On the occasion of Martinje celebrations, the Tourist Board of Novi Vinodolski held a workshop on vinorel painting — painting with red wine — at Marina Novi. The workshop was led by the singer and painter Marina Tomašević from Zadar, and the characteristics of the medium were presented by Kvarner sommelier Monika Neral.

All places were filled at the workshop, and in the introductory part, Marina Tomašević introduced 20 participants to the secrets of this special painting technique. Vinorel is a demanding, rarely used water-based painting or drawing technique which, in its final result, is close to tonal watercolor. The color spectrum is limited to wine tones — from light yellow through dark red and purple — and the technique’s particular challenge lies in the fact that the picture changes during the very painting process itself. For this reason vinorel is also called a “living technique”. Wine is applied directly onto watercolor paper, and tonal gradation is achieved by waiting for each layer to dry before applying the next. Vinorel matures like wine and over time changes its colors, because the wine continues to age on the paper and the picture takes on warmer tones. Purple, ruby red, and burgundy hues slowly evolve into warm browns. Such paintings do not fade.

Marina Tomašević herself revealed that at first mastering this technique was not easy for her. She discarded her first works and painted again and again, precisely because at first the pieces looked “wounded”. The secret lay in the change that the painting undergoes while drying. Vinorel requires a lot of patience. The biographical painting of a horse that she showed at the workshop she painted for full two months until the wine on paper fully matured and took on very different shades than those at the start of painting.

She also shared a couple of the basic rules of vinorel. Rule number one is to always use just one grape variety, because, as in life, wines aren’t mixed when drinking, and especially not when painting; rule number two is to always sign in the lower left corner the wine label and the vintage year of the wine used to create the painting.

The wines used for painting must be rich in tannin, and precisely such wines were used in the workshop: Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from the local Pavlomir winery; then Sansigot and Grand V (blend) from Grand Village Estate (Eko etno Selce); Syrah Korlat; and Ivan Dolac (Plavac Mali) — they all demonstrated the splendour of colors from various vintages and grape varieties. But apart from the painting itself, there was also tasting, since the workshop took place on Martinje day. Enologists from Grand Village Estate winery brought young Cabernet Sauvignon, which was not only excellent in taste, but also produced a beautiful purple color for painting.

The workshop lasted 3 hours, and as time passed, Marina Novi was filled with positive impressions. Some participants were extremely pleased with their works, others concluded that drawing is not exactly their strong suit. Nevertheless, everyone had fun and left satisfied, hoping the workshop would be repeated.

“This type of workshop has been held for the first time in Novi Vinodolski, but given the attendance and the excitement, certainly not the last. No one knew exactly what to expect, and for a moment we all became artists and expressed ourselves through wine. I believe that vinorel is also a very good way to promote local wines and our region. It would be interesting if every winemaker had a collection of vinorel paintings created with his wines, which he could exhibit alongside his bottles. I’m sure that would be a true symbiosis of art, enology, and tourism,” concluded Tena Peričić, Director of the Tourist Board of Novi Vinodolski.