Point Lobos - Rocks and Surf painting

Haven't had much time to paint this week. But managed to finish this one for my Pacific coast series. This is based on a reference shot that I took along the north shore trail close to Whalers Cove. I was fascinated by the pounding surf against the rugged cove and dying to paint it ever since I took the shot.

Done on a 8 X 10 Canvas with Water mixable oil.


Here are the details..


The rocks were done with a combination of brush & knife. I was wondering how to tackle the surf. And my daughter came home from school with weird looking tiny pieces of color sponges that she found on the play ground. I borrowed it from her and it worked perfectly ;-).

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 :-).

Pacific Coast Series - Mendocino Paintings

I love painting water in any form and particulary drawn to the pacific coast. I have accumulated tons and tons of reference shots from my numerous trips all the way from the northern to southern California coast. There is no way I will be able to finish painting them all in my lifetime but I am attempting to make a small series of the coast that I adore.

Trying to do this in a smaller size canvas panels as studies and may do couple of bigger size paintings later. You will also see that I am slightly moving away from my usual style of painting with details to more of a painterly approach in these studies. I am training my eyes to see the shapes, color values and capture the mood rather than working on the details :-).

First and second in the series are from the reference shots that I took along the Mendocino coast - each painting took about an hour. Hope you like it.

Enroute to Elk - 8 X 10 Canvas panel, Water Soluble Oil


Along the Mendocino Coast - 8 X 10 Canvas panel, Water Soluble Oil

Mount Shasta Lavender Farm

Done on a 8 X 10 canvas panel with water mixable oil.

Based on a reference shot taken during my recent road trip to Mt.Shasta. The smell was divine and scenerey was breath taking.

I tried to keep my style loose for this painting. Didn't want to get bogged down by the details like I usually do but focused on the shapes, shadows and color. This whole painting was done in less than an hour.