Watercolor Illusionist

Richie Vios grew up in a house in Cebu City in the Philippines that was filled with the smell of oil paints, thanks to his father and siblings, who were all painters. “The smell of oil paint was always present in my home,” he says. “That was my childhood smell.”

With all that oil painting going on, it’s a little surprising that Vios’ medium today is watercolor. Yes, he says, he did paint with oils with his father when he was in high school, but didn’t plan to become an artist. Instead, he earned a degree in architecture in the Phillipines in 1995, where he taught for a time. He went on to work as an architect, focusing on design and working drawings, which he did in computer aided design (CAD) for many years before turning to art.

Vios loves working in watercolor as he creates paintings of everything from Native Americans, cowboys, and barns to landscapes, cityscapes, and seascapes. “I paint in watercolors because that was how we trained as architects, during my college years,” he says. “I love the illusiveness of watercolor; you can’t control it. Sometimes watercolor will say, ‘Who is in control here?’ It’s like a dance. Sometimes I control it; sometimes it controls me.”

Read the full article in the March/April 2025 issue.