Sunday, 8 November 2020

Ship at berth - A water color painting

 “Watercolor can leave me totally deflated and wondering why I chose it as a medium and then I am seduced again by a beautiful wash or the lacework of an intricate detail which is impossible to create in any other medium.” Joseph Zbukvik 

Last year I had the opportunity to visit my husband’s ship which had arrived at New Mangalore port for loading cargo in bulk. One morning when I got up and looked out of the porthole, I saw this “Bulk Carrier” parked at the jetty on the opposite side. It had probably arrived at night for loading. The atmosphere was a bit hazy I loved the scene, the mood and the composition. I had decided then that someday I shall paint the story of this ship. Painting is quite like story telling. I paint what is on my mind and leave the rest to the viewer to interpret it in his/her own way.

I am shuffling between Chitrapat handmade paper and Arches Cold pressed paper as both of them are my personal favourites now. Chitrapat paper is more reasonable as compared to Arches, however for this artwork I wanted to use Arches paper and undoubtedly, using a quality paper makes a big difference. The ship was the focal point of this painting and for the rest of the port infrastructure on the right, avoided too many details. It gave an abstract feel to the painting and I loved the way it turned out.

For most of my water color paintings, I like to use very limited Colors in the palette. For this work I have mainly used ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna, permanent orange, and light red. Lesser Colors in the palette, I feel, helps simplify the painting process.

A Ship at berth , A watercolor painting on Arches Cold pressed paper

Ship at Berth
A water colour painting on Arches CP paper
Size 5” X 7”

A Bulk Carrier at Mangalore Port

Reference photo taken at 
New Mangalore port

I have already created a few water color paintings in my “Ship series” and plan to create some more very soon. I have also started doing charcoal tonal value sketches of ships and some are already posted on my INSTAGRAM feed. Do check them out.

Thank you for browsing through my artworks and I appreciate your support in my art journey.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for sharing this informative information about water color paints with us. It's very helpful. Keep it up!

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