One of the great supporters of the visual arts in the Clare
Valley is Pikes winery, which has a lovely little gallery upstairs, above the
cellar door. Proprietor Cathy Pike continues to introduce a range new and
interesting exhibition to the region, reaffirming the long-standing
relationship between wine and art.
I recently attended an exhibition of ‘Watercolour
Impressions’ by Alan Ramachandran, which proved to be an enlightening
reflection upon an artist’s process of working. During the opening of the exhibition
Alan chose to depart from the traditional artist speech by expressing his
thought processes through demonstration.
It must be said that for an artist this is a particularly brave option,
as there are obvious time factors and the possibility of it all going wrong
under the pressure of public gaze. However, Alan’s years of experience,
combined with his relaxed and jovial nature enabled it to all go off without a
hitch. Within just over half an hour he had effectively led the audience
through his choice of composition, tonal values and brush techniques to arrive
at a suitably impressive sample of his landscape style.
While watercolour is generally not my chosen medium, I have
often used this technique particularly while traveling. With a small watercolour
kit, it allows you to set up quickly to produce an image with a delicate sense
of immediacy. In his demonstration Alan showed this to great effect as well as
providing insights into a few of his own particular tricks of the trade. As he
said, ‘it’s all about sharing’ and he certainly shared much about his passion
for watercolour over a glass of wine on a very pleasant Sunday afternoon.
