Ambassador of the Week: Sagnik Biswas

Meet Sagnik Biswas, this week’s top American Watercolor Weekly Ambassador!

As an Architect, it was my dream to study Roman Architecture, but once I visited Uffizi, I fell in love and started painting, a hobby which has now withstood the 7-year itch.

Other than my degrees in Visual Arts like Architecture, Urban Design, etc, I’m a completely self-taught artist. My extensive travels across the world have exposed me to the works of great masters – right from the High Middle Ages to Post-Modernism. I think I have also learned a lot from the modern-day watercolor greats like Joseph Zbukvic and Robert Wade. John Singer Sargent remains my greatest inspiration.

I’d like to describe my paintings as “impressionistic watercolors telling stories of architecture, people & places ..”

I live in Mumbai, India.

An Afternoon in Ghent (watercolor, 22 x 15 in.)
Capital of the East Flanders province, Ghent is the 2nd largest city of Belgium & a noted cultural hub. The city extends way beyond the famed St Bavo’s Cathedral & is a delight for Architecture buffs like me. I covered the entire city on foot, stopping only for a while to taste the Ghentse Waterzooi (& to make a few sketches)! Seen here is an area near the Korenmarkt which was filled with a joie de vivre that I wanted to capture in this painting.

Grand Place, Brussels (watercolor, 16 x 20 in.)
Brussels’s aptly named Grand Place or Grote Markt is the heart of the old town & is an excellent place for people-watching. Though I made some sketches on site to study the eclectic architecture (an opulent blend of baroque, gothic and Louis XIV style), my real objective was to capture the play of light and shade in its decorative façade & the narrow cobblestoned alleys.

Murten Moments (watercolor, 15 x 22 in.)
Murten or Morat (in French) is a medieval town in the Fribourg canton of Switzerland, which we visited to console ourselves as we had just missed the Art Basel. And were instantly happy that we did! Murten is a quaint, cobbled 3-street town crammed with arcaded houses & potential for a painting at every corner. Seen here is the street(!) leading to the lake.

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