'Rapt attention': Lorine Niedecker's watercolor studies

[Visual Essay] Selections from Niedecker’s archives show how the poet used watercolor to document her surroundings

Welcome Poets series writer and narrator Nicholas Gulig describes Lorine Niedecker’s poetry as one “. . . of rapt attention, a language made of things — of native trees and local grasses, of minerals and rocks, and the Latin names of flowers and of birds.”

In the fourth episode he highlights Niedecker’s sustained practice of observing her surroundings, not only through poetry but also through photography and watercolor painting.

Niedecker’s watercolors are preserved in the Lorine Niedecker Archival Collection at the Hoard Historical Museum in Fort Atkinson. Merrilee Lee, the museum’s director, together with the Friends of Lorine Niedecker, generously allowed PBS Wisconsin’s archival producer to digitize a selection of them for Welcome Poets and granted further permission to present the digitized works here as a visual exhibit.

Ahead of publication, we spoke with Lee about these artifacts. She emphasizes that when sharing Niedecker’s watercolors with museum visitors or elementary school students, she reminds them that our interpretations are limited — Niedecker cannot speak for herself. Still, it is not uncommon for artists known in one medium — in Niedecker’s case, writing and poetry — to also work in others. Drawing and painting, like reading and writing, become tools for exploration, play, and understanding.

Images below are accompanied by simple captions supplied with the help of the Hoard Historical Museum and the Friends of Lorine Niedecker.

All images courtesy of the Hoard Historical Museum in Fort Atkinson, Wis.

A watercolor shows a one-story house viewed from the water, painted green on the lower half and white above, with a flat roof and red chimney. Two windows and a door face the river, bordered by green yard and a gravel drive. A red canoe is docked at the shore beneath blue sky and water.
Niedecker's "new house" built with her husband Al Millen. (Source: Hoard Historical Museum, Fort Atkinson, Wis.)
A watercolor shows a person in a red jacket fishing from a gray pier over open water. In the foreground, a small red rowboat is docked along a grassy shore. The scene is painted in washes of red, green, and blue.
Person fishing from pier. (Source: Hoard Historical Museum, Fort Atkinson, Wis.)
A watercolor of a fish painted in a naïve style. It has black fins and nose, orange-red textured gills, and a body striped in green and purple. The fish swims alone in green and blue water, rendered in wavy stripes.
Fish. (Source: Hoard Historical Museum, Fort Atkinson, Wis.)
A watercolor of three autumn trees with gray branches and colorful leaves along a riverbank. The blue river flows past green grass and fallen leaves, with the opposite shore and sky visible in the distance.
A watercolor shows a white fishing boat with a red hull floating on a river. On the far shore sits a small gray-and-red cottage. A white fence with a wooden sign painted “fisheries” in red stands nearby, with the horizon faintly visible behind.
Fishing vessel. (Source: Hoard Historical Museum, Fort Atkinson, Wis.)
A watercolor depicts a white waterfowl, possibly a swan or crane, with wings fully outstretched filling most of the frame. In the background, the head of another bird appears at left and a third bird’s wing enters from the upper right. The birds’ wings are white with black tips.
Waterfowl. (Source: Hoard Historical Museum, Fort Atkinson, Wis.)
A watercolor view looking upstream on a blue river, with green grass along both banks and the horizon visible in the sky. In the lower right foreground, a fuchsia rowboat rests on the water, while piers extend into the distance along the right shore.
Rock river with greenery on both sides. (Source: Hoard Historical Museum, Fort Atkinson, Wis.)
A watercolor of a two-story house with double porches set back from the sidewalk on a town lot. A small patch of front yard borders the walk, with partial views of neighboring houses on either side.
House on urban block. (Source: Hoard Historical Museum, Fort Atkinson, Wis.)
A watercolor of a three-story train depot with a tall steeple and clock. The building has black peaked roofs, rows of windows, and reddish-brown walls suggesting stone construction.
Milwaukee Depot. (Source: Hoard Historical Museum, Fort Atkinson, Wis.)
A watercolor of a gray and brown bird perched with beak raised, sitting on four eggs in a brown nest. The nest rests on the ground amid green grass and foliage rather than in a tree.
A bird in her nest. (Source: Hoard Historical Museum, Fort Atkinson, Wis.)
A watercolor of a two-story green wooden house with a screened porch and separate roof. The main roof rises to a towerlike peak beside a chimney. The house is surrounded by trees, with a walkway leading down to a river where small boats rest along the bank.
The Fountain House on Blackhawk Island. (Source: Hoard Historical Museum, Fort Atkinson, Wis.)
A watercolor of a doe and her fawn resting in green grass. The doe faces forward while the speckled fawn looks into the distance, painted in soft brown and green washes.
A doe and her fawn. (Source: Hoard Historical Museum, Fort Atkinson, Wis.)
A watercolor of a solitary tree with bare gray-and-black branches standing on a grassy mound against the sky. Small touches of green appear on the branches, suggesting either new buds or lingering fall foliage.
Tree. (Source: Hoard Historical Museum, Fort Atkinson, Wis.)
A watercolor shows a wooden fishing boat docked at a pier beside a grassy shoreline. Beyond it, calm water stretches toward a distant line of trees under open sky, painted in soft washes of green, yellow, and white.
Scene along Blackhawk Island. (Source: Hoard Historical Museum, Fort Atkinson, Wis.)