Malta on 24 September 2016. First we got to meet Alvaro in a conference room at the hotel. We were about 20 participants from different parts of the world who sat quietly and listened to one of the world’s best watercolor painters. Alvaro talked for almost an hour about watercolor, how to paint, colors, what to think about and much more. Afterwards, I handed him my book, Obsessed with Watercolor. I had promised him it because I got to use some of his pictures in the book. Then we took the bus to Valletta and we walked into the city center. Alvaro wanted an open place that was also shaded out of consideration…

Reflections of water pooling in a rainy street in Madrid, smoke coming from a kitchen in Singapore, or the long shapes shadows of cars at sunset in New York are all moments that Álvaro Castagnet feels inspired by and depicts magnificently through his atmospheric water colour paintings. Having visited so many cities throughout his distinguished artistic career, he manages to extract that city’s  vibrations and deftly translates these vibes into pigment and water for all to enjoy.  This passion for the seemingly ordinary is one of the reasons that Álvaro flies around the world giving lectures, workshops, and seminars in the field he masters: watercolor. This technique, which is not…