Day 30 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Diwali Light

I am getting into celebration mood now - Diwali - Festival of Lights!
This picture was taken at our home last year during Diwali and I tried it using Watercolor.

Diwali Light - 6 x 8 inches, Watercolor on Archies paper

It is so much fun to paint on archies paper - the right paints, brushes and paper make the activity so much fun!

Day 29 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Fine Horse

For the 29th day challenge, I asked my daughter - what should I paint next? "A Horse was the reply. Its not my typical subject and neither do I paint so often in watercolors. So here is my attempt:

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Fine Horse - 9 x 12 inches, watercolor on Archies paper

Day 28 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Rangoli Inspiration

Last weekend I attended a Rangoli Competition in our community and was inspired by Rangoli Art. This is a painting from life. I decided to use one of my pastel art sheet done few years ago as base. Then placed one of my very own made candle on top. Actually I started my artistic career by making such soy wax candles and it is my very first blog post. I sold these candles for Diwali celebrations. Still have a few left and just one set of 4 candles as sentimental value... Take a look on that candle post here.
I hope you like my setup and the painting too!!

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Rangoli Inspiration - 8 x 10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

For those who don't know about Rangoli - It is folk art from India. The purpose of Rangoli is decoration, and it is thought to bring good luck. Design depictions may also vary as they reflect traditions, folklore and practices that are unique to each area. It is traditionally done by women. Generally, this practice is showcased during occasions such as festivals, auspicious observances, marriage celebrations and other similar milestones and gatherings. more on wikepedia.

Day 27 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Dressed for Halloween - SOLD

This one is #5 on my Halloween series!! I am surprised at how quickly I finished this painting! Normally for such paintings, I draw a grid and then sketch exactly before I start. But for this one I sketched the outline freehand with oil paint itself. Then did the initial block in of all the darks and then the lights. Next for second stage, I painted local color. For third stage, I painted variations within each mass of color and for the final painting, few more variations and highlights. After all of these paintings just this month, I think I have definately made good progress!
For the remaining paintings in this challenge, I am just going to take up miscellaneous subjects and see what I can come up with.

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Dressed for Halloween - 7 x 5 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

Day 26 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Eyeball Smoothie

Aghh...!! I can't believe I painted this, the name is so disgusting...
On Halloween Parties, people get dressed up scary, and make very creative drinks, snacks etc. Kids go Trick or Treating and get sack full of candies.

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Eyeball Smoothie - 5 x 7 inches, Oil on canvas panel

Lake Mission Viejo Sailing Fun

Mission Viejo is our neighbouring community and year round there are lots of activities around the Lake. I painted this from a picture I took before the Jazz festival on the lake. One of the activities on that day was Paint the Lake competition. I painted this as my entry for the competition, but did not post on the blog, since I was posting one painting a day in this month.
Hope you like it!

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Lake Mission Viejo Sailing Fun - 20 x 16 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Day 25 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - WickedWitch - SOLD

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I don't keep Halloween Decor, so I painted this from a photograph on Wetcanvas library. If you are an artist, you must visit this online Artists Community -Wetcanvas. There is lots going on there, there are challenges for all mediums and critiques and great support from online fellow artists!
This is also a lot made up by me, reference image was just used for the sketch purpose. I would say this will fall into an abstract painting category, something different than I usually do. You can tell I had absolute fun with colors on this one!

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Wicked Witch - 5 x 7 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

 Below is photo I used for reference:

inspirational picture for Wicked Witch painting