Sanjay Desai is from Pune, India. An engineer by training, he is a self-taught watercolor artist. In his profession and leisure, he has traveled extensively within India and many other countries.

“I believe that recreating the atmosphere of that moment is the most important task in making a good painting. Sticking to one style is something I don’t believe in. The subject of my painting decides the style. I like it when viewers identify with the subject, the atmosphere, the location, noise, smell, and the textures rather than wondering how I have achieved this effect or that. Beauty in my daily mundane life is what I am increasingly drawn towards rather than some unconnected grand, magnificent subject or some wonderfully paintable object alien to my world. I spend time observing the quality of light, shadows, shapes, architectural details, people, light, and aromas to make the paintings authentic. I paint fast and try something different in almost every painting to the point that I feel uncomfortable when 3 or 4 paintings come out good in a row. I have tried to master the accidents in watercolor in a structured manner, but I gave up. Now I just let them happen.”

Sanjay’s paintings have been exhibited internationally, as well as in a number of solo & group exhibitions. He has conducted workshops, attended the West Zone Cultural Center Art Camp and the Art Mart Khajuraho Festival as an invited artist, and delivered demonstration at watercolor festivals. An article about his work was featured in International Watercolour Magazine (Dec 2019).

“I love the range of colors available with DANIEL SMITH Watercolors. Controlled granulation is another thing that transforms paintings. But to me, the best part is the quality, consistency & vibrance of the colours. As an engineer, I really appreciate the enormous effort that goes into controlling and promising colours based on classification of lightfastness, staining, granulation & transparency.”