Weekly Painting #7 - Ferry Plaza Farmers Market

Another painting for the weekend. It's raining like crazy here. I was getting spoiled with the warmer temps and it's back to rain now. Not complaining though. We need every inch we can get, to get out of this California drought. I was taking a quick walk during lunch last week in SFO and caught this scene when Farmers market was in full swing at the Ferry building. It was quite a sunny day with clear blue sky. I envisioned a painting right there with bright blue sky with the Ferry building and the cooler shadows from the palms. For a small sized painting, this took little longer than I expected but I am quite happy with how it turned out. Hope you like it :)

Weekly Painting #6 - Captain's Glow

I miss Yosemite and wanted to do a painting based on a photo that I took when we were there last winter. I have lost track of how many times I have painted El Capitan but I thoroughly enjoy it every single time. This rock is majestic and when the afternoon suns hits, the whole surrounding catches the glow of the granite. It is mesmerizing.

Here is the Captain's glow for you.



I also managed to get some iPhone shots of my work in progress.



It is a very quick painting, 1.5 hrs start to finish. Once I decide on a composition, I go alla prima and start with the paint outlines directly on canvas. I almost never sketch on canvas with pencil unless it needs geometric precision for subjects like buildings, bridges etc. I wish I had taken some more shots between the 3rd and 4th step but I got so engrossed in my painting and forgot :).

Weekly Painting #5 - Fire in the Sky

Last Thursday's sunset was spectacular. It seemed like something exploded and the whole sky was on fire. I was in a hurry to run some errands but couldn't resist getting out of the car to take some quick iPhone clicks. The colors lasted so long. There was a pink hue everywhere after sunset and it was magical. I couldn't resist painting it this week.

Here is a painting of the sunset as seen from my front yard.

Some more iPhone photos of Thursday's sunset.

Weekly Painting #4 - Dance of the Red Tulips

I have a pot of the red tulips in my garden and they make me smile every time I cross their side. They are withering away and I wanted to paint them before they are all gone. So here is this week's painting, Dance of the Red Tulips in acrylic.


And here is a collage of the tulips from my garden :)

Weekly Painting #3 - Lady in Red

I love it when I get caught in the rain in SFO downtown. Last week it was still raining when I got out of work. The buildings were lit up and the roads were lit up from the building/vehicle reflections. Every scene there called for a painting.

Not very often I run in to ladies with bright red raincoat and yellow umbrella. I was happily taking some reference shots and got super excited when a red MUNI came in to the scene :). I was dying to paint the visual and spent my Friday night exactly doing that. Here is the painting,


8 X 8 canvas, Acrylic painting.

Weekly Painting #2 - Pretty Face

Well, I cheated. I started this painting sometime during last spring. Didn't like the background and put it aside. I took it out this weekend to finish up the background and touch up the pansy. I love looking at pansy face - sometimes they look sad and happy, sometimes they look mad and grumpy.Such pretty faced flowers...



8 X 8 canvas, Acrylic painting

Weekly Painting #1 - Dos Daffodils

My resolution comes two months late. I got tired of seeing so many inspirations around me and not being able to find the time to paint. While I dream of painting daily, I am going for a more realistic goal - one painting every week starting from this month. I want to be able to start and finish my painting in one session. So, I will be painting small, no more than 11X14 and take no more than two hours. Very excited to experiment different artistic styles and develop my own :).

To kick start the weekly painting session, I grabbed the daffodils from my garden and put them in a pretty cobalt blue cup. Placed it on a white dry erase board next to my window. I loved looking at the shadow cast by the blue glass. So much that I tossed my original intention of painting lose and got sucked in to doing a realism with the shadows. Here is my painting with the subject.

And the painting. 8 X 8 canvas with acrylic, done under 2 hours.