“I stop a painting at about 70 to 80 percent,” says Amit Kapoor. “After drawing the scene, I wet my paper and work quickly to finish in under an hour. With eyes half-closed to see the values, I paint with a minimum of brushstrokes. Rather than pick out every leaf, I can make a tree with just one stroke. Since I’m only after an impression of the landscape, a rough-and-tough approach works. I want my painting to look like a painting, not a photograph, so not everything must be crystal clear.
“At the end of a painting, I add ‘noise’ — interesting calligraphic marks and lines. One way I do this is by including birds, which have the extra benefit of adding life to the work and providing a counterbalance to the busy landscape in an otherwise empty sky. A small bunch of birds, painted at different angles, ensures the eye has something to enjoy in every part of the painting.”
Kapoor’s instinct for economy — the single brushstroke that becomes a tree, the calligraphic mark that brings a sky to life — is exactly the sensibility he brings to his watercolor cityscapes. In his new video workshop at PaintTube.tv, Watercolor Cityscape Secrets, he applies that same rough-and-tough approach to urban subjects: architecture, streets, and the particular challenge of capturing a city’s energy without getting lost in its details.
