Wildflower fields

Just realized that this is my first blog post for this year :-). Heres to a great 2011 and hope everyone's year started out great.

Below are my latest paintings that combines two of my favorite subjects - landscapes & florals. These are more of a spontaneous and quick study based on magazine clippings that I kept with me. I often do these small, quick-type paintings between complicated subjects ( and when I am stressed ;-)).. I am quite happy with how both of these paintings turned out. I had so much fun doing these and might do both of these on bigger canvas at a later time.

Both are done on 8 X10 canvas panel with water mixable oil.





Hope you like them !!

Snow Flakes

Howdy all ! Hope you are enjoying your holiday season.. Been a bit busy the past months travelling/photographing and haven't been able to post in the blog.

This is a painting that I have been working on for quite sometime and I am ready to call it finished. You guys know I paint mainly landscapes, right ? Portraits and figures have always been a challenge for me. I did this painting mainly to get out of my comfort zone.

I have always enjoyed watching Nutcracker ballet during the holiday season and the snowflakes are my fav part in the whole show. This is an adaptation of a post card that I had and just in time for the holidays :-)..

Done on a 18X24 canvas with water mixable oil.

Hope you like it..




One more close up..

Monalisa Revisited - Oil painting

Being a landscape painter, I have always had an aversion for portrait painting for some reason. To help me overcome that and appreciate portraits more, I did this painting as part of my art enrichment class. Not that I am not a fan of Italian renaissance paintings, I never really cared for Da Vinci or Monalisa until my mentor picked it for me to paint.

Here is my version of Monalisa - done on a 16 X 20 Canvas, with water mixable oil.



More than Mona Lisa what drew me to the painting was the rocky, dream-like background that gave an illusion of surreal atmosphere. The challenging part for me in this whole painting is her hands - the play with the lights & shadows and just the suggestion of nails. And then there was the struggle to get her to do that faint smile and not make her look so serious.

Here is the close up of her face.



Though this hasn't convinced me to take up portraits, the main take away for me from this whole experience is to appreciate the expression & feeling that the artist is trying to convey. Needless to say I did a whole lot of appreciating when I went to the "Birth of Impressionism" exhibition @ Deyoung Museum here in SFO last week. I spent quite a lot of time looking & studying the portraits which is a big deal for me :-).

Dana Meadows and Mammoth Peak - Yosemite Painting

I cannot get enough of this place. We drove up to Tuolumne during the long weekend and it was beautiful. Missed my easel & canvas but had my camera. Here is my new painting based on a reference shot that I took during the trip.

Done on a 11 X 14 Canvas with WMO. The mountain and some of the trees in the meadow are done impasto style with knife. Sky and the clouds are done with brush. This is the first painting in the high country series that I intend to work on this summer.

Here is the painting,


Here is the reference photo,

Merced river cascade - Painting with WIP

Time for more rocks and water. I did this WIP based on the reference picture that I took during my Yosemite trip. Sorry for the poor quality of the WIP photos - been working on this at night after work and wanted to document the progress. Done on a 11 X14 canvas with water mixable oils. Hope you like it.

Here is the reference picture


Stage 1 : Underpainting with two acrylic colors - Pyroline Orange & Diox purple



Stage 2: Started on Water Soluble oil - Worked on Rocks & Trees



Stage 3 : Here is the finished paitning



More details on the rocks and water