My passion in watercolour paintings: Anamika Misra
Art has been a part of me ever since I was a kid. Doodling on the back of my school notebooks, or walls of my house, even the sand on the beaches. There was art everywhere and it came naturally to me. I could draw straight lines without the help of a ruler and almost perfect circles and squares.
As I grew up I stopped pursuing drawing and sketching, maybe because I started taking it for granted. I never realised that I was gifted with some skillset which people pay to learn and still don’t master it. I was weak in mathematics but I scored well because I could figure out geometry without the help of instruments and the teachers couldn’t doubt it as the figures were perfect enough to score. Same with other subjects that had figurative drawings. But I always ignored my skills.
After school, I pursued Game Development as video games always intrigued me. But due to lack of opportunities in India during my time I struggled with finding the right kind of job. For years I was confused as to what to do with my life, all the years I spent studying Game Development would go to waste if I change my field. So I started working on making an independent game but again I realised it could take years without a team. And therefore I decided to quit the game development field and joined my mother’s business of Fashion Design. I was never interested in Fashion, but little did I knew that I was meant to be in this field itself. Within 6 months of training, through observation and dedication, I was designing on my own, making patterns and even designing textiles.
I thought of exploring my creative side a bit more and got back to sketching. I started with pencil and charcoal portraits and concept art. Slowly moved on to acrylic and oil painting and started experimenting with different mediums. After 2 years of experimenting and practising, I finally found my passion in watercolour paintings. The peculiar thing about watercolours is that they are unpredictable, the way they flow they take their own path which cannot be recreated. When we were kids, we were given watercolours to paint in art class and we always yearned for better colours, to which we were told that we can only use oil/acrylics when we are older and professional. It’s surprising how you can create so much more with the things that seem so mundane. People always ask me why I don’t use oil and acrylics and I counter question them – what’s the fun in that? Beauty lies in creating incredible things using ordinary stuff.
My art is mostly inspired by concepts, there’s a story or a message behind each painting. An uncanny thing about my art is that I paint the main subject in very light colours and highlight all the subjects surrounding it. Although it’s opposite of what artists usually make, I feel it gives a kind of feel where the main subject is popping out of a painting. I create and recreate concepts by building a pictorial story in my mind and how my eyes perceive it. I was very sceptical about people accepting my art in a new age of contemporary art since my concepts are very different from the norm and competing against people who have professionally studied art from reputed institutes is very difficult.
But to my surprise a lot of audiences said that they could connect with my art, some said that it touched them inside and that it was thought-provoking. It’s an achievement in itself when people can understand and interpret exactly what you are trying to show through a visual piece. A little support and motivation always help in moving forward.
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