Painting Fearlessly with Sandhu Singh

A two-day watercolour workshop about letting go: loosening up, taking risks and painting more intuitively. Sandhu Singh, one of Vancouver Island’s best-known watercolour painters, leads step-by-step demonstrations, guided exercises and plenty of personal exploration in a relaxed, hands-on room.

Topics include how the brush meets the paper, breaking a subject into shapes, suggesting rather than rendering, using wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry on purpose, tonal values and warm and cool greys, and painting from photos, plein air or imagination.

Basic drawing skills help. Presented by the Victoria Chapter.

About Sandhu Singh. Sandhu (Varinder) Singh came to Canada from Chandigarh at 21 and took his first art class in 2007, encouraged by his children. He has shown in many of the Victoria Chapter’s juried exhibitions and became an AFCA Signature member in 2012. His paintings bring together his Indian and Canadian lives, and draw on memory and imagination as much as on what is in front of him. He works as a cardiac nurse at Royal Jubilee Hospital, donates paintings to health-care causes and demonstrates in schools. See more of his work at sandhusingh.com.

Sandhu works with the supplies below. Bring similar ones if you can, but don't buy everything new: bring what you already have and he will help you make it work. Reference photos are provided. Paper: Saunders Waterford Rough, 140 to 200 lb, or Arches 140 lb if you already have some. Brushes: synthetic rounds with a sharp point, sizes 8, 10 and 12 (Sandhu uses Escoda Perla or Escoda Prado); a medium or small-to-medium sable or mop brush (Da Vinci squirrel mops are excellent, but any brand will do); riggers, sizes 0 and 1; a dagger brush (Sandhu uses the Black Velvet 3012S 1/4" dagger striper). Paint: tubes rather than 5 ml minis, ideally Winsor & Newton, Daniel Smith or Holbein. Suggested colours: French ultramarine, cerulean blue, verditer blue (Daniel Smith), turquoise blue, burnt umber, raw umber, burnt sienna, yellow ochre, alizarin crimson, cadmium red, cadmium yellow, cadmium orange, mineral violet, lavender, neutral tint, sepia, Vandyke brown and Chinese white. Also bring: a simple table or floor easel; a board to tape your paper to; pencils (2HB); a kneadable eraser; masking tape; a water bucket; a fine-mist spray bottle; paper towels; and a white palette. A hair dryer is optional. Questions about supplies? Ask through the Victoria Chapter's Contact page.

Cancel in writing by emailing the chapter's Workshop Coordinator. Cancel at least 14 days before the start for a full refund, or full credit toward a future workshop. If you cancel less than 7 days before the start there is no refund, but the fee can go toward a future workshop. If the chapter cancels, you get a full refund; if it reschedules, you can move to the new date or take a full refund. There is no refund, credit or transfer for missing all or part of the workshop.