Pot of Lilacs - Acrylic painting

A fun acrylic painting experiment to loosen up my painting style. Done on a 18 X 24 Canvas. Heavily textured and done impasto style with knife, softgel & acrylic paints. The background has little bit of gold & silver iridescent acrylic paint. Hope you like it...

Tulip Paintings and more

Some small works that are getting ready to go to the store/gallery that I display in Petaluma.

The tulips scenes were part of the spring scene from Filoli garden this year. I had a wonderful time photographing them and equally wonderful time painting them. Done impasto style on a 5 X 7 canvas panel.





And another small one based on a scene from Napa. Mostly done with brush and the foliage with knife on a 5 X7 canvas.

Ed Levin park morning - A Plein air study

My first Plein air study after almost 5 years..
One of my goal for this year is to paint on location as often as I can. And I realized last week it's more than eight months in to the year and I haven't done anything. Many of you know that I am a painter and photographer. Though I carry my painting kit and my camera, what get picked as a first choice is always the camera. Who wouldn't right ?. It's easy, quick, captures the moment I want and I can always comeback home with a great reference to paint later. Photography is a distraction to me when I want to paint plein air. So, I left my camera, tripod, lens, filters all back at home to avoid any distractions :-). I did carry my trusty iPhone just in case if I need any reference pictures..

When I arrived at Ed Levin park, it was still a bit hazy. The sun just started to peek out, clearing the clouds from the hill and it looked beautiful. Swallowing the regret about the lack of my camera, I took a quick picture with my iPhone before I began and set the timer for an hour. Here is the scene.

Started quickly painting the hills first as I wanted to capture those clouds on the hill while it was still there. Boy, it was a challenge. A western scrub jay kept me company while I painted. I think he ( she?) was more interested in eating the paint from my palette than socializing. Anyway after about 45 mins, I got to this stage. The scene in front of me has changed quite a bit from where I started. The clouds were gone, the hills were shining from the sun.

I felt the painting was flat and grabbed my knife to add some texture. Here is the finished painting in an hour.

I like it but not necessarily happy with it. I thought a smaller panel might help to finish the painting quicker but it was way too small to capture the beauty of the scene and I lost the reflections of the sky in the water. I feel it's not painted in my usual style - no punchy colors or textures. Perhaps more practice will help me get there. I'm motivated to do more plein air from this location but not on small panels on the lap. I'll be carring an easel and atleast an 8X10 panel next time.

Proud Peacock - Acrylic painting

Sharing my latest painting. A slight deviation from my usual medium but I had so much fun doing this. Lot of things going on in this painting - I used acrylic soft gel for gloss & texture and iridescent acrylic paint ( both gold & silver). This turned out to be one glittery peacock.



Done on a 18X24 canvas and painted mainly with palette knife. Here are some details on the head and the plumage.





I feel the photo here hasn't really captured the texture & the shine of the painting. I guess you got to touch and see it in the light to experience that. If you are in my town, I welcome you to do just that at the Milpitas library this Saturday. I'll be displaying this & another painting in the Golden Hills art association member show at the library. Will post the details on the show tomorrow..

Caladium heart

Sorry for the lack of updates here on the blog. Summer is the time for family & travel. Thats what I have been doing the last two months. There are some painting in the works but mostly I have been spending lot of time behind the camera but not the easel. Just wanted to share a tiny painting of a leaf that is closer to my heart. Not technically on a canvas but any painting counts as an entry here, right ?

Caladiums are colorful tropical foliage with heart shaped leaf and magenta veins & white dots. You don't need any flowers to brighten up your garden, just a pot of caladium will accomplish that. While growing up, I was crazy about them ( still am). I always wanted to paint it someday.

Instead of canvas I turned to cold porcelain a.K.a air dry clay to paint them. Borrowed some clay from my daughter to construct the leaf. This kind of clay becomes super light weight when dry, almost like a paper. I then painted the leaf with acrylic paint and sealed it with varnish. While I was at it, I made a nice jewellery set for myself :-). Here it is and hope you like it..



In case you are wondering about the caladium plant, this is how it looks.