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Hi, I’m Athira Gopal, an artist by passion and a Creative designer by profession from India. I was born in Thiruvalla and brought up in Trivandrum, Kerala, a designer who loves watercolour painting, contemporary art, calligraphy, paper cutting art, motion graphics animation and photography. I hold a Master’s Degree in Graphic Design from National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad.
Explaining how happy I am would be a task, as the thought of being a guest artist at Doodlewash is really an honour. I literally had to pinch myself to believe the same. So here I am, sharing my part of happiness, colourful love and little about my life.
I have always been a reserved child, always lost in my own world, which was full of colours and from that point until today and forever, art became my best friend. Be it drawing, scribbling or doodling, everything has been so important in my life. Wherever, whenever, being happy or being upset, the artist in me never died and I would draw everything that came to mind be it on walls, in newspapers or my dad’s diaries.
Other than being an artist, things that interests me are music, dance, drama and movies. All of these things inspire me to be a lot more creative and innovative.
Talking about my favourite artists- Vincent Van Gogh, Farida Khalo and of course, our very own Raja Ravi Varma have been my all-time favourites. Ravi Verma has been an inspiration for me to paint female characters. Forms that inspire me are abstract, contemporary and pop art form. I also love the illustration style of Liz Steel, Alicia Souza, Roshan Kurichyanil and Sarah Andersen.
My favourite paintings are Van Gogh’s the Starry Night, and Raja Ravi Varma’s Lady with Lamp, Shakuntala, and Damayanti with Swan from the Mahabharata. Earlier, I wasn’t very confident with watercolours. I used to paint with watercolours without knowing the proper techniques. But during July’s World Watercolor Month, I have learnt so many different ways of using watercolours, from some of the best artists around the world!
Explaining the feeling of how it feels when colours mix is just out of this world and I feel it just brings life to a plain paper, every texture of painting comes alive, and every detail brings in a new meaning. With the same approach, I thought of joining the World Watecolor Month challenge and I decided to go with a theme to explore different styles and techniques of water colour painting. I used photographs as references and some of my own imaginations. The colours I am using are Camel Artist Watercolour Cakes, Koi Sakura Water Colour Field Sketch Travel Kit and Micron pens and Faber-Castell Artist Watercolour tubes.
I loved participating in World Watercolor Month in July, because not only taught me a lot, but also every day I woke up to see a colourful world around me. I am thankful to all who have made this possible for me. It feels like I am back in my childhood, talking, playing and singing with my colours. Due to my busy office schedule, I can’t be very punctual in pursuing my interest in painting but when I get the time, I try to finish at least three paintings in a day.
And once I start, I just forget everything, even though it’s 5 am in the morning without sleeping. And now that I have started again, I don’t want to stop here. I will continue what I love the most in the world. I feel I’m reborn again. Thank you all for making my world colourful and beautiful again.
Athira Gopal
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Join us for our August Adventure and check out the World Watercolor Group on Facebook!
Your art is lovely, Athira, and shows how well you observe color into your paintings. I enjoyed reading your art story.
Thank You Sharon 🙂
(ARGH…..It was supposed to say, “how well you observe color AND WORK it into your paintings.”)
amazing artwork :O 🙂
Thank You Ksheer Shree Mehta 🙂
Reblogged this on Athira Gopal and commented:
Sharing my happiness of being FEATURED ARTIST @ https://doodlewash.com Thank you Charlie O’Shields, #WorldWatercolorMonth ,#Doodlewash and all the amazing artists and their wonderful works which inspired me and taught me a lot throughout this month to spread this colourful love. <3 <3 <3 🙂
The bird is my favorite–great colors. (K)
Thank You Memadtwo
Congratulations Athira for being a guest doodlewash! Very nice paintings for the World Watercolor Month I like that you choose feelings as your theme! You’re doing a lovely work I gave you a “Follow” on your Blog! Wish you an happy and creative August! 🙂 Carolina
Thank You 🙂 So sweet of you
My pleasure!
Beautiful paintings and a wonderful story of your travel back to watercolors. Lovely feature post of keeping art woven into our lives, thank you for sharing.
Thank You 🙂
Thank you so much for your very humble, honest, and sweet bio Athira. Your inner beauty comes through in your work.
Thank You Dodie 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing, Athira. The night Pictures are my favorites – very nice. 🙂
Thank you for sharing your beautiful work and artistic journey with us!
Nice art Athria and a great story,thank you so much for sharing..