Günsu Ertük Saraçoğlu / piece of art

INTERNATIONAL WATERCOLOR ARTISTS

CAME TOGETHER IN ISTANBUL

International Atanur Dogan Workhop Series Program which was organized in Kadıkoy Sirket-i Hayriye Art Gallery between June 21-July 1, as a common project of Istanbul Watercolor Society and Tomurcuk Foundation is over.

Within the Program, on June 21, the youngters of Tomurcuk Foundation came together with many watercolor artists for a painting performance and this attracted many art lovers’ attention. The paintings made during this session will be exhibited for the benefit of Tomurcuk Foundation in a near future.

On June 22, art lovers had the opportunity of attending the presentation of Mr. Yasar Sabri Sanlı, a well known painter and the Deputy Head of the Fine Arts Education Department of the Faculty of Education at Fırat University. The topic of his presentation was the role and the importance of watercolor in the Turkish painting. Just after this presentation the attending art lovers were all fascinated by the live demo of internationally very well known Turkish-Canadian watercolor artist Atanur Dogan.

During one of his demo sessions Atanur Dogan posed as the painter standing in silence, together with the audience for showing his support to the Gezi Parki protests in Istanbul.

Considering the social protests focusing on Gezi Parkı, Istanbul Watercolor Society cancelled all the entertaintments included in the Program.

During the Award Ceremony, awards of the artists which had been successful in the Best Watercolor of the Month Contests organized within the common project of Istanbul Watercolor Society and Tomurcuk Foundation were presented.

Atanur Dogan made a closing speech at the end of the Ceremony. During his speech, he underlined the basic ideas of the common project of Istanbul Watercolor Society and Tomurcuk Foundation and emphasized the fact that in a world without friendship, sharing and tolerance no problem could be solved. He added that keeping this reality in our minds we have to overcome all barriers and bias and we should believe in the power of art to create unity, peace and balanced social atmosphere. Under the guidance of these beliefs he described their main goals as supporting the international peace, teaching the transparent watercolor painting technique on a large scale, improving this technique and making it liked and loved by many people.

He also said that he was very much honored to see that art and social responsibility were brought together by this common project of Istanbul Watercolor Society and Tomurcuk Foundation.

The attending art lovers had the chance of observing the live painting performances of many master watercolor artists and learning from them in the workshops which were organized during the program. They also had the chance of visiting a marvelous exhibition. This exhibition was including 42 paintings of Atanur Dogan and nearby Atanur Dogan’s works, the paintings of the winner artists of the Best Watercolor of the Month Contests organized by Istanbul Watercolor Society were also exhibited.