Flooded by Watercolours

About six weeks ago I spent some time in Banat, Serbia as I usually do in summertime. This time I wrote mainly about sculpture, large clay statues made in Terra Studio in a former 19th century roof tile factory. However what I encountered every now and again were watercolours. Everyone seems to be talking about them or painting them. It was sort of an elegant, slow and silent flooding, they remained in the corner of my eye, constantly there, gentle, in a way even more present than the sculpture. 

Last year I attended a watercolour symposium held in Ajdovščina during the Watercolour Biennial Castra 2015. I learned that in Slovenia watercolours were never thought of much, mostly they were a part of preparatory stage for oils or just a sketching method. This year, while I was in Kikinda I went to see an exhibition in National Museum, a selection from Milutin Popović's watercolour collection. According to the catalogue Mr. Popović collected watercolours by 20th century Serbian painters form the avant guard on. Watercolours seemed to be quite a big thing up to the 1980s. 

In 2014 I attended Tiska akademija akvarela (Tisa Watercolours Academy), an artist colony dedicated solely to the watercolours. Invited artists have been gathering every year for five days in August for the last 21 years. Before I lost myself in acrylics I used to do calligraphy in watercolours. Nevertheless the colony was my fires real contact with watercolour painting. It didn't take long for me to become hooked. However there's a catch (there always is, isn't it). Calligraphy in watercolours isn't the same as watercolour painting. There are some new techniques I need to master. I spent some time researching watercolours and decided on two opposite approaches. One is atmospheric watercolours in the technique taught by an English water-colourist Jean Haines. The other one is totally different. It's done by placing layer upon layer upon layer of watercolour on the paper like Aleksandar Bogdanović paints. I met Saša during the colony and we became fast friends. He's coming to Slovenia in September. I'm counting the days...

Nacionalni muzej Kikinda (http://www.muzejkikinda.com/)

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Poleti greva z M-jem na dopust tudi v Vojvodino. Letošnji obisk je bil, kar zadeva umetnost, bolj posvečen skulpturi, velikim kipom in gline, ki jih delajo na vsakoletni koloniji Terra v kompleksu nekdanje opekarne na obrobju mesta. Ne glede na to, se me je tu in tam spet dotaknil akvarel. Kamorkoli sva šla, se mi je zdelo, da ljudje slikajo akvarele ali vsaj govorijo o njih. Nekako elegantno, počasi in tiho so me poplavili, nenehno so ostali v kotičku očesa, nežno, celo bolj kot skulptura.

Lansko leto sem se udeležila simpozija v okviru Bienala akvarela Castra 2015 v Ajdovščini. Tam sem izvedela, da je bil akvarel skozi zgodovino na slovenskih tleh bolj kot ne obravnavan kot pripravljalna tehnika za olje ali za skice in da ga galeristi ne ljubijo preveč. Letos sva obiskala nacionalni muzej v Kikindi, kjer je bil razstavljen izbor iz zbirke akvarelov Milutina Popovića. Glede na informacije v katalogu, je g. Popović zbiral akvarele srbskih slikarjev od avantgarde dalje. Akvareli so bili pomemben likovni izraz do 80. let 20. stoletja.

Poleti 2014 sem se udeležila Tiske akademije akvarela, kolonije, ki je posvečena čistemu akvarelu. Vabljeni umetniki se za pet dni v avgustu že 21 let zbirajo v Novem Bečeju in ustvarjajo v ateljeju tamkajšnjega kulturnega doma. Preden so me prevzele akrilne barve, sem se ukvarjala s kaligrafijo, v glavnem z akvarelnimi barvicami. Ne glede na to pa sem na koloniji videla, da je akvarelno slikarstvo nekaj povsem drugega. Nisem potrebovala veliko, da sem se ujela v past, vendar tudi tu (kot seveda povsod) nek ampak čepi za vogalom. Moja kaligrafija je čisto OK, vendar je akvarel povezan z zame novimi tehnikami, ki se jih moram naučiti. Lotila sem se raziskovanja in našla dve različni tehniki, ki sta me pritegnili. Ena je abstraktna, atmosferična, kot jo uči angleška akvarelistka Jean Haines. Druga je popolnoma drugačna in pomeni nanašanje plasti na plast na plast lazurne barve na papir. Na ta način slika Aleksanar Bogdanović, ki sem ga spoznala pred dvema letoma v Novem Bečeju. Saša letos septembra prihaja v Slovenijo. Odštevam dneve ...

Tiska akademija akvarela. Foto vir/source: http://www.domkulturenb.com