Our Merry Month of May…….Lots of flowers blooming, artists beaming and creating and families probably meeting more this year, with the threat of Coronavirus being a little less…..? 

Anyway, my month was certainly busy, with preparing for our Annual Open Jury Show event opening on May 2nd, at the Thousand Oaks Art Association Gallery. Turned out to be a very successful event and a joyous one, as there was a tremendous response to our call for entries and the excitement at the reception was palpable. Judge Sharon Weaver’s work of judging the entries was indeed daunting but finally she did a great job picking our winners. I was lucky to have one of entries to have been even accepted in the show, and no, I didn’t win but it was still enjoyable. It’s  true, sometimes even the journey can be exciting, despite the destination.

 My entry in the Open Jury Show, May 2nd. 2022, “Blue Rhapsody “…….Alcohol Inks

Flower paintings during the month of May…….Watercolors  

     

  

 

Well, then came the best part of the month of May. The world renowned artist, Mr. Milind Mulick once again enthralled all the eager participants of his demo/workshop on the topic of Value Study in a painting.

This was held on Sat. May 28. Watching him paint as he talked about the process, was really so amazing and I for one, decided not to paint along with him. First of all one cannot keep up his pace, and secondly, 

I did not want to miss any tips and lessons he was incorporating in the session. So, with that conscious decision I followed every little sweep and stroke of his brush! 

Even the talk on brushes was so informative and interesting. He talked about his own signature brushes too. The brush he used that day was a small flat brush, especially to paint the water and the houses in the scene. His palette too was limited to Phthalo Blue, Cobalt green for the water, plus some Ultramarine blue. Hansa yellow, Crimson and Neutral tint….. that’s it.

In drawing the boats, he stressed the importance of perspective and gave a simple description of boxes and use those as guidelines for boats. What a unique way to describe the process! 

As for the skies a light wash of greys and yellows was the basic tip.

He, once again talked of the five consistencies of the water to pigment mix, which he stresses each time and that makes quite a mark on your mind.

The main theme he stressed on was the tone, which he thinks is more important than the exact color.

As he added layer upon layer of glazes on the water, all this came alive and we all lapped up every little detail of this process. I know I learnt a lot that morning as did all the other participants, I’m quite sure.

Milind Mulick’s painting from the Demo.

Even though we West coast people suffer through the early morning session as we start, we all love it at the end, when we realize what a great session we had. 

We all are so grateful to Leena Joshi for making these sessions possible for us all, and of course, without the umbrella that MANA provides, none of it would have been possible. So a big thanks to both and a huge Thank you to Milind Mulick, who stays up late at night to bring us these lessons.

We shall be having another such session in the month of July, when Milind Mulick will teach us how to do portraits in watercolor.

Till then, my friends, so long. Keep creating and I leave you with this parting thought.

“A painting begins not when the brush touches the canvas, but when the impulse strike fire in your imagination.”  -  Dennis Perrin

 

What an exciting event occurred on April 2nd. 2022! That is for all the watercolor enthusiasts who participated in the workshop/demo given by Milind Mulick, the great artist from India. He commands the respect and love from artists from all over the world, he is the Brand ambassador of Daniel Smith watercolors and is best known for his atmospheric watercolors. That Milind Mulick gave a demo/workshop on the subject of Composition, all in the comfort of our homes! It couldn’t get better than that. Of course, nineteen artists from across the U.S participated in this event and we owe this to our Leena Joshi, under the auspices of our own MANA group.

Milind Mulick’s well known teaching method became evident as he prepared us a little by making sure that we would read excerpts from his book ahead of time. So, when he started using terms like Design and Composition and pointing out the differences in those terms, he was unraveling the various elements involved in the Composition process. How the various aspects like line, shape, color, tone and texture come into play to make up a good composition and how, within these variety, contrast, rhythm, repetition, alteration and gradation make for a great composition.

Of course, then he humorously pointed out in his light-hearted style of teaching, that all these are in the back of your mind and you just paint intuitively ultimately!

I particularly liked how his thought process took us through how he divides the rectangular spaced paper and then places the image which he points out as having simplified by our minds first and then deciding where the image shapes should be placed. He thinks in terms of ‘ shapes’ and that I think this frees the mind more.

The second thing I liked is that we should analyze our own paintings to understand these ideas. 

When he did start to paint, he started with light washes of the pigments he had chosen. His explanation of the consistencies of pigments is really helpful, wherein each consistency depends upon the percentage of water that is used with the pigment. Hence, ‘tea’, coffee’, ‘milk’, ‘cream’ and ‘butter’ consistency, which is basically pigment used directly from the tube itself. And, of course, all his planning of colors was done before starting to paint……the sky a particular shade of blue, the darks in the painting in balance so that the lights played so well in the final painting.

I know all the participants thoroughly enjoyed interacting with him during the entire session, asking questions and just having a fun time. Towards the end of the session, it almost seemed that we all wanted more of this because it was such a wonderful exchange.

I understand that we will be having more such workshops with him and we all look forward to the next one, tentatively planned for May 21. I think it’s going to be on Tonal study, ( a lesson on it’s importance in a painting,  understanding high and low key and balancing it correctly and more). 

Once again, thank you MANA and our great appreciation for Leena Joshi who brought this opportunity to us.

 

 

Here we are, already into in 2022. The Coronavirus has changed forms a few times already and seems to have become a constant in all our lives, waxing and waning like the moon but nothing very pretty about it. 

We’re all living out our lives the best as we can, beginning to come out of our cocooned lives somewhat. We artists seem to have done pretty well, in the sense of a fulfillment  of our art, in letting out spirits still soar, albeit under this specter of threat from a disease, and now a new unspoken threat of war (Ukraine & Russia).

Let us pray and it ends soon amicably.

February 2022 started with something exciting for all of us….an online Demo/workshop by our favorite artist, Milind Mulick. It was so inspiring and mesmerizing to watch him paint. I was fascinated by his thinking process, as he did his quick thumb nail to determine the composition, the balance of colors and the harmonious palette! It was like magic unfolding before our eyes!

Art challenge 2022,  with artists ‘creating’ new art every day was another such pleasure. Challenging though it was, in these times when     our domestic duties have increased with no outside help to do basic cleaning etc. I know it must be even more challenging for younger artists who also have tend to their children.

As artists, we are constantly searching for new ideas, new techniques and opportunities to try these out, for that is how we grow as artists.

Let’s now look forward to another demo by Milind Mulick which has been scheduled for the month of April, when we learn about Composition as seen through a great artist’s eyes.

Meanwhile, let’s all keep creating and growing artistically. Spring is around the corner to give us all plenty of opportunities to capture its slendour.

Keep safe, keep drawing, painting, sculpting….whatever gives you joy.

Here are some samples from the Workshop and the 2022 Art Challenge.