots and delicate umbels show an almost weightless plant world.
With dragonflies and water irises, we go to the shore. The great green bush-cricket disappears in the tall summer grass. Garden spiders and wasp spiders finally lead to those late summer meadows where webs become visible between the stalks.
The animals could hardly be more different.
And yet something connects them: they all share their habitat with plants that are often just background for us – but for them, they are the entire landscape.
WILD COMPANIONS
A summer in miniature.
Perhaps that is the actual idea behind this series.
For an interesting nature observation, you don't necessarily need a long journey, a national park, or a rare animal. Sometimes a meadow, an old tree, or a quiet waterside is enough.
And the decision to look more closely for a moment.
Because between two blades of grass, an entire landscape can lie. On an oak branch, a small cosmos can emerge. And in a spider's web in the morning, the light of an entire summer can suddenly hang.
DISCOVER WILD COMPANIONS
The illustrations as a mug series
The motifs of the Wild Companions Collection are available as ceramic mugs from Mano et Arte. Each design combines a small animal inhabitant with its plant world and tells its own nature observation across two sides of the mug.
