Ophelia’s Baptism

by Abigail Platter

Ophelia's Baptism. 2021. Watercolor on Archival Paper. 20x16 inches.

A baptism is a surrender to death, in hopes that one might come back up for air transformed. Here we find a murky space for the kind of wallowing that just might also contain new life. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia is broken by the death of love and sings herself to the grave. With a deep bow to Millais, "Ophelia's Baptism," to me, depicts the settling into a process with unknown outcomes—wallowing as brave risk that could even be defined as hope.

My sketches (see slideshow below) for my recent body of work led me to a series of questions: What happens when grief is not so tame? What if it breaks through our four-walled souls and manifests as a wilderness? 

Through the genre of fantastical realism, I’ve illustrated how I see this process using symbols of piety, addiction, wallowing, escape, and foreboding. Aiding me are Pre-Raphaelite allusions, twisted fairy tales, mythology, and biblical literature. In washes of watercolor, ravens cry with despair while a plaid-clad girl explores the boundaries of a disorienting landscape. 

This is the sketch from imagination. 

After a little work on the composition in photoshop, I was ready to collect photo-references. My friend took this for me on a balmy summer day in Seattle. Green Lake was practically bathwater—very fitting. With a few other good references for the surrounding objects, I was good to go!

I then printed the sketch from photoshop, traced a few landmarks, and drew out the rest of the details. I use a lightbox to transfer my drawings onto watercolor paper.

Before painting the final image, I made a small "thumbnail painting" from imagination as a color guide for the rest of the work. I spend a short time on these- an hour at most. The final painting is transparent watercolor, built in layers from light to dark.

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Abigail Platter illustrates primarily in watercolor, sharing her gestural interpretations of the natural world, classical stories, and ancient themes. She is an adjunct professor at Seattle Pacific University where her first solo show, Grief House (of which Ophelia’s Baptism is a part), is currently on display in the Nickerson Studios. She also works at Bethany Community Church as a designer, art director, and worship leader. To see more of Grief House and/or make purchases, please visit abigailplatter.com.