Turkish artist Garip Ay’s masterpieces sometimes only last a few moments, but they definitely make a lasting impression. He uses the ancient Ebru technique to recreate famous Van Gogh painting on the surface of water.
A video recently gone viral shows Garip Ay starting his creative process by mixing black dye and carrageenan, a thickening agent, into a bowl of water. He then drops various oil colors and uses a metal rod to manipulate the paint into Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Once the piece is completed, he just swirls it away with the rod and starts from scratch on one of the Dutch artist’s best-known self-portrait. It turns out just as detailed as his first endeavor, only this time the Turkish artist decides to keep a permanent copy of the artwork, so he just places a piece of paper on the water, and the painting magically transfers to it. The impressive video has so far been viewed over 26 million times.
31-year-old Garip Ay studied fine arts at a high school in his home town of Diyarbakir and went on to graduate from the Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul with a degree in Traditional Turkish Arts. Ay has since become one of the world’s most renowned Ebru artists, and has hosted exhibitions, workshops and seminars across the world, from his native Turkey, to Scandinavia and the United States. His artistic skills have become the subject of a television documentary, and his works have been featured in music videos and TV shows.
Regarding his latest endeavor, Ay said it was one of his most challenging projects yet, because he had to work on black water, and yet he mentioned it only took him 20 minutes to complete. That speaks volumes about the guy’s talent.
Speaking about his next projects, the talented artist told CNN that “I want to do more to pay homage to the great artists who have inspired me and whose vision I feel I understand, just as I have done with my recent tribute to van Gogh.” So we can expect to see even more mind-blowing water paintings very soon, so make sure you keep an eye on his Facebook page, where re regularly posts videos.
