ARTIST STATEMENT

I’m Nurdan Kaygısız, a self-taught watercolor artist based in Türkiye.

I never followed a formal art education. I learned by looking closely, painting often and learning from my mistakes. Watercolor suits me because it can’t be fully controlled. The water, the paper and the pigment all have a say.

For a long time I painted realistically in full color. Then I began experimenting with one tone at a time, and I fell in love with it. That experiments became my style: a single color, deep shadows, and light that seems to appear out of nothing, like a print coming up in a darkroom tray.

I use this approach on all kinds of subjects, and I’m still exploring what it can do. Every piece is made by hand and signed by me. If one speaks to you, or you’d like to commission something, you’re welcome to reach out through the contact section below.

Contacts

+90 534 357 37 97
studio@nurdankaygisiz.com

nurkayart@gmail.com
TURKIYE

Get in touch

ABOUT

I’m drawn to the moments between expressions, such as tenderness, doubt and exhaustion, and so on... The single-color palette gives each painting its own mood.

My paintings borrow the logic of the darkroom.

I paint in a similar way. I limit myself to one pigment, or a very small palette, and build each image from transparent washes. I lift the highlights out of the color and let the shadows gather around them. The subject arrives gradually, as if it were developing in the tray.

Working this way, color stops being a decoration and becomes a tone. Reduced to light, shadow and a single hue, any subject takes on atmosphere, whether it’s a face, a street, a tree, an animal or an object on a table.

​I keep the paintings small and leave the paper’s edges visible, so each piece feels like a keepsake you could hold in your hand. I’m self-taught, and I think that shows in my work: it comes from patient observation and repeated attempts rather than formal rules.