Urban Poetics in Watercolor: The Atmospheric World of Ashwani Verma
- Lena Snow, Curator
- Jul 30
- 3 min read
In an era of visual saturation and digital gloss, Ashwani Verma’s watercolour paintings stand out for their quiet intensity and emotional resonance. His work captures not just the city’s appearance, but its tempo, its pauses, its movement, its breath. Working in a medium that demands both precision and surrender, Verma brings an extraordinary sensitivity to the fleeting beauty of urban life.
Verma’s artist statement offers an honest lens into his process: his commitment to observation, atmosphere, and emotional truth. He sees painting not simply as a way to render what is seen, but as a way to communicate what is felt. This is nowhere more evident than in his work Rainy Day in Paris, a piece that balances architectural structure with the transient rhythm of rain, crowd, and light. The viewer is drawn under a stone arch into a Parisian street, flanked by Haussmann-style buildings and punctuated by umbrellas and reflections. The color palette is refined; the cool blues and greys are offset by glints of warm light and the soft glow of traffic and streetlamps. Rain becomes not an element of weather but a kind of visual filter, blurring the line between realism and emotional suggestion. His figures are reduced to silhouettes and color shapes, but their presence is deeply felt - anonymous yet intimately familiar.
A key hallmark of Verma’s practice is his command of atmosphere through technique. Using wet-on-wet washes, dry brushing, and layered glazes, he captures light and shadow in ways that evoke not just place, but mood. In Aerial View of Paris, we see a different kind of compositional ambition, a high vantage point offers a sweeping panorama of the city. The distant Eiffel Tower emerges from a violet haze while golden light spills across the rooftops. What’s remarkable here is Verma’s balance of detail and looseness: architectural precision gives way to abstraction as the eye moves outward, suggesting memory, time, and weather all at once. The presence of small figures and vehicles below adds a narrative element, encouraging the viewer to imagine movement, daily life, and human scale within the monumental.
Similarly, Rainy Day in London immerses the viewer in a cinematic urban moment. The painting captures the blue-toned glow of headlights on wet streets, the cluster of pedestrians under umbrellas, and the monumental presence of historic architecture. Verma’s ability to evoke the shimmer of wet pavement and the drama of contrasting light recalls the expressive legacy of painters like Edward Seago and Joseph Zbukvic, while still maintaining a voice uniquely his own. There is a softness to his transitions, yet a firmness in structure.
Across these works, one sees a unified artistic vision: the use of a limited palette to maintain tonal cohesion, the layering of pigment to suggest atmosphere, and the consistent desire to communicate experience rather than spectacle. Verma's cityscapes are never sterile. Instead, they hum with life: quiet, observant, and deeply humane.
Importantly, Verma’s work transcends geographic specificity. Though the locations may be recognizably Paris or London, the emotional register of his paintings is universal. They speak to any viewer who has paused in a city and watched it breathe. His paintings invite reflection without sentimentality, encouraging a kind of stillness that is increasingly rare in contemporary visual culture.
As an artist seeking to expand his international career, Verma offers a compelling case for cultural contribution. His work bridges technical mastery with emotional nuance, and he brings a refined approach to watercolor that enriches the global conversation around urban representation in art. Whether for collectors, curators, or institutions, Ashwani Verma’s work provides a fresh, contemplative voice in contemporary watercolor - a medium too often underestimated, but in his hands, luminous and essential.
Discover more of his artworks:
Lena Snow – founder and editor of the Goddessarts Magazine
