Coconut Halves

Here is the demo painting I completed on the day of Ganapati Festival in LA. It took me 2 hours to paint this, while I was painting there were people watching as they were passing by, few stopped to talk. But there was a very curious little girl who stopped with her Dad and brother and watched for sometime. Eventually she asked me questions and it was fun chatting with them during the demo.

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Coconut Halves - 8 x 10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_15_045

Available - click here

Perfect Coconut Split

This painting was created as a practice for doing Live Demonstration during the Ganesh Festival in Los Angeles. A week prior to the actual demo, I set up this still life in my back yard. It was fun to paint, standing in the shade. I chose to paint coconut because that is what I had on hand for preparing the sweet offering "modak" - a favorite of Ganesha.

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Perfect Coconut Split - 8 x 10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_15_044

Available Click Here

Here is what I made after doing the painting:
Modak: my favorite too and I make them only once a year during this festival time.

Modak

Modak Offering for Ganesha

Healthy Choices - SOLD

This is a custom painting based on 30 paintings in 30 days challenge I did in January. This time, I set up the still life outdoors in my front yard, keeping the table in full mid afternoon sun. Even though I stood in the shade and painted, it became very hot. Since there are more objects in the painting, it was taking me long to paint. After about 3 hours, I was not approx close to half done. But the light had changed, the shadow had changed a lot and I was getting tired. So brought everything inside and took rest. The next day I decided to complete the painting in my studio from the reference picture. Its drying on my shelf now and will be on its way to India by end of this month!!

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Healthy Choices - 14 x 11 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

Blue Wild Flower - SOLD

Today I was back in the mood of doing small painting and adding to my itty bitty collection. I checked before I started painting and did not have a blue flower. So here it is:

Blue Wild Flower - 3 x 3 inches, Oil on Canvas

SOLD

It is painted on wrapped canvas and does not need framing. It can be kept on a small easel or even used as Christmas ornament.

Below are others in this series:

Tulip Pink or Purple

Pansy

Wild Strawberry Bloom

Autumn Story

Once upon a time lived a wonderful couple - Pumpkin Prince and Pumpkin Princess of the Land of Pumpkins. They were very kind to the pumpkin people in their Land. They took great care of their Land of Pumpkins. It was a lot of responsibility and they handled it very well. As fancy as it sounded to be called Prince and Princess, among all their royal  chores.., it got a bit challenging for them. So they decided to go on a date to rejuvenate themselves. The Pumpkin Prince loved reading books and the Princess loved to listen. What could be a better place than a perfect garden on the outskirts of their Pumpkin land!? They found this perfect spot in the garden to happily spend time together, doing their favorite thing.

I modified this painting, the background greens to give it more depth, do you like this one better?

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The original one is below if anyone would like to see the difference:

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Autumn Story - 11 x 14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Does anyone want to continue the story to the end? Please do write in your comments..

Lighthouse at Sunset

I started this painting on DAY 30th of last month's challenge and finished it now. It is the last picture on my collage. This is bigger in size than all the other paintings I did in one day.
The painting was done with Winsor and Newton Water mixable Oils and a very basic palette i.e Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow, Pthalo Green, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Yellow Ocre and Titanium White.
Also there is a strong glare on left side water, I will post a better picture after I click more.

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Lighthouse at Sunset - 12 x 16 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

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

Day 23 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Laughing Ghost

Excited that it is the beginning of my Halloween special series...
For the first one, I had a lighted laughing Ghost at home, so the setup was easy, I just turned its light on and kept it in darkness. Then made up the spider and spiderweb!

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Laughing Ghost - 8 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Ya ya.. I am missing a painting from yesterday, in fact my total backlog is 2 paintings as of now, But I am confident that I can make up for these by the end of 30 days challenge. It was a really good break yesterday, I took some good rest and had fun with my long time friend who visited me from San Jose!

Day 21 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Feeling Loved Seashell

I placed this shell in my setup and thought that this is fifth one in the series and the last shell I have. What should I name it !? With these thoughts in my mind, I started to sketch it on my notebook. When the sketch was complete, I noticed a small heart shape in the center - YES! I found the name - Feeling Loved Seashell! And of course, I made up the heart shape colorful so that it shows. In the original shell the shape exists but is not pink as in my painting - used my artistic license to change objects here!
Hope you enjoy it!

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Feeling Loved Seashell - 8 x 8 inches, Oil on canvas panel

Day 20 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Feeling Grateful Seashell

I am having so much fun with this sea shell series. After the fact, I think I picked up a bit tedius subject. It took me longer for each of the shell series paintings and got behind.. As I painted, it felt like each shell has its own personality and that is how I arrived at the title. It feels like this shell is so very grateful for its beauty and glow. I looks majestic!

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Feeling Grateful Seashell - 8 x 8 inches, Oil on canvas panel

Day 19 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Feeling Abundant Seashell

Feels like this shell is sitting there with wide open arms, as if it is open and receptive to all the good and abundance in the Universe!

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Feeling Abundant Seashell - 8 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

 STAGE 1: Putting down the first color notes. Usually I tend to use Purple for the darkest dark, but here I used Green instead to try out how it works.

Feeling Abundant Seashell - STAGE 1

 STAGE 2: Working with actual color of the object

Feeling Abundant Seashell - STAGE 2

STAGE 3: is about developing color variation within each area. But I forgot to take picture of this.

Day 18 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Feeling Blessed Seashell

As promised - here is my #2 shell - Feeling Blessed, first for having this shell in my collection and second for being able to paint it! I am throughly enjoying these painting days!

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Feeling Blessed Seashell - 6 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

 Setup picture - now that I look at it together, I think I took my setup picture in a different angle. Anyways.. you get the idea:

Day 17 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Feeling Happy Seashell

I am posting for 17th day, but missing one painting from yesterday - I had a glitch :)) I will squeeze in one painting for 16th day before this challenge ends to make up for it!
But today I could not resist picking up this happy looking sea shell for my set up. Just look at it, doesn't it appear smiling !? (the photo came out blurry, I will replace with a better one later)

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Feeling Happy Seashell - 6 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

 Below is my setup picture and how I got started with this painting:

Feeling Happy Seashell Stage 1

Feeling Happy Seashell - my setup

Day 15 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Turkey Enjoying Pumpkin Patch

I set up a still life with Turkey. But while I was sketching the Turkey, I added few pumpkins and made up the painting. I could not take a picture in good lighting, so I will post what I got today and then put the new picture after I get a good one. Again this one can be written up as a story!

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Turkey Enjoying Pumpkin Patch - 6 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Day 13 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Pumpkin Candle

Last night I looked for fall decorations in my boxes and found few small things. This Pumpkin Candle has been with me for few years, I use it for decoration but now that I have painted this candle, I think I should use it this fall! 

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Pumpkin Candle - 6 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Setup for Pumpkin Candle

Day 12 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Dried and Fallen

This dried leaf is from my backyard and such leaves have started falling just about last 3-4 days. It is something new and our puppy thinks they are treats of what! She goes crazy over these and its hard for us not to let her eat those...

After doing yesterday's colorful fall leaves, I thought it would be a nice contrast to do a dried leaf!

Dried and Fallen - 5 x 7 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel