Faded Ebony Kids T-Shirt

This lady was part of the group of women having a chat outside a small village house in Varthur, Bangalore, India. I loved the texture in her graying hair and so the painting was all about textures. I used some white acrylic in the background and on the edge of her sari to highlight some of these textures. But the hair is all done in brushwork, and the highlights are lifted out of the watercolour base.

I first became attracted to watercolour over 30 years ago on a painting holiday in Cornwall. I loved the immediacy and fluidity of the medium. When I painted the old rooftops of the quirky yet beautiful old buildings, colours ran together giving an organic feel to the moss and old slates. I felt like I'd discovered a magic colouring book! The watercolour captured the essence of my subjects in an ethereal way. Enchanted by the possibilities of creating a new, dream-like reality within my paintings, I developed my style with an emphasis on the effects I could achieve with Watercolour, by letting the paint and water form patterns in their own way. I love to break the old fashioned rules of the medium, pushing it to its limits. As...