Grayscale watercolors look like vintage photographs

Artist Elicia Edijanto creates watercolor art with a nostalgic quality. His compositions of lonely children, animals, and misty landscapes look like grainy black-and-white photographs or stills from a long-lost film. In reality, they are painted with a grayscale palette.

Each of these nostalgic pieces blurs reality with dreams. Edijanto’s delicate brushstrokes capture the shapes of people, creatures, and even statues, but don’t focus on the details of their faces or expressions. Instead, his figures are shadowed by the stormy depths of the setting, turning many of them into nameless, dark gray silhouettes. “For me, my art is a cathartic release. It’s a way for me to preserve the inner desire for tranquility, innocence and hope for a tender world,” Edijanto told My Modern Met.

It is unknown what stories unfold in the mysterious paintings of Edijanto. As a result, viewers can fill in the blanks themselves and form their own sense of what the narrative is about. But whether you see them set in some version of reality or as part of a dream, these cloudy illustrations instantly transport you to another time and place.

You can buy original paintings through Edijanto’s website and print via Lumarte. Be sure to keep up to date with the artist’s latest work by following the artist on instagram.