American painter Sergei Bongart was right when he
said, “Watercolour is like life. Better get it right the first time – you don’t
get a second chance!”And the nine artists who are currently displaying their
works at the exhibition ‘Explicit Impressions’ surely got it right the first
time! Their works bear testament to that. Organised by the Watercolour Artists
of Goa, the exhibition features the works of artists Girish Gujar, Kalidas
Satardekar, Govind Silimkhann, Bazil Mota, Omkar Sirsat, Ramchandra Shet
Narvekar, Saish Parab, Omkar Banaule and Darshan Dasharath Shetye.
These nine artists are displaying
their works in watercolour at Kala Academy, Panjim in an exhibition that concludes today. The exhibition was inaugurated by veteran artist Padmashree Laxman Pai in the presence of Jayesh Salgaonkar, MLA of
Saligao and Housing Board Minister. Pai congratulated the
artists for creating an awareness about the medium of watercolour.
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In 2012, Omkar Banaule, Darshan
Dasharath Shetye and Ramchandra Shet Narvekar had formed a group called ‘Scapes
Rediscovered’ under which they had five exhibitions. Saish Parab joined them
later. In 2017, they decided to include more artists who are working
progressively with watercolour and that is when Girish Gujar, Kalidas
Satardekar, Govind Silimkhann, Bazil Mota and Omkar Sirsat joined the group.
This is the first exhibition under the banner, ‘Watercolour Artists of Goa’.
“There are many artists in Goa but very few choose to work with watercolour as
it is a difficult medium. The artists whose works are on display have been
working with watercolour for a very long time. For this exhibition, we met in
March this year and decided to have an exhibition on Goan landscapes,” says
Darshan as he points out to the 60 paintings put on display.
While the brilliant art works draw your
attention, the live art demonstration by some of the artists gives you a better
idea of how
difficult it is to deal with the flowing colours once it touches the wet paper.
“There are many techniques while working with watercolour, like wet
on wet wash, wet on dry and dry on dry, to name a few. Most artists don’t use white colour in watercolours and instead retain the whiteness of the paper, hence there is no room for error. You cannot
correct a watercolour painting the way you can with acrylic paintings,” informs Omkar.
Bazil points out
that there is very little awareness about watercolour paintings in Goa.
“Through this exhibition, we want to create awareness about the medium and how
the beautiful landscapes of Goa can be portrayed on paper. You have to be clear
of what you want to paint as you cannot work with more than three layers. The
medium is the master,” says Bazil.
‘Explicit
Impressions’ will be on display at the Kala Academy
Art Gallery, Panjim till May 24, 2017 from 10am to 7pm
