My young friend Shahshank sent me pictures of his trip to Ladakh. This one of a woman making rotis in a little roadside dhaba brought back memories of my own treks and drives into the Himalayas. The picture also moved me as it had captured something special, possibly the resilience of this woman and a calmness of the whole scene while she continued with her cooking under such harsh conditions.
It also made for a great reference picture. I decided to use it as my last picture for Fiona's online painting course. It has been a real challenge though, and it took me a while to paint it and be happy with the result. I thought it would allow me to practice all that I had learnt. So far I have been doing small paintings, but decided would like to make a larger version of the picture so have painted it on a half sheet. Fiona also felt I was ready for it! I first did a pencil sketch of the picture, just to make sure I got the perspective right and also that I had had understood the lights and darks, and where they should be in the picture. I have found that this is a very useful exercise.
I then painted the picture. It has come out much better than I expected, as the darks were really difficult to do'. I now feel that maybe this was not the best subject for a water colour, as getting solid darks is really difficult to do, especially if one wants to maintain the translucency of the medium.
