A Beautiful Evening On the Beach - SOLD

Living in Southern California is a privilege, even in winters we have beautiful evenings on the beach! Here is an attempt to capture one such beautiful evening. Hope you like it as much as I enjoyed painting it!
I wish you the best of Holiday Season and a wonderful New Year!

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A Beautiful Evening On the Beach - 9 x 12 inches, Oil on canvas Panel

SOLD

Fun On the Beach

I finally completed this diptych painting. It took me time to get into the flow after couple months "dead stop" on painting.... So I am really happy that I have this one behind me.

I wanted to show tons of people on the beach - just like a typical day on Chowpati beach in Mumbai. But it was my first attempt putting in many people, so I am happy with the results.



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Fun On the Beach - 2 Canvas panels, each 8 x 10 inches, Oil Painting

 As you can see below each part is a separate independant painting:

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Fun On the Beach - I, 8 x 10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel





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Fun On the Beach - II, 8 x 10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

On My Easel - Work in Progress Painting...

I am coming back to painting after a couple months break! Here's what I have on my easel right now. This is part 1 of a "diptych" i.e A painting done in two, individual panels with each part being complete in itself but when presented together forming a larger, fully integrated work. Part 1 is almost complete: 

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8 x 10 inches oil on canvas

Part 2 still needs some work but I will post it here for preview:

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each canvas panel is 8 x 10 inches

Sunset Walk on the Beach

I love the colors at sunset. It was getting cold, but we waited until we saw spectacular colors in the sky. Then within couple minutes all those colors almost faded out. Oops... I realized that I did not take a single picture! We did manage to walk for a little while in this tranquil atmosphere. It was fun! 

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Sunset Walk on the Beach - 8 x 10 inches, Oil on Canval Panel

A Paradise of Coconut Palms - from Goa, India

This painting is done from my own collection of photos. It took me down the memory lane. Fun times! - my Husband and I went on a trip to Goa. On the way to one of the beaches, we passed this paradise of Coconut Palms. Needless to mention, we stopped there to take a picture! :)

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A Paradise of Coconut Palms - 11 x 14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Hope you like it! Your comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

A Lonely Man on the Beach

I am sure this person felt better after walking to the beach, feeling that fresh air from the ocean and inspired by the vastness of the ocean!

This one is painted using palette knife also.

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A Lonely Man on the Beach - 11 x 14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

The Playful Prints - SOLD

We go to the beach, for us the Pacific Ocean is the closest. But almost all the year round the water is very very cold - ice cold. Even the idea of dipping the feet in the waves gives a very cold feeling. But still looking at the magnificent ocean, the rythmic sound of waves, the fresh open breeze... how can one come back without experiencing the waters - at least by getting the feet wet in that chilly waters of the ocean !? This is the moment I wanted to capture in my painting... waiting for the first wave to hit on your feet, but at the same time moving a bit backwards as the wave is approaching. There is an excitement in that freezing cold feeling and once the first wave hits, it becomes a play to move forward in the sand as the wave leaves... and then move backwards as the wave comes again. Look down at your feet, and there is a pattern of your own footprints - very interesting.

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The Playful Prints - 11 x 14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

Little Gymnast On the Beach

It was sunset time, we reached Newport Beach. It was bit chilly weather in November and so very few people on the beach. Someone must have played in the sand before us, so there was already a rectangular boundary drawn. My daughter quickly made it "her" spot to show off her Gymnastic skills!

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Little Gymnast On the Beach - 16x20 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Life is Wonderful

Looking at this fresh rose bud, I remember the quote by Albert Einstein:
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

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Life is Wonderful - 8x10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel 

Fiery Sunset on the Pacific

The sunset came on the Pacific with kind of a fire in the sky. Interestingly it lasted for barely a few minutes and the sky was dark. I felt lucky to take a picture and then paint at home at my leisure. One day I hope to do plein air i.e painting live outdoors.

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Fiery Sunset on the Pacific - 9x12 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Ducks at Sunset - SOLD

Friends, here's another one from few weeks ago. Again the photo really doesn't do justice, the actual painting is much more bright. This one was painted as a wedding gift and absolutely fun to paint!

Ducks at Sunset - 16x20 inches, oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD - Commissioned painting for wedding

Wedding Unity Candle Set

Something different... I made this Unity Candle Set a few weeks ago.

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Wedding Unity Candle Set

The Unity Candle Ceremony is a relatively newer custom in weddings in the United States. It symbolizes the union of two families - the Bride's and the Groom's families. The above is a slightly different version, but most times there are 3 candles - 2 taper candles (also called as starter candles) and one central large candle. During the ceremony, one representative from each family lights the taper candle. Then the Bride and the Groom light the central large candle together using the 2 taper candles, symbolizing the union of 2 families.

In my set, I used 2 large pillar candles ( 3 inches diameter and 6 inches height). Painted the candles using Acrylic paints and a protective coating overall on the candle. Rest is just putting it together using decorative maretials. Hope you liked it.

The Parrot Fish

This is an underwater beauty - the Parrot Fish! I wish one day I could see such sea life in person. But this one is painted from a picture that I got in wetcanvas reference library.

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The Parrot Fish - 16x20 inches, oil on Canvas Panel

About Parrot Fish from seaworld.org:
Parrotfish have thick, heavy bodies and large scales. They are found in tropical waters throughout the world and appear in a wide variety of colors, which may change depending on their sex, status, or maturity.

Dazzling Agave (pronounced as uh-gah-vay)

Now here's my new experiment with colors! I took a simple green succulent and wanted to make it look abstract. Hope you like my fantasy -  

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Dazzling Agave - 12x16 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

I tried to take the best picture here, but nowadays I feel its a challenge to take a picture of my painting. In person, the painting looks a bit different since one can see the depth of color and its variations. The camera doesn't really capture all of it.

About Agave: These kind of succulents are found in abundance in southern and western United States. It was considered sacred plant by Ancient Mexicans. It was a belief that the liquid from this plant purified the body and soul.

I thought this will be interesting for you all to know that the juices from the agave after fermenting, leads to the drink called tequila.

The District in Moonlight - SOLD

Here’s my second entry for the “Scenes of Tustin” juried show. This is a marketplace in Tustin called – The District Tustin Legacy. The beauty of this place is really at night, there is beautiful lighting with different colors.

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The District in Moonlight - 11x14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

My inspirational photo - as you can see I changed around things in my painting, let me know if you like it!

Lastly, I would like to say the taking the photo of the painting was very challenging, I did my best. But I still feel painting looks better than the photo of the painting. Let me know if you have any tips to take pictures of paintings.

Keep Tustin Clean

This is the first out of the 2 paintings that I have prepared for the Tustin Art League’s juried show. The theme for this year’s show is “Scenes of Tustin”.
I had hard time taking photo of the painting, so I decided to post 3 pictures in different lighting:
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Keep Tustin Clean - 16x20 inches,

Oil on Canvas Panel

 





 



Keep Tustin Clean - 16x20 inches,
Oil on Canvas Panel

Keep Tustin Clean - 16x20 inches,

Oil on Canvas Panel



My inspiration for this painting:

When I came to know of this show, I decided to drive around the part of Tustin that I was most familiar with, to take some pictures. The Tustin Marketplace and the Golf course was on my mind. In the midst of that bright and sunny afternoon, I drove around that area and told my daughter to click pictures from the car. As we were going on the Tustin Ranch Road and passing through the Irvine Blvd, I spotted a Trash Can and some trees behind in the corner, something about that scene appealed to me. I told my daughter to quickly take picture. And that was it… I had to use this one as inspiration for my painting.

For the composition, I really had only 2 things on my mind…

One – the rule of 3 - things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more magically mystical. Hence I chose to paint only 3 trees in my painting.

Two – the viewers eye somehow should stay within the painting, I think the Trash Can on one side and the partial wall on the other side serves this purpose.

I will be happy to hear your comments and suggestions.

White Cactus Bloom - SOLD

Cactus plants are to be found all around in the wilderness trail behind my backyard. I am facinated by the colorful blooms on these plants. The most common ones on our trail are currently bearing fruit - an oblong red kind of fruit. One day I am going to paint that too... But this one I painted from a photo reference on Wetcanvas forum (thanks to whoever posted the beautiful pictures!).
I painted this using the palette knife and using the new techniques I learnt during the January Workshop (see earlier blog post). I have the pictures of stages 1 and 2 below. I couldn't take a picture of stage 3 because it progressed so slowly, and somehow it looked so ugly to me that I was about to quit doing this painting. But filnally! I am so happy to be done with this. Hope you like it!


White Cactus Bloom - 11x14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

Following are pictures of Stages 1 and 2. By the end of stage 2 as I progressed further, my flower was turning colorful. I wondered, is this thing ever going to turn out white... !?  :) :)

White Cactus Bloom - Stage 1

White Cactus Bloom - Stage 2

Here's the inspirational picture I used for this painting. As you can see I have changed things around in my painting, specially the background.

White Cactus bloom - reference from Wetcanvas forum

From the Color Intensive Workshop in January 2011

Here I am happy to post my studies from the Susan Sarback's Color Intensive Workshop in Jan 21st to 27th. These were some exercises I completed in "full color seeing".

First - Study of a Red block placed under light:

Stage 2 - Red Block Study

Second - This is a Study of an Orange


Orange Set up




Orange Stage 1

 

Orange Stage 4



Third - Study of an Apple


Apple - Stage 2



Apple - Stage 4

Here are my finished Orange and Apple:

Finished Orange and Apple

Fourth - Study of Bottles and a Pear:

Bottles and a Pear Set up

Bottles and a Pear Stage 1

Bottles and a Pear - Stage 4 - Finished Painting

Fifth - Study of Flower in a Vase:

Flower in a Vase - Stage 2

Marsh at Sunset - Palette knife study

This is another simple landscape demo from Susan Sarback's book - "Capturing Radiant Light & Color in Oils and Pastels". It is all done using palette knife - new technique that I wanted to learn... I am enjoyong the experience using the palette knife because I don't have to worry about cleaning the brush while working with different colors during the painting session. Just wipe the knife with tissue and ... ready to go for the next color. In the demo, the painting is done is 4 stages and I decided to take pictures of each stage (except I somehow missed taking picture of my stage 3).
As the title suggests, this is a painting of Marsh at Sunset. The goal in this painting was to study the effect of light in the atmosphere using this simple composition. So here is stage 4 - which is the final painting.
( scroll down for stages 1 & 2 )

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Marsh at Sunset - 8 x 10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel


Stage 1 is about simplifying the landscape into different masses using cool and wam colors as is done below. Cool colors are used for shadows and warm colors for areas with sunlight. Also typically local is not used in this stage.

Marsh at Sunset - Stage 1

Stage 2 is about refining the color masses, example greens are added to the bushes in the right corner and in the central marsh area as required. Cool color is added to water etc.

Marsh at Sunset - Stage 2

Stage 3 - Forgot to take a picture, but this stage is used to add further color variatons to bring about depth in the painting. Stages 1 and 2 were relatively simple. But I found Stage 3 to be rather fuzzy... there is lot of trial and error in this stage and yet a feeling of incompleteness in the painting.

Stage 4 - Is the final painting - shown as the first picture. This is a real fuzzy stage. I kept changing the colors back and forth, eg: for water - kept expermenting with different shades of blues, purples and pinks and finally white for highlights. There is no set pattern to work with colors - I kept changing. (this is where I found knife very useful). I also messed around a lot in the central marsh area with yellows and oranges and greens. And finally, I called the painitng as finished after visually inspecting from far, near, with full light, with medium light etc..

Hope you all like it and yes, critiques and comments are always welcome.

A Bowl and Two Vases

A very Happy New Year to all - my first post of the year 2011!

This is a study that I followed from the book - "Capturing Radiant Light & Color in Oils and Pastels" - by artist Susan Sarback.

Here are few things that I learnt from this study:

1) First time used the Palette Knife to paint - it felt so awkward at first to paint... getting used to it slowly.

2) How to paint the effects of light on shadows of different objects - bowl here is an opaque object, the blue Vase is transparent object and the orange Vase is translucent object.

Notice that the green bowl being an opaque object, its shadow is darker towards its base and becomes lighter at the other end. The orange Vase is translucent, so typically shadows of such objects are light towards the base and grow darker towards the ends. The blue Vase is transparent, see how its shadow dithers in no specific pattern as seen below.

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8 x 10 inches, Oil on Canves Panel

I hope to do couple more studies from this book. The next in turn is a simple landscape study... stay tuned!

As always, Critiques and Comments are always welcome.