Anne Nordhaus-Bike Art

Playful purple! Its colorful range of hues turns this painting into a purple playground, alive with movement and mystery in the midst of creation.

Original: Original watercolor painting

Signature: Signed at lower right by the artist

Size: 26 x 20 inches (framed)

Professionally framed and ready to hang: Enjoy it now in your home or office!

Certified: All original paintings come with a certificate of authenticity

Shipping: Original artwork ships free in continental U.S.!

A Word From Anne

This pearl gray and purple watercolor pulses with life.

It's also a bit of a mystery: is it a landscape? Or a seascape?

Well...it's either (your choice!) or both (depending on what you see in any given moment). 

This painting pairs two main colors (gray above and purple below) to create a horizon line. The gray is pale and suggests a calm and clear sky. Meanwhile the bottom, with its intense mix of purple and magenta, suggests either a landscape (perhaps after sunset) or a sea filled with motion and waves.

Where they meet, at the horizon line, the colors from the bottom blend into the sky to create interesting light purple and violet shapes and a sense of spraying foam or vapors rising from the earth.

Sometimes when I look at this painting I think about dinosaurs and what Earth must have been like when they were wandering around here. What if the land and sea were all in turmoil, in a constant state of becoming? That gray sky in this painting looks down on water or land (or both) that's in perpetual motion from hotspots that release energy while the dinosaurs look on.

In the middle of all that creation (of new land, or maybe tidepools in the distance), there's a feeling of play. See the intense purple dots and blobs in the bottom half? The happy dots remind me of toes, and the horizontal shapes or blobs feel like interesting primordial life forms.

And isn't that fun to ponder on?

Bring a wall to life at home or at your office: hang this dynamic purple watercolor in the perfect spot and feel energized and intrigued every time you glance its way. It'll take you on countless journeys (even into the past!).

Created With All Premium, Professional Grade Artist Materials

• 100% cotton watercolor paper: durability with beautiful natural grain
• Classic 140 pound weight paper is cold pressed for exquisite, even texture
• Acid free paper: painting retains its luster and vibrance and stands the test of time; it remains beautiful for centuries without conservation if stored and handled properly
• Highest quality watercolor paints: vibrant, super-saturated color
• The most finely ground watercolors in the world: colors have high intensity and purity
• Artist grade watercolors allow paint application all the way from delicate, nearly invisible transparency through deep, nearly opaque intensity

Museum-Quality Framing

• Custom framed: highest professional quality and attention to detail
• Light birchwood frame: subtle color and wood grain complement painting, put focus on color and brushwork
• Museum grade, archival white mat: preserves and highlights colorful painting
• Top quality glass: covers and protects painting 
  
• Professional grade framing hardware: screws securely anchor hardware into frame; framing wire is smooth to protect your hands and your walls
• Fully covered back: protects frame and painting, gives smooth, neat appearance
• Felt rounds on back at lower left and right: cushion painting after hanging and protect your walls

More Details: Provenance

Creation

• Created 2017
• Exhibited in artist's solo show, Implied Horizons: Watercolors By Anne Nordhaus-Bike, Five Seasons Family Sports Club, Northbrook, IL, Nov. 3 – Dec. 2, 2017
• Exhibited in solo show, Implied Horizons: Watercolors By Anne Nordhaus-Bike, Five Seasons Family Sports Club, Burr Ridge, IL, Dec. 7, 2018 – Jan. 5, 2019
• Exhibited in exclusive group show, Sunny Sentiments: A Tribute To Summer's Glow, the Gwen Hotel, Chicago, Aug. 26 - Dec. 13, 2024. This inaugural show in the hotel's program to honor and promote women artists grew out of its partnership with Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, which curated the show.

Media Coverage

• “Watercolors to be displayed at sports club,” Cook County Chronicle, Dec. 5, 2018
• “Art Show,” Gazette Chicago, Dec. 2018
• “Art Exhibit by Anne Nordhaus-Bike,” Chicago Metromix, Dec. 2018
• “Implied Horizons,” Gazette Chicago, Dec. 2018
• “Anne Nordhaus-Bike, Implied Horizons,” The Visualist, Nov./Dec. 2018
• “Clearing Artist To Exhibit Watercolors,” Clear Ridge Reporter And Newshound, Nov. 21, 2018
• “Clearing Artist To Exhibit Watercolors,” Southwest News-Herald, Nov. 16, 2018
• “Art Show,” Gazette Chicago, July 2017
• “Northbrook’s Anne Nordhaus-Bike set to display art at Five Seasons,” The Northbrook Tower, Oct. 19, 2017
• “Watercolor Art Exhibit Opens at Five Seasons Northbrook on November 3rd,” Daily Herald, Oct. 19, 2017