The Beginning Of Watercolor Journey
In the month of August in 2017, I have taken a 5 day long watercolor workshop with Ernst Grillhiesl. It is that workshop that bought me back on watercolor journey. I enjoyed doing watercolors in my school days. It was however long forgotten after school days and was renewed for a while when I started working in Bangalore. It was never regular. I probably did a maximum of 20 paintings during the last 20 years.
Irrespective of the little I did, the fascination with watercolors always remained. I could never stop thinking about the medium and the magic it creates on paper. That infact is my biggest problem. I think a lot, read a lot but rarely bring the colors on to the papaer. The workshop with Ernst did change that for good.
Ernst Grillhiesl is a hobby watercolor artist who stays in Aichach, the bavarian region of south Germany. Coming to know of him from the Wetcanvas forum and completely in awe of his watercolors, I have taken a 3 day workshop with him in 2016. While I made the drawings then, it was all Enrst doing the paintings and me watching him. It was 3 wonderful days that I cannot forget. While it did increase the craving in me to start watercolor journey, I still had too many inhibitions. With the arrival of Summer in 2017, I wanted to do another workshop with Ernst. This time I booked a 5 day course with him .
I took a week off from work and drove all the way to Aichach for the watercolor course. At that time, I was the only one taking the workshop with him. I booked a hotel that is not very far way from Ernst's home. Everyday, as I finished by breakfast in the hotel's restaurant, Ernst would come to the hotel to pick me up in his car. With our watercolor supplies loaded behind, we would start looking out for places that are appealing to paint, mostly in the radius of 20 kilometers. He would show me around few places giving me an option to pick the one I would like to paint.
One the first day of the workshop, we travelled a bit to stop in the middle of the fields to paint the below scene. We set up our easels and got to painting it right away till we got interrupted an hour later by a truck that came to spread manure in the fields.
Unlike first workshop in the previous year, I wanted to paint everything along with him and thats what I exactly did. There was help and suggestions coming from him when needed. While we painted alongside each other, he would watch me progress and suggest corrections in my sketch. Most of my learning came from just watching him mix the colors and paint. Just painting along with him was such a joy despite the sun burning from the top. Having grown up in India, I thought I could bear the heat but by the end of the day, I was so tired that I chose to work from the shade whenever possible in the next 4 days.
For lunch on the first day, Ernst took me to his house and I was happy to be greeted home by him and his wife. He also showed me around his studio that had many of his earlier works, his painting tools and collection of watercolor books from which he learned in his initial years. He is also a very good sculptor. He switched to watercolors many years back when he realized that sculpting is a very costly hobby. After lunch we took a ride again looking for something to paint till we found the below appealing scenary.
So, every other day ran almost similar where we would go scouting for places after breakfast. For lunch, we usually stopped for a quick coffe and a cake. On one day, he took me to a unique farmer market(Bauernmarkt Dasing) that was setup and run by few of the big farmers around the area where they mostly sell their own products. After my lunch there, I picked up a few things for my wife. After the painting is done for the day, Ernst would drop me back at my hotel by around 5 in the evening. That gave me enough time to relax and enjoy a lone dinner in the restaurants around.
Below are the pics from second day. On this day after lunch, we worked indoors to complete the paintings.
Below are the pics from the third day. Painting the pumpkins was a completely different experience from doing the landscapes.
Fourth Day
And below is the pic from the last day. On the afternoon of that day, i started driving back to Hamburg.
If you like Ernst's style of paintings and want to seriously learn watercolor painting, I would suggest a workshop with him if possible for you. For me, this trip was not just about watercolors. It was a wonderful experience for me painting outdoors and learning from Ernst. I would call it a perfect vacation from work and my resurgence into the journey of watercolors.
Irrespective of the little I did, the fascination with watercolors always remained. I could never stop thinking about the medium and the magic it creates on paper. That infact is my biggest problem. I think a lot, read a lot but rarely bring the colors on to the papaer. The workshop with Ernst did change that for good.
Ernst Grillhiesl is a hobby watercolor artist who stays in Aichach, the bavarian region of south Germany. Coming to know of him from the Wetcanvas forum and completely in awe of his watercolors, I have taken a 3 day workshop with him in 2016. While I made the drawings then, it was all Enrst doing the paintings and me watching him. It was 3 wonderful days that I cannot forget. While it did increase the craving in me to start watercolor journey, I still had too many inhibitions. With the arrival of Summer in 2017, I wanted to do another workshop with Ernst. This time I booked a 5 day course with him .
I took a week off from work and drove all the way to Aichach for the watercolor course. At that time, I was the only one taking the workshop with him. I booked a hotel that is not very far way from Ernst's home. Everyday, as I finished by breakfast in the hotel's restaurant, Ernst would come to the hotel to pick me up in his car. With our watercolor supplies loaded behind, we would start looking out for places that are appealing to paint, mostly in the radius of 20 kilometers. He would show me around few places giving me an option to pick the one I would like to paint.
One the first day of the workshop, we travelled a bit to stop in the middle of the fields to paint the below scene. We set up our easels and got to painting it right away till we got interrupted an hour later by a truck that came to spread manure in the fields.
Unlike first workshop in the previous year, I wanted to paint everything along with him and thats what I exactly did. There was help and suggestions coming from him when needed. While we painted alongside each other, he would watch me progress and suggest corrections in my sketch. Most of my learning came from just watching him mix the colors and paint. Just painting along with him was such a joy despite the sun burning from the top. Having grown up in India, I thought I could bear the heat but by the end of the day, I was so tired that I chose to work from the shade whenever possible in the next 4 days.
For lunch on the first day, Ernst took me to his house and I was happy to be greeted home by him and his wife. He also showed me around his studio that had many of his earlier works, his painting tools and collection of watercolor books from which he learned in his initial years. He is also a very good sculptor. He switched to watercolors many years back when he realized that sculpting is a very costly hobby. After lunch we took a ride again looking for something to paint till we found the below appealing scenary.
So, every other day ran almost similar where we would go scouting for places after breakfast. For lunch, we usually stopped for a quick coffe and a cake. On one day, he took me to a unique farmer market(Bauernmarkt Dasing) that was setup and run by few of the big farmers around the area where they mostly sell their own products. After my lunch there, I picked up a few things for my wife. After the painting is done for the day, Ernst would drop me back at my hotel by around 5 in the evening. That gave me enough time to relax and enjoy a lone dinner in the restaurants around.
Below are the pics from second day. On this day after lunch, we worked indoors to complete the paintings.
Below are the pics from the third day. Painting the pumpkins was a completely different experience from doing the landscapes.
Fourth Day
And below is the pic from the last day. On the afternoon of that day, i started driving back to Hamburg.
If you like Ernst's style of paintings and want to seriously learn watercolor painting, I would suggest a workshop with him if possible for you. For me, this trip was not just about watercolors. It was a wonderful experience for me painting outdoors and learning from Ernst. I would call it a perfect vacation from work and my resurgence into the journey of watercolors.
Comments
Post a Comment