Watercolour Artist - Sadhu Aliyur

"In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine." 
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Instagram is new to me and I have started posting my works on this social media quite recently. Blogging is about my art journey wherein I share my art, my techniques, my experiments and my general thoughts and feelings about creating my art. Instagram on the other hand is a faster way of uploading my work and most important, all my works can be seen in a gallery format. In conclusion, as an artist, I am enjoying being a part of Instagram.

Through Instagram I am getting to meet many different artists from India as well as all around the world. Some of them have inspired me in a lot many ways and I have decided to create a post about each one of them. Today I am posting about a great water colour artist Mr Sadhu Aliyur.

Mr Sadhu Aliyur is a Kerala based water colour artist. His finely honed skills, astute observation and refined aesthetic sensibilities help him capture the essence of a scene in a few strokes. He makes the common look uncommon. He transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.

In his hands, nature comes alive in all its richness, textures, hues and forms. With a wash here and a dab there, the overwhelming beauty of the monsoon, skies and rain drenched dwellings are frozen for all time for the eyes of the connoisseur. Read more about him.....CLICK HERE.
( COURTESY: SADHU ALIYUR )

All works created by Mr Sadhu Aliyur are absolutely vibrant and stunning. His thoughts, feelings, conviction, and many moods seem to come alive with bare minimal strokes. The simple landscape scenes capture the mood and atmosphere so well. I have been following his works for quite some time now and decided to share some of them with you.

Check out his other works on his official website.

Each and every painting by Mr Sadhu Aliyur is so unique in itself, be it a still life, portrait or landscape, that you can't help but fall in love with it. 

Follow my latest works and techniques on INSTAGRAM , where in I post my latest artworks regularly. 

Thanks for browsing through my blog.🙏

A boat at the beach - A water colour painting

"The silence of nature is very real. It surrounds you.......you can feel it." Ted Trueblood

The painting below is a quiet moment spent at Vaddi beach in Goa. The beach with crystal clear waters are led by the fields on either sides of the road which are marvelous during the rains.

We visited this beach during monsoon. It was early in the morning, the sky was bright and clear and we felt good to spend some time watching the sea and the waves. The tides were low and I wondered looking at the boat, as to when it would set out to high seas once again.

I have used Arches cold pressed paper for this water colour painting and am beginning to understand more about its texture and water retaining capacity. Knowing the brushes, paint and the paper helps a lot in creating a painting without any hurdles.

Boat at the beach

Water colour painting on Arches cold pressed paper

Size 7" X 9"

I am fascinated by the beaches and therefore it is one of my favorite subjects for painting in any medium. Nature in any form inspires me to paint. 

Thanks for browsing through my works.

Water colour painting inspired by the white sandy beaches of Florida

"There are no half measures when it comes to watercolours. Watercolour demands constant devotion." Pierre Tougas

Yesterday I completed my second water colour painting on Arches cold pressed paper. I love the beaches and have done a series on them. Be it in Goa, Phi Phi island or Florida, they are all beautiful in their own way.

The 7" X 9" watercolour painting below has been inspired by the beautiful white sandy beaches of Florida. I have painted a lot of them before on hand made paper. Now I am trying out my new works on Arches, Fabriano and other acid free papers. Shifting from one paper to another gets a little tricky as the paper surface, it's water absorbing quality etc is different and hence it takes a little time getting used to it.

In the painting below, I tried to do the sky using wet on wet technique and I had all the steps planned out in the head, but as the paper started drying up it led to a little confusion and then the brush strokes were just spontaneous. Next time probably I will keep the spray bottle by the side to keep the paper wet for a longer time. Like I always say, every painting is a new learning experience and I am always looking forward to painting something new and challenging.

Morning at the shore

Water colour painting on Arches cold pressed paper

Size 7" X 9"

My next painting that I have already worked out in my mind is a beach scene from Goa and also another landscape scene from Sikkim. I also plan to check out the "Fabriano Artistico" hot pressed paper which I recently purchased from the Himalaya Stationery store at Fort.

Thanks for browsing through my works.

Using Arches 300 gsm cold pressed paper

"Master water first and then paint." Josh Goldberg

Gurudongmar Lake is a stunning lake situated at a height of 17100 ft above sea level in north Sikkim.
The lake can be reached by road from Lachen via Thangu. The approach road from Thangu to Gurudongmar passes through a rugged and enchanting terrain with high alpine pastures covered with many rhododendron trees. It is a difficult journey and most tourists leave Lachen early morning by 4 or 5 am as it takes three to four hours to reach the lake. However once the destination is reached it is an unbelievable sight and the beautiful view all around is mesmerising. To me it was like a dream come true.

Before creating any painting, as a rule I always create a few study works which helps me simplify the shapes, understand the values and colours. Creating a study work also helps me to decide on my technique that I would apply in order to create that particular work. Sometimes it is wet on wet and other times I go with wet on dry technique. I have used my newly purchased Arches cold pressed paper for this painting and if everything works out well I may use it as my preferred choice for water colour medium.

Gurudongmar lake

Water colour painting on Arches cold pressed paper

Size 7" X 9"

In conclusion, I enjoyed working with Arches cold pressed paper. It has a great textured surface which is ideal for landscape painting and being 300 gsm, it can hold water for long and does not buckle much. I am planning to create a seashore painting next on the same paper. After creating a couple of works on this paper I will be able to understand its quality better.

Thanks for visiting my blog and browsing through my artworks.

Using Arches 300 gsm rough paper to create a Landscape

The water colour painting of the Landscape as below has been created on a Arches 300 gsm
sample ( Rough ) paper. The paper is just amazing and the wet on wet technique works
great on it. The paper has good water retaining capacity and it remains wet for a
long time allowing for more colours to be added subsequently.

One needs to be quick when doing wet on wet and if the procedure is not planned out earlier in the mind it can lead to disaster. While doing the painting below, I almost lost my patience and technique while doing the mountain slopes and all I could remember at that moment was that the paper had started drying up. Next time I start a water colour painting I will have to paint the painting in my mind before putting it down on the paper.

The Mountain slopes

Water colour painting on Arches paper

Size 6" X 8"

Water colour medium is a great medium to work with. A well planned water colour painting gets done in a very short span of time. It is not the effort but the steps involved which need to be taken care of or else it gets difficult to get the values and details right. 

QUOTE

"PERSEVERANCE IS FAILING NINETEEN TIMES AND SUCCEEDING THE TWENTIETH

BY JULIE ANDREWS."

My aim is to keep painting the subjects I love, to experiment with different mediums and come up with a technique which helps me in creating a piece of art that I have perceived in my mind, to blog about my thoughts and feelings pertaining to art and to share my journey with like minded people.