Its been some days since I shared any of my paintings here. Today I attended the second of four weekly watercolour workshops. There will be two more in the coming weeks.

When I look back, I cannot exactly pinpoint the time I got interested in watercolours. There was the coffee painting , also acrylic and gouache painting workshops that I attended, all half day events. I remember being attracted by the medium of gouache. The creamy texture of the paints and the smooth way the brush filled with colour glided on paper felt divine.

And yet…

It was not gouache I ended up falling in love with, but watercolours. It’s a hard medium, everyone told me, not as easy as oil, acrylic or gouache. But who cares? That’s the medium that attracted me and that’s what I was going to try.

I watched the many videos on Instagram and YouTube and was totally mesmerised. How easy it all seemed. Eventually I summoned up courage to try my hand at it. What could I lose other than ending up with some botched up paper?

It was not all smooth sailing. I couldn’t get the water ratio right, the merging of colours ended up looking muddy, I didn’t know how to ‘lift’ paint or to give a smooth ‘wash’. Not that I can do it all now, but slowly I am getting better, I believe.

There’s a long way to go before I can be called a watercolour artist. But I don’t mind. I’d rather be a lay person who enjoys the process of painting itself rather than be assigned tags. So I do just that, enjoy putting colours on paper.

Sharing a few of my attempts:

©️ Shail Mohan 2024