A dainty but bold watercolor – by (ta-da!)me.
Click for a larger image
Crow and the water pipe
watercolor on specially prepared paper
21 X 27.3 cms
Technique-
This was done when I was in an wild, experimental mood. I had to do something different, I had to experiment, to do something,
anything that would challenge the bourgeois complacency, question the violence that lurks beneath our consumerist civilization, to…to…
Ok, I was kidding about the bourgeois/consumerist bit -I am not interested in playing that game.That is too easy –one can do anything idiotic and and get somebody to mouth the usual meaningless artspeak, say-
“The phenomena created by him reveal the omnipresent but invisible, strong yet unnoticed, essential yet overlooked. An encounter with his works discloses not just the world surrounding us but also the self within. Often casting himself as the subject and creator, (artist name) allows the viewer to transgress the boundaries between elements, as they connect and converge into one another, questioning the very nature of reality. ” *
Ok, whatever.
No, that is just too easy and not good for my conscience. So instead of taking it out on your patience I took it out on a hapless sheet of watercolor paper that was stuck to a board –I don’t mean it happened to be stuck on a board by chance or fate or it’s bad
karma but that
I had taped it there several days earlier hoping to start something sometime.
First I attacked the poor bugger with a broad brush dipped in somewhat generous amount of texture white.While this surface was still wet I sprinkled some coarse ground white chalk over it so that on drying one would get a textured surface. My sadistic self was not yet satiated. On this still damp surface I scraped in a few strokes of a hard bristled toothbrush to create even more texture.
Ok, BDSM part over.
What this does to the surface is to make it totally non-absorbent when dry. When a watercolor wash is applied on it, it lies delicately on it without it being able to take refuge in the fibers of the paper.This wash,even when dry, can be easily disturbed –which can be a pain in you know where(one can easily spoil a lovingly applied patch of color). But it can be a great advantage –one can manipulate the washes to one’s purpose. Lifting out color, scratching it out or changing it in other ways –even wiping it off almost completely with a wet brush or a damp tissue (as one can do in oils) is a breeze.
It’s tricky –like a woman; the washes require sometimes cajoling and at other times some firm, aggressive handling –like a woman, I said. But I think this technique has great potential.
Anyway, here is the result in detail -
Deatil 1-
Detail 2-
* The artspeak is from the promo literature of an exhibition of works by A.Balasubramaniam called (IN)BETWEEN at the
Talwar Gallery. Unfortunately there is no direct link to the text – an irritating result of overreliance on javascript popups.
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