In the past, if I had two words to describe watercolor, I might say “fresh” and “delicate.” I’d always thought of watercolor as a fairly fragile medium that shouldn’t be worked too hard. I thought of the white of the paper as the most valuable resource, and the greatest mistake would be to lose that precious white paper.
Then I saw work by Graham Nickson, of the New York Studio School. His watercolors are bold, dark, and saturated. Badass watercolors.
Graham Nickson
Shruti Ghatak studied with Graham Nickson at the New York Studio School, and you can see some of the influence in her work. She doesn’t overwork the paint, she lets it bloom and move the way it’s going to move while recording her marks for seeing, but there’s nothing delicate about it. She’s saturated with her colors and not afraid of the dark. I heard that in her watercolor class she sets up a still life and moves the objects while her students paint. I draw a changing scene with charcoal, but watercolor!? My mind was blown. The student work that I saw from that exercise was fantastic.
Shruti GhatakShruti Ghatak
Last call! Shruti’s watercolor class starts tomorrow.
I’ve been watching episodes of The Great Pottery Throw Down. I hadn’t previously considered ceramics as a spectator sport, but it’s crazy fun to watch people make pottery! In every episode, amature potters respond to a wide variety of maker challenges. Some are races against the clock, some push contestants to go out on a …
People are still posting work for our 30 day January challenge, in which artists are invited to respond to a daily prompt posted on our V. Notes blog. Unlike other drawing challenges, these prompts are wildly varied, open to non-typical materials around us, and are designed to feed a broad spectrum of creative skills at …
Today’s post is from special guest star Anne Walker. Anne majored in Fine Arts with a focus in painting at Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT in 1989. She started taking classes at the League a couple of years ago. I met her in Fran’s Giant Figures workshop in February 2020 (shortly before our classes went online). …
Keith Pfeiffer is new to the Seattle Artist League. He comes from an illustration background, and is venturing to make his living as a fine artist. I met Pfeiffer when he joined the Effects of Light (Thursday) class, and I’ve seen him whip out a series of effective thumbnail studies faster than I can say …
Badass watercolors aren’t afraid of the dark
In the past, if I had two words to describe watercolor, I might say “fresh” and “delicate.” I’d always thought of watercolor as a fairly fragile medium that shouldn’t be worked too hard. I thought of the white of the paper as the most valuable resource, and the greatest mistake would be to lose that precious white paper.
Then I saw work by Graham Nickson, of the New York Studio School. His watercolors are bold, dark, and saturated. Badass watercolors.
Shruti Ghatak studied with Graham Nickson at the New York Studio School, and you can see some of the influence in her work. She doesn’t overwork the paint, she lets it bloom and move the way it’s going to move while recording her marks for seeing, but there’s nothing delicate about it. She’s saturated with her colors and not afraid of the dark. I heard that in her watercolor class she sets up a still life and moves the objects while her students paint. I draw a changing scene with charcoal, but watercolor!? My mind was blown. The student work that I saw from that exercise was fantastic.
Last call! Shruti’s watercolor class starts tomorrow.
WATERCOLOR / Shruti Ghatak
$185. 6 Weeks. 1:30 – 4:00pm
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