You could say that Charleston artist Becca Hopkins is a puddle jumper who leaps from one joy of reflection to another.
Hopkins, a 33-year-old Lowcountry native who now lives in West Ashley with husband Joey, has always enjoyed sketching but started dabbling in using high-quality translucent colored markers a few years ago. Then she moved onto the difficult medium of watercolors. Now she also enjoys experimenting and learning more about oil painting in her tight studio at Redux Contemporary Art Center on upper King Street.
“We live in a pretty wet city,” Hopkins said when asked about reflections found throughout her watercolors and oil paintings. “So that kind of is inherent to painting here if I want to paint anything outside.
“I also am pretty consistently interested in the maybe less glamorous corners of the city in terms of architecture. And so when you’re out and about, it rains a lot. So we end up with a lot of puddles and hence a lot of reflections. And, you know, visually they’re just pretty interesting.”
The dreaminess of watercolors
In a 2021 Redux show called Expressway, Hopkins focused on houses and buildings along the Septima P. Clark Freeway that splits Charleston. Those watercolors showed street scenes that reflected the beautiful grittiness of everyday life — vehicles zipping by, old houses next to office buildings, parked cars on wet streets. Viewed from a distance, you might think you were looking at photos instead of watercolor paintings.
“I used watercolor because its fluidity and dreaminess soften the hard edges of the concrete, asphalt and steel landscape,” Hopkins wrote in a description of the show. “Charlestonians live with water, making the medium all the more appropriate to describe sunny, dry days, rain and puddles, and the significant floodwaters left over from a downpour.”
This architectural view of what she sees birthed her as an artist after she read a book on urban sketching discovered in an art store in Austin, Texas. It described people who drew and painted outside to capture what was happening in urban environments.
“I got super, super fascinated with this book when I started looking through it. And then I get really curious about how did they achieve that effect? And so really, that book kind of opened me up to a lot of new ideas, and I started just buying different types of pens.”
Soon the pens weren’t enough. So she started playing with watercolors and moving paint on paper with various amounts of water.
“I think watercolor is more forgiving than people think,” Hopkins said. “But you do need to be either pretty decisive or be OK with things turning out differently than you expected.”
Through the years
From high school at Academic Magnet until now, Hopkins has worked various jobs, starting as a cashier at a James Island cleaners for pocket money. At the College of Charleston, where she completed two degrees, she worked as a costume seamstress in the Theater Department. After she earned a bachelor’s degree in English, she trained to serve aboard tall ships as they sailed along the Eastern seaboard, Caribbean and other locations. For five years, she hoisted and hauled, rising from an intern to a chief mate.
Many people might be surprised that the tall, lean Hopkins once was licensed to drive 100-ton marine vessels on inland waterways.
“I really like working in environments where there is kind of a greater cause, whether that’s putting a play on or making the boat go forward and function,” she said. “And I also enjoy going to new places but not having to unpack so I got to take my bed with me. And that was pretty great.”
Then Hopkins went back to school, earning a master’s degree in public administration. These days, she works for a local government helping to solve neighborhood and community issues.
An artistic reporter
Hopkins said she one day wants a home studio in which to paint, but loves her current artistic cocoon at Redux. She plans to keep taking classes and learning new skills to augment what she now does.
She also expects to keep painting at a pretty fast pace. Last year, for example, she said she completed 15 oil paintings and about 50 watercolors, spending an average of four to 12 hours a week in the studio.
She’ll also keep painting what she sees outside and in reflections as Charleston’s physical environment changes.
“I think a lot about systems, whether those are things that you can see or not see,” she reflected. “So, I paint a lot of cars and roads because I’m interested in physical systems that take us from place to place.
“Also, depending on who you are, those systems serve you differently and mean different things to you.”
She says she’ll continue to be, essentially, an artistic reporter.
“I love painting where you just were there just showing everything like the trash cans and power lines and stuff like that,” she said. “There’s a long tradition of that here, like Edward Hopper came and just painted what he saw. A lot of the Charleston Renaissance painters did that too. So you get this little snapshot of what it was like in that moment.”
The Lowdown
Age: 33
Birthplace: Mount Pleasant, S.C.
Favorite artists: The artists in the Gibbes’ permanent collection — Edward Rice, West Fraser, Mary Whyte, Alice Ravenel Huger Smith, Elizabeth O’Neill Verner — have been formative to my work and love of painting Charleston. Of the masters, I love Vermeer and Edward Hopper.
Books on bedside table: The Invention of Art by Larry Shiner and Real Tigers by Mick Herron.
Favorite food to eat: Fresh, local, seasonal watermelon. And corn. Barring that, pizza, or any sort of Mediterranean food.
Five foods you always need in your refrigerator: Soda, frozen pizza, lemons, hummus, cheese.
Something that you have too much of at home: Sketchbooks and notebooks, mismatched socks.
Hobbies: Other than painting, sketching outside, knitting, sewing, reading, body surfing and occasionally wrangling my parents’ ancient sunfish out on the water.
Secret vice: Reality TV.
Guilty pleasure: Corny detective novels. But I wouldn’t say I feel guilty about it.
Describe your best day in 50 words or less: It would involve French toast, lounging on a porch with hubs and dogs, beach, painting, listening to a good audiobook mystery, spending time in nature (but not too much nature) and two margaritas with friends. In bed by 9:30.
Pet peeve: When people don’t put their garbage, bulk trash and recycling out correctly. Also indecipherable artist statements.
Philosophy: “Let us cultivate our garden.” —Voltaire
Your advice for someone new to Charleston: Don’t drive through standing water, and look up how to put your garbage out.
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