This month we are getting to know Rai Sinha – Rai’s dreamy drawing earned her top spot in our Fantasy challenge. Her drawings mix colour and charcoal in a unique and expressive way and her style is quite recognisable.
Rai was born and brought up in India. For the last 22 years she has been travelling the world with her family.
“The last 12 years have been spent in this beautiful country. I had not pursued art in my higher studies, hence was completely out of practice for almost 20 years until I picked up the brush again in 2014 and restarted this journey of sheer joy. Since then I have attended various art classes and workshops by well known South African artists like the late Richard Rennie in Watercolour and Tony Durham’s palette knife courses in oils. I have learned a lot about the correct use of colours and basics of composition through these workshops. Eventually I picked up a charcoal stick when I joined a life drawing group and started drawing figures and faces from life, and simply fell in love with the medium and the subject.
I ask Rai which lessons that she learned from other artists she felt was invaluable.
“Being a self taught artist, I have come across quite a few artists through various classes and workshops and experienced the variety of approaches each of them have towards art. Learning a whole range of different subjects, styles and methods has eventually made me stronger at understanding my strengths and interests. Had I not been exposed to the variety, I might not have been confident about my choices of subject and medium.”
As mentioned Rai’s style is quite recognisable and I ask her about her journey and whether it was something she consciously worked towards or fell into by chance.
She answers thoughtfully.
“Maybe both, I’m not sure! I always wanted to create something more interesting than the regular. One fine day, during a life drawing session, a particular face sparked an idea in my mind. It dawned on me that I could just bring a few sunny colours into my charcoal portrait of this confident young African woman. I wanted to show that she was glowing with the light of education and brimming with confidence. The painting got huge applause in social media and encouraged me to explore more possibilities in mixing dry and wet mediums and create my own style. My mind is overloaded with ideas and yet each one throws challenge and excitement equally.
Rai does a lot of mixed media and I love how she makes charcoal sing amongst the other mediums. I ask her about her process, inspiration and what a normal day in her life looks like.
“When I look at objects or photos with exciting lights and shadows, it immediately inspires me to paint. Some of them appear to me as a subject for watercolour or oils, others tickle my ‘drawing’ hands.”
Rai plans a composition with the subject as the center of attraction and colours supporting the story around it.
“I may trickle a splash or two of muted colour on the canvas with my acrylic or watercolour paints to start with, keeping in mind the light source and highlights in my subject. Next I develop the drawing with charcoal. I always draw by putting the shadow shapes in, and not by drawing an outline. So as my drawing progresses, the interesting lights and shadows already start to take shape dictating me where to loosen the edges. Once I am satisfied with the balance of light and shadow and perfection of the figure, I start playing with my paints around the subject, pushing the colours into the subject where necessary. It does not always go according to the preliminary plan and I would rather work around the actual appearance. It also gets quite tricky at times as the charcoal tends to make the colours dirty, so leaving out space for colour is important. I put the final touches with charcoal wherever necessary to keep the balance between lost and found edges.
As I said, the subjects direct me towards the mediums. As soon as I visualise the composition in my head, it pushes me to set up my canvas and start the process.
Unfortunately I do not get enough time to put all my ideas onto the canvas! But not one single day goes by without me spending time holding charcoal or a brush – be it for my own works or for teaching.
Her favourite medium – charcoal of course! She says she loves the gorgeous deep black.
And her artist dream?
“As an artist I definitely wish to be represented by a good gallery some day. I would consider myself successful if the viewer of my artwork feels the same emotions that I felt while creating it.”
Rai has a studio space where she offers classes, or, if you’re not close to her studio in Blairgowrie, Johannesburg, you can join her for online classes!
