“Because watercolor actually moves on the paper, it is the most active of all mediums, almost a performance art.”
— Nita Engle
Watercolour artist
The last month of this very tumultuous year of 2020 ended, quite accidentally I might add, with a series of plein air watercolour works of flowers.
A death in the family, brought home beautiful lilies and chrysanthemums as people poured their condolences. To help calm my troubled mind I re-arranged the flowers in vases, tweaked the composition where needed and painted a few works. Luckily the flowers didn’t wilt soon enough, thanks to the weather and so I managed four works. I have shared a live demo of one of these flower compositions as part of a youtube video attached with this blog. Do watch and if it interests you, do go through the watercolour section of this website under my portfolio, for more works.
Later in the same month, earlier this week in fact, I went on a two day trip with the family to Shantiniketan. It was absolutely therapeutic. The view of the flower bed before me , glowing in the winter sun, inspired me to do some quick watercolour works again. This lovely medium can be so subtle and giving and so much can be achieved in a short time or paradoxically, none at all, if the colours decide to conspire against you! This time I did some paintings of petunias and a marigold composition.
Of particular interest to me was this painting below. This simple pen and watercolour sketch to me embodies the true spirit of the Japanese phrase wabi-sabi ~ of appreciating beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete” in nature.
This watercolour began well, then along the way had imperfections which made me want to discard it till I decided to ‘mend’ it lovingly with pen work and now I love it even more than what I had originally planned.
I think to me 2020 has been like that, making the most of the absolute chaos and uncertainty that this year threw. Turning around the adversities to opportunities of joy and beauty.
And that, my friend, is my wish for all of you reading this, for this new year and for ever.
