My First Experience with Texture Art

As a kid who was always drawn to painting and drawing and even studying art as a subject, I had never heard of or even done Texture Art before. But, it all changed in the month of June, 2024, at the Sip and Paint hosted by Pouls.of.art and conducted by Poulomi Bose along her team, at the M3M Starbucks. A place that is usually associated with the coffee, is now transformed into a place for creative expression that I will always remember.

I had been newly hired as an intern at Pouls.of.art and it was supposed to be my second event that I was asked to assist along with the team conducting the workshop. After we had arranged the setup for the workshop and were waiting for the participants to arrive, Poloumi then suggested that I should take part in the workshop, but as a participant instead of an event associate, and I found myself stepping into being a person ready to paint along instead of the now usual tasks of setup and support.

Texture art, as I discovered, was a medium that included not just sight but touch, engaging me in the creative process. Unlike traditional painting, where strokes of different colours alone tell the story, texture art included a medium that is called “modeling paste”, this gives the texture art its name, as this particular paste is used along the colours to bring the life in the artwork itself.

It was a really colourful piece, with the pinkish-red cherry blossoms, the different shades of blues used for the river below and the purple mountain along with the sky, it seemed really interesting. The experience was a hands-on engagement that by the end of the workshop brought the artwork to life in three dimensions.

The session was instructed by Poloumi herself along with her warm and welcoming team always there to help in case of any need. At the start she introduced us to what we’re painting in this session, it was a mountain scene, a purple one, with cherry blossoms falling off the branches into the lake, as the sun in the foreground shined through the sky. Afterwards we were introduced to the various materials such as the modeling paste, the brushes and paint knives, the scoopers along with the techniques to create textures with knives, brushes and even your fingers, each adding a unique element to the canvas.

Initially, I approached the blank canvas with a mix of anticipation, my hands were unsure but eager. As we began layering the paste, shaping it into bushes and leaves, a sense of childlike excitement took over. I had not touched the canvas in many months and was even unsure of the end result I might get afterwards, but it was all so simple and beautifully instructed that by the end I was really happy with the end product. Each swipe of the palette knife felt like a release from the daily life of waiting for academic results, worrying about college admissions, I was just there only to paint.

We started with the green shades of the bushy leaves while continuing to make the lake and the mountain and by the end a beautiful textured piece of work was created. It was as if the mountain and the cherry blossoms were kept on the canvas instead of being painted. The nature of the work was really fun, reconnecting me to the joy of painting that was lost in between exams.

The team was really helpful to each one of us throughout the session. At the end of it, all our pieces were dried by them and were given another art supply of surprise, the “unicorn paste” along with the Q-tips that when used gives a glittering effect to the areas it is spread upon. After spreading the unicorn paste with the Q-tips, the moon and the cherry blossoms looked really pretty as the white spaces where we had used the unicorn paste, made it glitter so well.

It was a really great experience overall that did make me feel like an artist again, and even for someone who is not creatively diverged it is a really fun social activity to do with your friends and loved ones. It being really simple and fun, people of all ages can be a part of it. Afterwards our pieces were packed by the team along with a certificate that read out my name and given to me as a memory to be cherished forever.

Click here to experience this magic yourself!