Happy Sunday!

An overwhelming response to the Wash Techniques Workshop – our cup runneth over!

Originating from China, then introduced in Korea and Japan, the Wash Technique of painting involves using a lot of water and very little pigment to paint on an absorbent surface. It was first explored by the Bengal School of artists who were desired to create a Pan-Asian style. Some well-known artists who painted with this technique are Nandalal Bose and Abanidranath Tagore, amongst others, who moulded the Japanese wash style to the Indian context.

Artist Santanu, explores the wash technique in a more creative aspect, where instead of the outlined drawings, the wash itself, guides the artist to develop his own imagery, often inspires a folkloric style, reminiscent of the Bengal folk art.

With a total of 40 participants for this half day workshop, some very interesting work emerged. Using natural colours like coffee, tea and natural pigments for the basic wash and letting the resulting image guide further explorations with ink, our participants let their creative minds wander, each one creating artwork in their very own style.

In the second half of the workshop, artist Arvin Ombika taught participants the magical technique of printing repelled oil paint on water, also called Marbling.