Watercolours, Saharan Music, and The Dawn of Everything [9/9 2025]
Recommendations from Me
In this letter I just want to recommend teaching yourself to paint with watercolours by adapting pictures you have taken. Like drawing, painting slows down your observation, so you begin to notice smaller and smaller details. I’ve found this especially meaningful when working from images connected to important memories.
Watercolours are especially nice to experiment with because they dry so quickly, which allows you to painlessly try different approaches. Like most skills, progress is incremental and modular, so you can get a lot of satisfaction from practicing even if you can’t commit many hours at once. My housemate Tanika’s grandfather spent decades making oil paintings (of family, friends, local buildings…), and he gave them away freely to the people he loved. The thought of being able to do something similar someday (in many years) is really lovely.
Here are a few recent small watercolours made from reference pictures from Bangladesh, Wales, Namibia, and Thailand.
Recommendations from Others
Mie 2025
‘When looking for community remember that even in the people that seem the most polar opposite you can find companions and learning. Beautiful connections have come from people who convinced me to see things from a different angle and let go of my first conception of what I thought my community was.’
Alkinoos 2025
‘A book I loved this year — The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow’
Joris 2025
‘The Sahara mix on Spotify. Read the Wikipedia articles as you listen, many impressive stories!’
Immie 2025
‘Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell, my favourite book of the year!’
Marianna 2025
‘Don’t expect too much from yourself. Try to be present, look at someone’s eyes, observe nature. You’re here, nothing more to ask for. Let go.'
Cover photo - Freshwater West, Wales
