Ep 10 - A Dance of Line & Color with Paul Wang
I speak with Singapore-based educator and artist Paul Wang about the way he dances, using line and color, across the page. Paul finds art in the middle of urban chaos and he paints it with dramatic colors and meandering lines. His composition is informed by his education in interior design and theatre production. He tries to tell a story with every piece, and that influences every artistic decision on the page - color and line, conflict and collaboration, work and play. Paul and Suhita Shirodkar (Ep 5) have been running the aptly-named Sketching Play Lab since March, with participants from around the world meeting over Zoom. We talk about his work as an educator and urban-sketching instructor, the different ways he encourages people to approach their art practice to find joy, as well as the things he has learned from being in the USk community.
Follow Paul’s work on IG or visit his website to see his art + get info on the Sketching Play Lab.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to the SneakyArt Podcast. I’m your host, Nishant Jain. This is a podcast about drawing on location, where I explore the journeys and inspirations of different artists around the world who like to draw or paint their environment from observation.
As a preamble to today’s conversation, here are some interesting questions to consider - What is the role of a pencil in your art practice? When is the right time to go in with ink? Is it better to always do one before the other? What kind of line can you make with your pen, and are you comfortable with that being the only thing you do with that pen?
Today’s guest is Singapore-based artist Paul Wang, who shuttles between line and color, color and line, seemingly without effort. Looking at his work, I question the ways in which I use my drawing tools. Can they even do the same things that he does with them? It seems he has set himself free from invisible constraints that I did not know I had.
But before we begin the conversation, allow me a brief moment to talk about the podcast so far. My goal with this podcast has been to look at the creative ways in which artists depict their lives. Speaking to people around the world, I look for new perspectives and fresh ideas to depict my environment. In my few years of association with the global urban sketching community, I have found its most beautiful and generous aspect to be the spirit of sharing, communication and free exchange of ideas. But this community aspect was taken from us with the pandemic, and as I spent weeks moping about the lack of things to do, I was struck with the idea for this podcast. I consider myself lucky to know a lot of urban sketchers, and through them, to be able to reach a lot more urban sketchers that I don’t know. But I find it cruel that those without the same connections are condemned to spend the year without the same insights and tips and ideas that catalysed my own journey towards becoming an artist. Hence, this podcast. I hope it helps you, I hope it can inspire you.
I love doing this podcasting job, even when it’s a lot of work. And recently I introduced a feature to allow individual listeners to directly support me. It’s simple! If you liked the episode, and if you wish to support my work, visit sneakyartist.com/support or click the link in the episode description. This gives you the chance to support my work with a small donation - the price of one cup of coffee. Your support - and the caffeine - helps me to continue making this podcast. I love the idea of being supported directly by listeners, because it keeps you - the individual - as the center of my attention. William, Sia, Chantal, Tina and Mark, many thanks for your buying me some coffee, I hope we have a chance to meet over real coffee sometime. Enjoy this episode because you helped make it happen!
Over the next month or so, I’m going to take a brief hiatus from recording new episodes. I feel like I have put together a lot of useful insights so far, and it would be good to revisit them and compile ideas and thoughts and common threads across conversations. The unique perspectives of urban sketchers is a beautiful thing, but there is also great joy in finding the things they have in common with each other and with ourselves. Makes this solitary exercise a little smoother, when you know others have walked the same paths as us.
During this hiatus, I will prepare a couple of compilation episodes. In addition I am making a fresh list of guests. If you have someone in mind that fits the bill for the SneakyArt Podcast, please reach out to me!
Now, with that out of the way, on to today’s episode. Paul repeats some choice words in this conversation. Keep them in mind as you listen to us. I think they can spark some new insights in your art practice. Here they are - dance, conflict, collaboration, balance, heartspace, and play. This last word is my favorite.
05:00 Nishant opens with asking about Paul’s interplay of line and color.
Paul explains it as a creative process where he responds actively to the stimulus of that day. Likens the process to cooking - spontaneous, calculated risks, small tweaks to the same ingredients to get different flavors. It gets boring otherwise.
“I’m looking at inspiration that is front of me and what excites me. Those will be the handles I will hold on to. Then I pick out whatever tool that helps me respond to that… I like to see my tools as having multiple uses … and I like to push the boundaries … [to see] what the tool can do for me.”
Paul’s work shows tools can have more than their primary function.
Paul emphasizes the importance of putting down the “important stuff” early, before the situation changes, or we are too exhausted.
The urban sketcher should decide on the best strategy based on how much time they have to capture the scene.
Paul talks about how “discovery should be part of the creative process”
12:45 Nishant talks about focusing on the subject even at the cost of ignoring other parts of the scene. Paul likens it to writing the story of a novel, with the main plot, a subplot, main and supporting casts.
They talk about Paul’s educational background and early influences.
Paul shares how his education in interior design, stage design and lighting influences what he sees and how he represents it.
Nishant asks about the different ways this affects his style on paper
Paul comes up with a storyline and narrative before getting into the page. Then he picks the “right” tool. In the absence of a clear idea, he lays down a gob of paint over an interesting area and plays with it until he figures out a path.
20:10 Nishant asks about the way Paul uses colors and what he sees as the role of color in his work.
Paul talks about “collaboration” and “conflict” using colors - bringing colors to support each other, and also having some to create tension.
Paul talks about the things he likes to draw in urban spaces, and the importance of finding the “heartspace”.
28:31 “So you think about different parts of your paper as the stage itself. You want to bring people on a journey and also want to quietly let them walk out, so that they do come along with you… I think about that complete story, so that you’re not left hanging…”
Importance of white space and not putting certain details.
Nishant asks about drawing differently when traveling to different places. Paul explains his love for coffee-shops as a way to understand a foreign place.
Paul likes to be comfortable where he is, and not draw in a very exposed environment.
Contrasts the experience of sketching Amsterdam with Vietnam, vertical orientation versus horizontal spreads.
36:00 They talk about things you click photos of and things you draw/paint. Paul talks about finding something interesting or giving something interesting to the viewer.
Nishant asks about interplay of sketching with Paul’s work as an teacher of interior design and architecture. Then about helping people to find their own voice through urban sketching. Balance of know-how and concepts.
43:45 Paul talks about USk Singapore, evolution over time. The growth in number of sketchers, diversity of backgrounds.
50:10 Nishant asks if Paul has taken “permission” from someone else. Paul talks about mimicry/copying like “walking in someone else’s shoes”.
Paul talks about his watercolor heroes/rebels... Charles Reid’s books and painting videos, Shirley Trevena (“Breaking the Rules of Watercolor”) a self-taught artist using taboo colors and techniques. Paul likes the playfulness of their practice, being unafraid, and as a result reaching the eureka moment.
58:45 Paul talks about going “dark to light”, spiraling outwards from a focal point, and looking for the story he wants to tell with objects and colors.
The importance of knowing the rules before starting to break them, and the many advantages to pushing against the rules from time to time
70:00 Paul talks about starting Sketching Play Lab with Suhita, getting people to look at their tools in a different way, letting go of the idea of perfection, learning to have fun with art, and embracing their own styles.
Nishant talks about digital-traditional interfaces. Paul explains the importance of responding to situations where you don’t have an ideal tool, or when trying to paint something new for the first time.
Nishant talks about muscle memory, and how using a different implement shakes us out of our auto-pilot mode.
85:00 Paul talks about the concept of “play”, the way children play games, reacting to situations without prior plans, not having fixed rules for fun. These are life skills.
Paul shares his style of traveling - have a general plan, but keep time for sudden inspiration, taking a little extra time to discover something unexpected, go down a back alley etc.
Conversation ties back to #sketchingplaylab - people being empowered in their practice of art to try new things without being judged, all the community aspects of urban sketching meetups and still drawing from observation despite being at home.
Paul talks about the importance of listening to diverse voices such as on the SneakyArt Podcast, and gathering the wisdom of the collective.
Paul explains “play sessions” and how participants are making discoveries from repetition on the Sketching Play Lab.
95:05 END