Autumn Story

Once upon a time lived a wonderful couple - Pumpkin Prince and Pumpkin Princess of the Land of Pumpkins. They were very kind to the pumpkin people in their Land. They took great care of their Land of Pumpkins. It was a lot of responsibility and they handled it very well. As fancy as it sounded to be called Prince and Princess, among all their royal  chores.., it got a bit challenging for them. So they decided to go on a date to rejuvenate themselves. The Pumpkin Prince loved reading books and the Princess loved to listen. What could be a better place than a perfect garden on the outskirts of their Pumpkin land!? They found this perfect spot in the garden to happily spend time together, doing their favorite thing.

I modified this painting, the background greens to give it more depth, do you like this one better?

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The original one is below if anyone would like to see the difference:

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Autumn Story - 11 x 14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Does anyone want to continue the story to the end? Please do write in your comments..

Day 24 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Cat and the Red Hat - SOLD

Dear All, It feels awesome that you are all following my posts. It is getting close towards the end of this challenge and it feels very rewarding to have so many paintings done!
Next in the Halloween series, I have Cat and the Red Hat. I wanted to make it look like a scary looking cat, let me know it it looks scary to you...

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Cat and the Red Hat - 8 x 8 inches, Oil on canvas panel

SOLD

For this challenge all the paintings I have done so far were from my own still life setup. But I don't have Halloween decor at all, since it is around the time of Diwali (festival of lights) and I don't like having scary Halloween decor around (my kids complain..., but I haven't given up..). Anyways, so this painting is from a photograph from Wetcanvas. As you can see the inspirational picture is drastically different, but I had a different image in mind to be painted. I thought it will be interesting for you all to look at the below picture and find out that I made use of my artistic license a lot on colors...

Inspirational photo for Cat in the Red Hat painting

Day 21 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Feeling Loved Seashell

I placed this shell in my setup and thought that this is fifth one in the series and the last shell I have. What should I name it !? With these thoughts in my mind, I started to sketch it on my notebook. When the sketch was complete, I noticed a small heart shape in the center - YES! I found the name - Feeling Loved Seashell! And of course, I made up the heart shape colorful so that it shows. In the original shell the shape exists but is not pink as in my painting - used my artistic license to change objects here!
Hope you enjoy it!

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Feeling Loved Seashell - 8 x 8 inches, Oil on canvas panel

Day 19 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Feeling Abundant Seashell

Feels like this shell is sitting there with wide open arms, as if it is open and receptive to all the good and abundance in the Universe!

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Feeling Abundant Seashell - 8 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

 STAGE 1: Putting down the first color notes. Usually I tend to use Purple for the darkest dark, but here I used Green instead to try out how it works.

Feeling Abundant Seashell - STAGE 1

 STAGE 2: Working with actual color of the object

Feeling Abundant Seashell - STAGE 2

STAGE 3: is about developing color variation within each area. But I forgot to take picture of this.

Day 13 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Pumpkin Candle

Last night I looked for fall decorations in my boxes and found few small things. This Pumpkin Candle has been with me for few years, I use it for decoration but now that I have painted this candle, I think I should use it this fall! 

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Pumpkin Candle - 6 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Setup for Pumpkin Candle

Day 6 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Happy Snowman

Last 5 days I did fruits, and I wanted to change. I had three goals in mind when I started this challenge. The first goal was to finish a painting in one sitting. Second was to start with basic rounded shapes, so I had the fruits. These were done exactly the same way as in Susan Sarback's workshop I attended couple years ago. And so far I have done setups for all these paintings similar to one shown below. Third was to do some small holiday paintings! So here it is - a Happy Snowman:

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Happy Snowman - 5 x 7 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

 And BTW, this happy snowman was made by my younger daughter in her 5th Grade Holiday project, she is very happy that her project got so much importance!

Happy Snowman Setup

Common Coot with its Young

With this painting I have a riddle for you all. The young one of Duck is called Duckling, young of Hen is called Chick... Now here is a Common Coot - whats its young called? You can post your answers in the comments...
Spring is fast approaching, in US the official start of spring is on 20th March. So as you must have guessed, spring time is the inspiration for this painting.

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Common Coot with its Young - 16x20 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

The Beach, The People and some Fresh Air

A walk on the beach, that ocean breeze is always refreshing. And when you meet your friends there, it could be all the more fun. You come back home light hearted!
I have been trying to get a crowd of people on the beach for some time. Here is another attempt...
Hope you like it!

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The Beach, The People and some Fresh Air - 8x10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

1...2...3...JUMP

I almost titled this painting as - Life is for having fun or Life is for enjoying! but 1..2...3...JUMP is the best I liked. There are lots of participants in the making of this painting - the jumping teenagers, having fun and someone who clicked their photo! Thanks to you all.
It was as exciting and fun to paint this as much as these friends jumping in the sand.
Let me know if you like the painting.

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1..2..3..JUMP! - 16x20 inches, Oil on Canvas panel

Tulip - Pink or Purple? - SOLD

Here's a miniature experiment - 3 x 3 inches oil painting. I thought I will finish this painting in a breeze. But no.. I realized that it is in reality harder to paint on such a small surface and so takes quite some time. I completed this in about 2 hours. And yet could not do it "alla prima" (- i.e wet on wet painting that is done in one single session). I could not manage to get straight 2 hours sitting time. I am itching to try this technique sometime...

click on image below to view larger (although you may then see it larger than its original size :)

Tulip - Pink or Purple? - 3x3 inches, Oil on Canvas

SOLD

A Paradise of Coconut Palms - from Goa, India

This painting is done from my own collection of photos. It took me down the memory lane. Fun times! - my Husband and I went on a trip to Goa. On the way to one of the beaches, we passed this paradise of Coconut Palms. Needless to mention, we stopped there to take a picture! :)

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A Paradise of Coconut Palms - 11 x 14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Hope you like it! Your comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

A Lonely Man on the Beach

I am sure this person felt better after walking to the beach, feeling that fresh air from the ocean and inspired by the vastness of the ocean!

This one is painted using palette knife also.

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A Lonely Man on the Beach - 11 x 14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

The Playful Prints - SOLD

We go to the beach, for us the Pacific Ocean is the closest. But almost all the year round the water is very very cold - ice cold. Even the idea of dipping the feet in the waves gives a very cold feeling. But still looking at the magnificent ocean, the rythmic sound of waves, the fresh open breeze... how can one come back without experiencing the waters - at least by getting the feet wet in that chilly waters of the ocean !? This is the moment I wanted to capture in my painting... waiting for the first wave to hit on your feet, but at the same time moving a bit backwards as the wave is approaching. There is an excitement in that freezing cold feeling and once the first wave hits, it becomes a play to move forward in the sand as the wave leaves... and then move backwards as the wave comes again. Look down at your feet, and there is a pattern of your own footprints - very interesting.

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The Playful Prints - 11 x 14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

Life is Wonderful

Looking at this fresh rose bud, I remember the quote by Albert Einstein:
“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.”

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Life is Wonderful - 8x10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel 

Fiery Sunset on the Pacific

The sunset came on the Pacific with kind of a fire in the sky. Interestingly it lasted for barely a few minutes and the sky was dark. I felt lucky to take a picture and then paint at home at my leisure. One day I hope to do plein air i.e painting live outdoors.

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Fiery Sunset on the Pacific - 9x12 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Ducks at Sunset - SOLD

Friends, here's another one from few weeks ago. Again the photo really doesn't do justice, the actual painting is much more bright. This one was painted as a wedding gift and absolutely fun to paint!

Ducks at Sunset - 16x20 inches, oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD - Commissioned painting for wedding

The Parrot Fish

This is an underwater beauty - the Parrot Fish! I wish one day I could see such sea life in person. But this one is painted from a picture that I got in wetcanvas reference library.

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The Parrot Fish - 16x20 inches, oil on Canvas Panel

About Parrot Fish from seaworld.org:
Parrotfish have thick, heavy bodies and large scales. They are found in tropical waters throughout the world and appear in a wide variety of colors, which may change depending on their sex, status, or maturity.

Dazzling Agave (pronounced as uh-gah-vay)

Now here's my new experiment with colors! I took a simple green succulent and wanted to make it look abstract. Hope you like my fantasy -  

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Dazzling Agave - 12x16 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

I tried to take the best picture here, but nowadays I feel its a challenge to take a picture of my painting. In person, the painting looks a bit different since one can see the depth of color and its variations. The camera doesn't really capture all of it.

About Agave: These kind of succulents are found in abundance in southern and western United States. It was considered sacred plant by Ancient Mexicans. It was a belief that the liquid from this plant purified the body and soul.

I thought this will be interesting for you all to know that the juices from the agave after fermenting, leads to the drink called tequila.

The District in Moonlight - SOLD

Here’s my second entry for the “Scenes of Tustin” juried show. This is a marketplace in Tustin called – The District Tustin Legacy. The beauty of this place is really at night, there is beautiful lighting with different colors.

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The District in Moonlight - 11x14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

My inspirational photo - as you can see I changed around things in my painting, let me know if you like it!

Lastly, I would like to say the taking the photo of the painting was very challenging, I did my best. But I still feel painting looks better than the photo of the painting. Let me know if you have any tips to take pictures of paintings.

Keep Tustin Clean

This is the first out of the 2 paintings that I have prepared for the Tustin Art League’s juried show. The theme for this year’s show is “Scenes of Tustin”.
I had hard time taking photo of the painting, so I decided to post 3 pictures in different lighting:
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Keep Tustin Clean - 16x20 inches,

Oil on Canvas Panel

 





 



Keep Tustin Clean - 16x20 inches,
Oil on Canvas Panel

Keep Tustin Clean - 16x20 inches,

Oil on Canvas Panel



My inspiration for this painting:

When I came to know of this show, I decided to drive around the part of Tustin that I was most familiar with, to take some pictures. The Tustin Marketplace and the Golf course was on my mind. In the midst of that bright and sunny afternoon, I drove around that area and told my daughter to click pictures from the car. As we were going on the Tustin Ranch Road and passing through the Irvine Blvd, I spotted a Trash Can and some trees behind in the corner, something about that scene appealed to me. I told my daughter to quickly take picture. And that was it… I had to use this one as inspiration for my painting.

For the composition, I really had only 2 things on my mind…

One – the rule of 3 - things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more magically mystical. Hence I chose to paint only 3 trees in my painting.

Two – the viewers eye somehow should stay within the painting, I think the Trash Can on one side and the partial wall on the other side serves this purpose.

I will be happy to hear your comments and suggestions.