Watercolour Beginner to Gallery Exhibitor: Suraiya’s Story

Suraiya joined our Watercolour for Beginners course to develop her artistic skills and explore a new creative technique. Throughout the course, she regularly shared her progress on Instagram (@raiya.writes), allowing us to follow her watercolour journey week by week. Watching her confidence and technique grow with each painting made it especially rewarding to see one of her pieces later selected for display in our learner exhibition, ‘We Present: Leicester Adult Education’.

At the end of the course, Suraiya reflected on her experience in an Instagram post, writing:

"I've thoroughly enjoyed the classes. Naomi is a wonderful teacher and I highly recommend them to someone who is new to watercolours! My confidence has grown massively and I definitely think my paintings have improved since I started."

Suraiya submitted her watercolour piece, ‘Pebbles’, into our art exhibition as pictured below.



Following our learner exhibition open evening, we caught up with Suraiya to ask about her experience on the course and what exhibiting her artwork meant to her. For Suraiya, seeing her painting displayed in a public gallery was a proud moment.

"It gives me a sense of pride knowing that other people gain joy from seeing my piece."

One of her favourite parts of the exhibition was having the chance to see the artwork created by fellow classmates and celebrating everyone's achievements together.

Throughout the course, Suraiya developed a range of watercolour techniques, including building up layers, creating shadows and colour swatching. When asked about her favourite part of creating her exhibition piece, she said it was adding the shadows, explaining that this was the stage that really brought the painting together.

The course has also had a positive impact beyond developing her artistic skills.

"I've formed new friendships and it's increased my confidence."

That growing confidence has encouraged Suraiya to practise more at home and continue developing her work outside of the classroom.

Looking ahead, Suraiya is excited to continue her creative journey. She has already opened her own Etsy shop (RaiyaWrites) and hopes to create designs that people will love to buy. She's also planning to submit her artwork into more local exhibitions to share more of her fantastic artwork.

We’re so glad that our courses were able to give Suraiya the confidence to achieve her goals and to continue growing as an artist.