A middle-aged working lady decided to delve into knife-painting to discern her creative side on an idle Sunday noon. A couple of college students, a middle-aged government employee, and a lady in her sixties were among the participants at a knife painting workshop organised at V’s café at Saibaba Colony.
Ruchi Bagrecha, a Coimbatore-based fashion designer and self-taught knife painter, said “Knife-painting is my passion and this is my third workshop in the city.” Ruchi supplied the participants with the necessary materials including canvas, acrylic colours, knives and brushes. She personally guided the participants with a sample of a painting of Buddha that she had.
I am a water colour enthusiast, but dabbling in acrylic took my fancy. And with Ruchi’s constant guidance, I felt like it was an easy task. As the session commenced, the participants made a carbon-sketch of the Buddha painting on their canvases with a pen. Then we removed the carbon-paper and started painting.
The first wide stroke of green on the left margin was almost akin to peeling layers of make-up after a party. From there on, Ruchi paid close attention to every participant. The session was punctuated by a round of hot chocolate and cookies. The participants leapt at the chocolate with child-like enthusiasm,finished the cookies and then picked up their brushes and knives to return to their work.
With the workshop being a little over four hours, most participants felt tired halfway through, especially as they do not paint on a regular basis. Ruchi gently guided the participants with basic principles. “The face should have broader and gentle strokes. A little bit of blending is necessary at the point where two colours meet, so that it does not look like a patch. Picking the right shade for the right place is the key to any kind of good painting,” she said.
My take-away from the workshop was that knife painting is almost akin to spreading frosting over cake. It can be used to produce textural effects, to refine details or to just add variety to the strokes and that it gels fairly well with oil colours too. Not to forget the therapeutic effects of painting and letting go of things that are not in one’s hands.
