Ever wondered how those translucent luminous colours are spread over paper sheets, bringing the essence of landscape out to fore? The chance to learn one of the oldest art forms, watercolour painting, form some of the best in business is right at hand. 
Archana Bhardwaj, an Indian expatriate artist based in Doha, has been invited by Katara Art Centre (KAC) in Katara Cultural Village to host workshops for beginners in watercolour painting this month. 
A meet and greet with the artist is scheduled at KAC, Building 5, for October 12. The six-session workshop will begin from October 19 and will focus on teaching beginners the techniques of watercolour painting.
The attendees will get to meet Bhardwaj over coffee and karak at KAC at the orientation session and will be familiarised with the venue of the workshop. It will be Bhardwaj’s first experience teaching at KAC.
“I have taught art back in India and I often give lessons to beginners in different forms of art at the Souq Waqif Art Centre. These workshops will focus on beginners and I will try to teach them all the techniques starting with basics,” Bhardwaj tells Community. 
She is an assistant resident artist at Souq Waqif Art Centre and a member of many local art groups including International Artists Doha. 
“Anyone can join the workshop. You do not have to be an artist necessarily. I would teach everything from scratch and will gradually move towards the more advanced techniques,” says the instructor. 
Bhardwaj has been working at the art centre for more than two years. She says she has been interested in art from her childhood. It was her father who first told her that she paints well. Bhardwaj has been a professional artist for about 14 years now. 
She did her Master of Fine Arts, and later MPhil in Printmaking, in Agra, where she comes from. In India, too, she has worked a lot on art and had been part of many exhibitions. Five years ago, she moved to Doha with her husband who she says has been very supportive. 
Through the week, Bhardwaj can be found on her table at the art centre, painting and interacting with visitors. While Bhardwaj also makes portraits upon requests, it’s mostly the themes of nature, and particularly flowers, which she focusses on. 
She works in different mediums including watercolours, acrylic and others. The watercolour pieces can range anywhere from QR300-400 for small works to QR 600-800 for big paintings, while the multi-hued abstract paintings start somewhere around QR4,000, she says referring to the sale of her works at the centre.
Rather than setting lofty ideals to work by, Bhardwaj has a simple principle when she gets her paintbrushes moving. “When I make a piece of art, I think about the person who will hang it on the wall of his or her house. When they wake up in the morning and see the painting, it should fill them with positive energy and feelings. I don’t want my paintings to bring out darkness or negativity. That’s also why I love to build upon nature’s beauty in my works,” Bhardwaj said in an earlier interview.
Bhardwaj has been asked many times by patrons and enthusiasts to hold painting workshops, which she is finally doing after getting space. She says she mostly paints at home apart from the art centre, working whenever she finds time. 
Bhardwaj has moved to abstract after doing a lot of figurative art. Flowers, however, have been a constant thematic companion for her. 
Once, in an exhibition in Delhi, some visitors appreciated her flower works a lot and that encouraged her to hold onto it. She says she loves abstract because there is a mystery to it that “each of us can solve the way we want.”
As it does for most artists, painting sets Bhardwaj free. “Painting makes me feel so good that I forget everything else. It feels so liberating that I willingly get lost in it. It’s like a great adventure,” she adds.