Merry Christmas !!

Here is a little something to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season.

 

I combined two of my favorite things, snow globe and a puppy :). And before you pop the question. Nope, it's not Buddy. The snow globe was a gift to my daughter last year because the dog inside resembled Buddy so much. Here is a collage of Santa Buddy and the snow globe :)

 

Poinsettia

It's almost Christmas, I see Poinsettia's everywhere.And that's what went on canvas over the weekend.
6X8 clay board panel with Acrylic.

Holiday Show @ Art Ark Gallery

Spent my afternoon at Art Ark gallery getting ready of the holiday show. It was great to see some amazing work from fellow artists. Don't forget, opening reception this coming Friday Nov 7th and closing reception on Dec 5th 6-9 pm. Below is my side of the wall :)

And here is the flyer for the show..

Summer Zinnias

Taking care of some unfinished business this week. Started on these zinnias last summer and promptly misplaced the canvas during our move. Was happy to find it safe and snug inside the canvas box. I dedicated this weekend to finish the painting. Now if I can only find the groove to finish the Venice painting that I started 4 years ago :).

Acrylic on 12 X 12 canvas

Christmas Carousel

Each year during holiday season, San Jose downtown is transformed into a holiday fantasy with Christmas decorations, carnival rides and glittering lights. Like every resident of Bay area, we are regulars at the event. I have a hard time focusing on one thing there. But the carousel always gets me - happy kids riding the horses without a care, parents waving & clicking their camera or just enjoying their short break from their kids. It's one of those "I wish I was a kid moment" for me. And here is my attempt to bring out my inner-child, the Christmas Carousel..

Acrylic on 12 X 12 canvas. And here is the collage of WIP

You are invited - Reflections Now & Then, Milpitas 60th Anniversary

Hop over to the Milpitas library to see artwork depicting "Milpitas now and then" that is on display from Sep 28th to Oct 25th. Artist reception is on Saturday, Oct 18th, 2-4 pm. Good company & food, great music.. Come say hi if you happen to be there.

Milpitas Paintings

Helloo.. Yes, I am alive and well. Sorry for going MIA the last couple of months from the blog. Competing priorities in life, but I have been painting steadily. Just couldn't find time to take proper photos and share it here. Wanted to share with you few paintings that I have done to celebrate my little city Milpitas turning 60 years. Golden Hills Art association ( that I am part of) along with Milpitas camera club are displaying their artwork at Milpitas library until October 25th.

Milpitas Movie Night - Acrylic on 12 X 12 canvas

Alviso Marnia - Acrylic on 8 X 8 canvas

Smithwood St. Spring - Acrylic on 8 X 8 canvas

Spring Valley Meadows - Acrylic on 8 X 8 canvas

Ed Levin Reflections - Acrylic on 16 X 20 canvas

Weekly Painting #15 - Pudding Creek Afternoon

We went to Fort Bragg/Mendocino over the Memorial day weekend. I attempted to catch up on some Plein air sketching while the kids were playing at the Pudding creek beach. Saw this mom and toddler wading the water. The afternoon sun was lit up the cliffs & people and I couldn't resist painting the scene. I quickly sketched the composition and started on the painting but couldn't finish it on location. Continued the painting at the hotel and finally took a photo today. Here is the sketch and some scenes from the location.

Weekly Painting #14 - Mackerricher Beach Plein Air

Plein air Gouache sketch from last weekend at Mackerricher beach, Fort Bragg, CA. It was a perfect day to sit on the cliff and work on my sketch. I was contemplating a different location and a different composition. But with a short time in hand, I had to settle for this view closer to the parking lot. It was a relatively quick sketch, completed in about an hour.

Weekly Painting #13 - Cuppa Finch

Cuppa Finch, anyone ? I saw a teacup bird feeder project from Pinterest a while ago and built it last month. Guess who loves it? The orange house finches, of course. The first time I saw them , I ran inside the house to grab the camera and got some shots. They were pretty shy initially but now don't mind me hanging out along with them in the garden. I crack up every time I see a finch sitting inside the cup on the food and eating the food. So not one, but two finch paintings for this week :)



Here is another painting of my houseguest. Done on a 6X6 ampersand clay board.


Here are some pictures of finches on the teacup :)

Weekly Painting #12 - Cracked Egg

Cracked open an egg for painting last week. I knew I would get caught up in this one but couldn't resist. The position of the broken eggshells changed from how I laid out on the blue plate and I couldn't find my reference photo. Boy, it was rough !! Gone was my resolution of keeping the painting time under two hours. While the majority of the work was done last week, I found myself going back to it couple of times. I think I am done ( for now :) ).

Weekly Painting #11 - Garden Center Cactus

During one of my many runs to garden center this spring, came across this cute cactus with a flower. It's one of those tiny pots with the clear plastic handle. It looked as if the little garden center cactus was having it's own private party with all the party streamers :).

Weekly Painting #10 - Blue Bucket Ranunculus

By now, you all might have gathered that I love Thursdays, Ferry building Farmers market and Thomas Farms :). I stopped there last Thursday again. I have so many photos of different flower bunches every season in those blue buckets. I love looking at them. Here is a painting of blue bucket ranunculus.

I even picked up a small bunch for home. It is now sitting in my kitchen and taunting me to paint them.

Weekly Painting #9 - Garden Rose

Planted bunch of tree roses in my garden this week. Hauling them from the garden center, digging a giant hole and planting them was exhausting. Painting a broken branch with the pretty bloom, worth every minute.

Weekly Painting #8 - Spring Chickens

Ain't no spring chicken, but I sure enjoyed painting them :).
I like it when dilemma in my life revolves around painting egg or chicken. Of course, chicken won. It's a mix of couple of reference photos but I have been thinking about painting these little chicks for months. Stay tuned for an egg painting some time in the coming weeks.

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.

Backyard Blooms - Plein air Gouache sketch

We have recently moved to a house with a real backyard and I find myself spending more time gardening than painting these days. Two weeks ago while the east coast was buried in snow, the almond tree in our backyard was in full bloom. The flowers don't last long, one strong wind/rain they carpet the ground. Started as a plein air sketch and finished up inside. Here are some pictures of the tree and my sketch :).

And here is a close up. Done on a 8X10 watercolor sketch pad with Gouache paint.