Spirit of Holidays - Poinsettia

Feeling Red... is all I can say, this turned out pretty interesting. I am considering to do a larger version of this painting eventually. I finished this in about 3 days on and off doing demo in my booth at Sawdust Art Festival, Winter fantasy 2017. I one point I was so much engrossed painting this that a lady had to call me few times to ask me pricing on my Greeting cards... Not a good situation while at the booth, but otherwise I was pretty watchful of people stopping by and was talking to them. Sometimes getting up and showing them rest of my work. Many people stopped by just to see the process and to ask questions. Below are some more pictures with me doing the painting as well.

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Spirit of Holidays - Poinsettia, 6x6 inches, Watercolor on 300lbs Coldpress Arches paper

Code# PK_17_019 

Available - contact me - preranap@hotmail.com

Booth demo at Sawdust Festival Winter Fantasy 2017

My Booth at Sawdust Festival Winter Fantasy 2017

Beautiful Evening On The Beach 2017 - SOLD

It is interesting how this painting came about... As I was talking with a customer in my booth in Sawdust Art Festival, I got a call which I didn't pick up (since I wanted to attend to people in my booth). I later called back and found out that it was call from Lisa (not giving out the real name). I didn't recognize her but she mentioned she had visited me in Newport beach art fair. She had really liked one of my paintings but it was sold !! Her request was to make another one like it. I looked up which painting she meant, and was really surprised... I had painted in long back. I wasn't sure if I could do a similar one since lately I have been working on my florals.
Anyways I took a plunge and thought to give it a try at least. And that's how this painting came about. I did slight modification on Lisa's request and I was so happy she liked it.
She right away bought this painting and another one too with Christmas theme.
Having quite fun it this season, I think I should revisit my earlier themes I had painted.

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Beautiful Evening On The Beach 2017, 9 x 12 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_17_018
SOLD

For more available paintings, visit my etsy store HERE.

Pink Waterlily Reflections - SOLD

Now this project had been on my list since very long... Its a small 6x6 inches, but could not start it...
Nowadays every weekend I am on my booth in Sawdust Art Festival. And one of the requirement is to either do demo in the both OR volunteer to teach an art class OR a mix of both. So I am teaching 1 watercolor class every weekend and rest of the time doing demo in my booth.
And guess what... for the demo in my booth, I picked this waterlily back again which was already sketched long back and waiting to be painted!!
I worked 3 days on and off to finish this painting between talking to the people coming in the booth and having a chat with my neighbor booth friends!!
Now 3 more weekends left for the Sawdust to finish, so I can take up couple more small projects I think..

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Pink Waterlily Reflections, 6x6 inches, Watercolor on 140 lbs Arches paper

Code# PK_17_017
SOLD

More paintings and Fine art prints are available here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/preranap

Cacti Sundance - SOLD

This painting is from a photo that I clicked at Laguna Beach. It was afternoon sun and the light and shadow patterns were so interesting that I could not resist painting it.
However just as I was drawing it on paper, I realized this one is going to take me long to complete. Towards the end I was running out of patience, it felt like a never ending painting. I could not start a new one until I finished this one.
It feels a great relief and accomplishment to get this one behind me.
I must admit that I fall in love with every painting I finish and this one is really very special for me.

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Cacti Sundance, 22x30 inches, Watercolor on Arches Paper

Code# PK_17_016

SOLD

Fine art prints available Click HERE

My First Sculpture - Ganesha

In my trip to India, I was looking to spend a weekend with plein air artists. Looking or a group, I stumbled upon a clay sculpting workshop by Milind Marathe in Pune. It was perfect timing, I always wanted to make my own Ganapati during the Ganesh Chaturthi. My wish came true and I was able to learn, below is the picture of my sculpture. It is made from air dry clay and using very basic sculpting tools. No mold used here, all the shapes made by hand!
Next year for sure I will be making my own Ganesha to see how it comes out...
July 29th-30th Ganesha Sculpting workshop

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Ganesha, air dry clay, 8 inches approx

Passionate Red Lilies

Every evening I take my dog for a walk and on the way I see several Daylilies - all different colors. Everytime I see a patch of these flowers, I stop by and take pictures. I have pictures of yellow, dark red (almost maroon color) and these daylilies. Also there are smaller varieties of these colors that look like colorful stars shining among the greens. So of course I needed to paint from one of my pictures!!

"Earth laughs in flowers." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Passionate Red Lilies, 11 x 15 inches, Watercolor on 300 lbs Coldpress Arches paper.

Code# PK_17_015
Available - Contact preranap@hotmail.com

Pink Fulfillment

Looking at my paintings from this year, it feels like I am still in my pink mood :)
Well this one for sure made me feel fulfilled with shades of pink once again!!
Looking at my cropped and adjusted reference picture, the composition seemed perfect for the painting.  But now looking at it, I think I should treat the far left side rose even more muted. So even though I signed it, I might go over it again a bit. What do you think?

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Pink Fulfillment, 15x22 inches, Watercolor on 300 lbs coldpress Arches paper

Code# PK_17_014

Available - contact preranap@hotmail.com

Ready to Pick Guava

Guava is one of my favorite fruit. Back in childhood I spent many hours climbing on guava tree and sitting on the tree until I felt full with the Guavas. This painting brings back those memories...
This is painted from a picture I took of a ripe Guava from my backyard tree. In So Cal its a blessing to have Guava tree at home. The picture was taken couple years ago and finally I took it up for painting it.
I started painting this as part of the Artist Demonstration in Chemer's gallery on May 6th and finished it after coming back home.
I have been doing more watercolors lately so definitely felt good getting back to oil to change it up.

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Ready to Pick Guava, 8x10 inches, Oil on canvas panel

Code# PK_17_013
Available - Click Here

Orchid Radiance

Goodness, I had decided that I will post at least 4 paintings in a month... but seems like the month of April just disappeared in thin air :) plus I also took a spring break and attended my daughters junior recital all the way cross country to almost north east! Every proud of her and she did such a good job, made every moment worth attending.
Well, it was busy and this Orchid Radiance took up a lot of time. In the end I had started pulling my hair apart. But now that its done, looking at it I am feeling very accomplished! It was a challenge to do these purple spots and in accordance with the light and shadows on the petals while still maintaining luminous effects. Lot of room for improvement still... but I know that I overcame the fear of painting these spots that I had been holding off for some time.
I am loving the result what about you?

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Orchid Radiance, 22 x 22 inches, Watercolor on 300lbs Arches Paper

Code# PK_17_012
Available - Contact preranap@hotmail.com

Welcome Spring

My friend posted quite a few wonderful pictures of hummingbird on her facebook. One of them I liked so much that I asked her if I could use her photo as inspiration for my painting. I had never painted hummingbird before and there were striking Gulmohar kind of flowers along with it!! So it was a must to paint this. We recently celebrated Holi and with that in mind, the background became Holi like.

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Welcome Spring, 11x15 inches, Watercolor on Archespaper, 300lbs Coldpress

Code# PK_17_011
Available - contact me - preranap@hotmail.com

Betty Boop Duet

I clicked several pictures of these roses in my garden last year. Finally chose one of them to paint. In case you are wondering about - "Betty Boop" - its the name of this rose. This is a floribunda type of rose plant. The speciality of floribunda is that roses bloom in bunches i.e just one branch has a bunch of 5 - 10 roses / buds etc as opposed to just one Rose at the end of the branch in normal rose plants. Its a treat that we live in California and don't have to wait till spring for Roses to bloom. We get all kinds of flowers all year round pretty much.
Betty Boop ges through quite a transformation from its bud to a fully bloomed stage. Here I have shown just 2, the pink one is fully bloomed and the petals are ready to fade out and drop in couple days. The one above it is fully bloomed too, but it is in it prime youth!! It stays like this for about 3-4 days.
Hope I have tempted you enough to get one of this rose plant for your garden....

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Betty Boop Duet, 11x15 inhes, watercolor on 300lb coldpress Arches paper

Code# PK_17_010 

Available - Contact me - preranap@hotmail.com

In OCFair Ice Museum

A new experiment in watercolors... This is painted from a picture of my daughter inside Ice Museum in OC Fair, in front of an Ice Sculpture. How do you show the texture of ice? I thought the best medium was to try out texture in watercolors using cling wrap for the ice.
I am happy with the texture of Ice wall. The sculpture itself is ok. Best I liked is the wrapped blanket around the girl. And pulled my hair apart on the face.. :) Could not get it right. Nevertheless, I love the overall painting.
Very good memories associated with this painting!

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In OCFair Ice Museum, 11x15 inches, Watercolor on 300lb Coldpress Arches Paper

Code# PK_17_009
contact me for info - preranap@hotmail.com

Fixing My Bells - SOLD

After about half a year I arrived back on Oil Painting and had so much fun with my palette knife, the wonderful smell of oils is in my studio again, yay!! I took up my other passionate subject - Kathak dance to paint. Last year i.e in Dec 2016 I did my first Kathak dance recital in Irvine with Sundar Kala Kendra Kathak Dance School. Completed one year of training with Guru Smt. Anjani Ambegaokar. At the time of recital, I took lots of pictures with the intention of possibly doing a painting from one of them. That's excatly what I did in here. This was the costume of our "Women's Group", a beginner level group and I loved it. The picture was taken in the dressing room where my friend was fixing her Ghungroos (Bells) before we hit the backstage for our cue.

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Fixing My Bells, 11x14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_17_008

SOLD

Soul Searching Rose

In my last post I mentioned that I am ready to move on to a different color. Sure enough, I tried, but had to use some hints of PINK, This pink color is called Opera Pink and is available in Winsor and Newton Artists color. I could not do without it.
As always I am working on catching the light effects on the flower. The original background of my reference picture was different and so was the flower. But I used my artistic license to make it look the way it is.
For those who know Marathi language - the song that I was thinking about was - Tya phulanchaya Gandhakoshi.... I love the song!!

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Soul Searching Rose, 22x30 inches, Watercolor on Arches 300lb coldpress paper

Code# PK_17_007
Available - email preranap@hotmail.com for more info

(I am entering this painting for a juried exhibition, so for about couple months I will not be able to sell it)

Pink Plumeria Addiction - SOLD

Phew... this took much longer than I had expected. After having painted a 6x6 inches, I so loved this pink color, I decided to drop off the wagon from doing 30 in 30 challenge. I took up the same reference photo and bought full sheet of 300 lbs cold press Arches Paper. I still wanted to do it in square format, so I cut the paper so as to create a deckled edge by tearing paper. First had to get through the greens, which took so long.. I was itching to do the pink color!! Finally after I arrived at Pinks, the flowers were looking quite dull, so had to rework each petal. Then realised that greens are not as good as I wanted, so back to greens. It took a while to go back and forth between the greens and pinks. Until finally I called it done!!
Now I am done with this Pink for a while and started another watercolor floral. Stay tuned, hoping to finish it this weekend.

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Pink Plumeria Addiction, 22 x 22 inches, Watercolor on Arches paper (300lb coldpress)

Code# PK_17_006
SOLD 

(Original painting is sold, but I have Fine Art Prints available on my ETSY store: Click Here)

30in30_Jan2017_Day18 Pristine White - Plumeria - SOLD

Now this was a challenging one I thought, white on white paper! I pushed the darks more darker and for the light, gave a thin wash of yellow. At some places I left the white of the paper to show through. The flower looked quite ugly in the beginning stages. But after I started doing the background, it all started to make sense.
White is the color that represents purity in many cultures. But did you know that white flowers have a much more stronger fragrance than the bright and colored flowers?

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Pristine White - Plumeria, 6x6 inches, Watercolor on Arches Paper

Code# PK_17_005

SOLD
A fine art print can be made available on request - contact me - preranap@hotmail.com

Check out my etsy website for more paintings - https://www.etsy.com/shop/preranap

30in30_Jan2017_Day16 An Orange Miracle - Plumeria

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
― Albert Einstein

What do you believe? I think everything is a miracle - including the creation of this Orange Plumeria painting !! When I got started, it was a blank white paper and to be honest it was quite intimidating to think what will come out of it... Nevertheless, I put some pencil marks based on the photo reference I had of the Orange Plumeria. Then for planning the light and shadows, I put in my first color statements as light and dark colored brush strokes. By then, I was in the flow and was more confident on what colors I am choosing. I didn't finish the painting in one sitting, worked on it for at least three days, as and when I was able to set my time aside. But I had the painting in my mind's eye already, so it was not hard to make good progress each time I sat down for painting. Of course there were times that I kept working on a certain area, over and over, until I thought I would ruin the painting. But at that point, I miraculously stopped and worked on another part to get some overall progress. That's how the painting process is for me, some parts flow real smooth and on others I feel I am pulling my hair out.
So Yes, I do believe everything is a miracle, including this little orange gem !!

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An Orange Miracle - Plumeria, 6x6 inches, Watercolor on Arches Paper

Code# PK_17_004
Available - Click Here

A larger size print can be made available on request - contact me on preranap@hotmail.com

30in30_Jan2017_Day11 Pink Plumeria Duet

This is my third Plumeria painting in a row...and they have been singing for me... have been obsessed with this color and also have been trying out different colors for the dark shadow colors. In this one, I experimented with blue as a dark shadow color on the plumeria petals. Specially on the left side flower, notice that I used a hint of blue for each shadow on the petals. I loved how it adds a drama on the painting as a whole!!

Also see below progress shots of how I painted this one!!

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Pink Plumeria Duet, 6x6 inches, Watercolor on Arches paper

Code# PK_17_003
Available - Click Here

Fine art print of each of my watercolors can be made available on request. Contact me: preranap@hotmail.com

30in30_Jan2017_Day04_PinkPlumeriaObsession

The pink of the earlier big Plumeria painting was still fresh in my palette. Obsessed with the pink plumeria, I love the color. Very attractive and pleasing to the eye!!
Too many things going on for me currently, so I have decided to focus on painting everyday, even if it is for a less time, rather than going crazy over finishing a painting. I am loving this pace, and hoping that it will continue the whole year rather than just this 30 days in Jan.

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Pink Plumeria Obsession, 6x6 inches, Watercolor on Arches paper

Code# PK_17_002
Available - Click Here

30in30_Jan2017_Day01_GaneshaSketch

Here's a new project I am starting out in 2017...
Once again, I have signed up for 30 paintings in 30 days in the month of January. After much contemplation, I have decided to do some more watercolor florals. I may not be able to churn out 30 paintings, but I have decided to be in my studio every single day. Some days I might just practice sketch and on other days watercolors and oils. Also I will post everyday on facebook whatever I could do for the day and post a completed one on my blog.

On my first day, I completed the sketch of Ganesha. I had started the sketch last year in Brea Siddhivinayak Temple during a classical music concert. Although this still looks very amateurish sketch, I enjoyed doing it. Would love to get your feedback as comments on this blog.

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Ganesha Sketch in my Notebook

Code# PK_17_001 

NFS

Backlit Plumeria Medley

Posting this couple days late since I go busy with end of the year festivities.
After doing a series of small watercolor florals during the year, I wanted to conclude with a bigger watercolor painting in 2016. So I picked out a reference picture which turned out to be quite complex for me. This reference picture had backlit pink plumeria buds and blossoms and quite a few of them.
I finished the painting one section at a time and then finally did value adjustments when I had covered all the paper area. In watercolor painting, it is very hard to wipe off dark paint and put a lighter color note on it. This took me sometime to carefully change things around, but I did it!!
Love how it came out and phew... got it done before 31st!!
 

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Backlit Plumeria Medley, 16x22 inches, Watercolor on Arches paper

Code# PK_16_024 

SOLD 
Fine art print available upon request, contact me - preranap@hotmail.com