Watercolorist and oil painter Rachel Eskandari began her art career with the same whimsy that now pervades her vibrant botanical forms. As a teenager, she went into her sister’s room, tore a page off the easel there and brushed on an acrylic ballerina. “I was surprised by how it turned out,” says Eskandari, who was born and raised in the Valley. Today, she paints everything from stickers to murals.
And yet, Eskandari does more. She recently published a how-to art book (Watercolor Botanical Garden: A Modern Approach to Painting Bold Flowers, Plants and Cacti) and teaches art classes at corporate offices, West Elm and Sunshine Craft Co. in Uptown Phoenix. In 2014, Eskandari, now 33, founded Pink Puddle Studio. She paints in her home studio, but also out in the world.
Why Pink Puddle? “Rose-color pink” is one of Eskandari’s favorite and most used colors, giving shape to her petals, hills and rock walls. Even her wavy hair is often dyed pink. “Pink puddle” speaks to the dreamlike quality of her unique modern style.
“I like to capture things outside of what we like to see, a little extension of reality,” Eskandari says. “I like to use colors in ways that you don’t actually see [in the
physical world].”
This “extension of reality” can be gleaned in coral-orange cacti, mountains that stretch up and bend, or a vaporous pink sky over a multicolor field of desert flowers. It can be found in the dissimilar subjects that Eskandari collages together. Her paintings give the ordinary world color, lightness, a gentle wildness and a utopian quality.
She likes to see home and familiar plants from new angles. Thanks to her educational materials – classes, kits, webinars and book – other budding painters in the Valley can, too. Learn more at pinkpuddlestudio.com.
Surfaces
“Every surface is a potential painting,” Eskandari says. She sees “canvas” all around – in building facades, garden pots, jean jackets and even the walls of her house and home studio.
Two Round Brushes
Eskandari tells her students that there are two relationships in watercolor: “Your brush to paper and your pigment to water.” Using round No 8. and No. 2 brushes allows her to expertly balance both, from broad strokes (the former brush) to fine details (the latter).
Cornflower Blue
“I’m obsessed with cornflower blue,” Eskandari says. “A lot of the saguaros in my painting are that color. You don’t see blue cacti, so that’s the charm in it for me.”
The Golden Girls Reruns
While she paints, Eskandari always half-watches the pioneering 1980s sitcom.
