The Destination of Water

A copperplate aquatint that follows A Drop of Water (2020) in subject and technique. The title's open-ended phrasing — water's destination rather than its source or course — suggests an image organised around the terminal point of a flow: a pool, a dispersing droplet, water meeting another surface. Aquatint's rosin-ground tonality is well suited to such a subject, since the boundary between liquid and the surface receiving it depends on subtle gradients of reflection and shadow rather than on hard line. This 2021 print extends what had become a continuing concern in Omori's practice: small water phenomena treated with the same compositional restraint he applies to clouds. The shift from mezzotint to aquatint across the early 2020s broadened his tonal vocabulary, with aquatint better equipped for the wider mid-grey range that water subjects require.