The works on paper that Provosty designates by date — a practice that enforces their status as process records rather than finished objects — employ watercolor and shellac in combination with pencil in ways that push watercolor toward the opacity it normally resists. Shellac, an insect resin used as a surface consolidant and finish in woodworking and instrument-making, introduces a warm amber cast and a depth of surface unlike anything watercolor alone can achieve; it also limits reworking in ways that make each decision near-irreversible. The pencil marks that appear in 18-08 function as a kind of armature or skeleton visible beneath the painted layers, recalling the underdrawing revealed by infrared reflectography in early Netherlandish panels — except that here the underdrawing is deliberately left visible rather than covered, asserting the work’s status as a record of thinking rather than a polished presentation of conclusions.
