MANA - Maharashtrian Artists of North America

 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