Oil Pastel Art: The Water Remembers by Laura Bernardeschi Nelson

Title: The Water Remembers

£690

Oil Pastel on Paper by Laura Bernardeschi Nelson

The Water Remembers is an original oil pastel artwork by Laura Bernardeschi Nelson that reflects on memory, reflection, and the quiet intelligence of natural spaces. The scene unfolds around a gentle body of water, bordered by soft vegetation and loosely defined trees, where land and sky dissolve into one another through layered colour and movement.

The water becomes the emotional centre of the composition — not a mirror, but a living surface that absorbs light, time, and presence. Subtle pinks and greens emerge from within it, suggesting lilies or fleeting impressions rather than fixed forms. These moments feel half-seen, as if recalled rather than observed, reinforcing the work’s contemplative tone.

Brushwork remains expressive and open, allowing forms to remain unresolved. Trees lean and blur, grasses rise and fall, and the sky presses downward in cool blues and muted violets, flattening space and inviting stillness. There is no single focal point; instead, the eye drifts, much like thought does when walking alone beside water.

Nelson’s use of oil pastel emphasizes tactility and immediacy. The layered surface holds traces of gesture and revision, echoing the way landscapes themselves accumulate memory. Varnishing preserves this material richness while deepening the chromatic relationships across the composition.

The Water Remembers is less about place than experience — the sensation of pausing, listening, and allowing the mind to settle. It offers a quiet, immersive encounter with nature as an emotional and psychological space, inviting slow looking and inward reflection.

This work will appeal to collectors drawn to poetic landscapes, introspective imagery, and artworks that suggest narrative without defining it.