Day 1 - 30 Paintings in 30 days Jan 2014 - Egg on Red

Its been long that I did an oil painting, so here is an end of the year painting. I did this as a warm up exercise for the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge starting tomorrow. It was a very simple setup - a boiled egg on Red cloth - with that good bye December and goodbye 2013!! And now I can go to the New Year's party - YES!!
WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!!

Egg on Red - 8 x 10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Lily Pads - Value Study

Another interesting / fun homework... This is one of my favorite subjects too - Lily Pads.
One more study of a figure and then I will be done with my homework part. All images were provided by the teacher - Sarah Parks - her own paintings. Even though it was online class, I enjoyed the instructions a lot and every week there was critique provided by the teacher.

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Bouquet - Value Study

I did this study as part of Homework. The reference image was provided by the teacher - Sarah Parks. It looked very simple to do when I started. But turned out to be challenging, but fun to do. I am happy with the results..  

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Iris - Value Study

This study of Iris flower is done using pencils - 2H, HB, 2B, 4B, 6B and 8B.

It looked very easy to do with just pencils, but it was quite a challenge to have correct values in grayscale. I think color study is much easier for me :) 

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Iris - Value Study

Dog Portrait Study

I am going back to basics, trying to learn drawing and sketching!! I am doing online class to refine my sketching skills. It is offered by Artist Network University and taught by Sarah Parks. I am second week into it and one of the challenge homework assignment was to sketch a dog portrait. So here is my study:

 

 

Here is original photo with final sketch:

Do you think I accomplished a likeness with the original photo?
I did it freehand since that's what I want to practice most. Using a grid it becomes much easier to draw and get exact likeness, but doing freehand is challenging for me.
I would appreciate if you have any feedback for me!!

Fall Colors - SOLD

Fall colors have always fascinated me. Now equipped with new watercolor paints (Maimeriblu professional watercolors), new watercolor brushes, an awesome new palette and masking fluid, I had the urge to try out couple different techniques. The techniques used in this are - masking and spreading salt. Below is the result:

Fall Colors - 9 x 12 inches, Watercolor on Archies paper

SOLD

Masking: the very bright areas in the painting were covered with masking fluid. At the very end, the masking was removed. On few areas I left the white of the paper as it is and that is the brightest in the painting. I did cover few areas with very watery paint so it doesn't appear as bright.
Salt: I used the simple cooking salt in few areas to create a texture. Different salts create fine or coarse texture and it also depends how wet the paper is when salt is sprinkled. In this case I got a fine texture. Next time I will try a different salt.
I had so much fun and reminded me of the silk painting techniques which are quite similar to watercolor painting techniques. 

Blue Wild Flower - SOLD

Today I was back in the mood of doing small painting and adding to my itty bitty collection. I checked before I started painting and did not have a blue flower. So here it is:

Blue Wild Flower - 3 x 3 inches, Oil on Canvas

SOLD

It is painted on wrapped canvas and does not need framing. It can be kept on a small easel or even used as Christmas ornament.

Below are others in this series:

Tulip Pink or Purple

Pansy

Wild Strawberry Bloom

Hibiscus - SunNShade

A flower from my backyard - Hibiscus in Sun and Shade.
I have 2 different colors of Hibiscus plants, this one is red and second one is Orange. Next time I paint Hibiscus flower, I will try the other one!

Hibiscus - SunNShade - 9 x 12 inches, Watercolor on Arches Paper

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..

Lighthouse at Sunset

I started this painting on DAY 30th of last month's challenge and finished it now. It is the last picture on my collage. This is bigger in size than all the other paintings I did in one day.
The painting was done with Winsor and Newton Water mixable Oils and a very basic palette i.e Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow, Pthalo Green, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Yellow Ocre and Titanium White.
Also there is a strong glare on left side water, I will post a better picture after I click more.

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Lighthouse at Sunset - 12 x 16 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

30 in 30 Challenge Celebration Collage

This is a celebration of my 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. It was my first time doing such a challenge and YES!! I made it !! Thanks to Leslie Saeta for hosting this challenge, there were about 400 artists participating in this challenge worldwide! I made few good friends who were participating in this and was inspired by the group spirit. Many thanks to all of YOU who were following my paintings either on Facebook or via this blog or direct emails. As a celebration I have put together a collage of all paintings done during this challenge.
It has been a rewarding experience and I look forward to joining the challenge in January once again. In the mean time, I will still be creating paintings - a little bigger size, since there will not be a pressure to finish it in one day.

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Day 30 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Diwali Light

I am getting into celebration mood now - Diwali - Festival of Lights!
This picture was taken at our home last year during Diwali and I tried it using Watercolor.

Diwali Light - 6 x 8 inches, Watercolor on Archies paper

It is so much fun to paint on archies paper - the right paints, brushes and paper make the activity so much fun!

Day 29 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Fine Horse

For the 29th day challenge, I asked my daughter - what should I paint next? "A Horse was the reply. Its not my typical subject and neither do I paint so often in watercolors. So here is my attempt:

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Fine Horse - 9 x 12 inches, watercolor on Archies paper

Day 28 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Rangoli Inspiration

Last weekend I attended a Rangoli Competition in our community and was inspired by Rangoli Art. This is a painting from life. I decided to use one of my pastel art sheet done few years ago as base. Then placed one of my very own made candle on top. Actually I started my artistic career by making such soy wax candles and it is my very first blog post. I sold these candles for Diwali celebrations. Still have a few left and just one set of 4 candles as sentimental value... Take a look on that candle post here.
I hope you like my setup and the painting too!!

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Rangoli Inspiration - 8 x 10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

For those who don't know about Rangoli - It is folk art from India. The purpose of Rangoli is decoration, and it is thought to bring good luck. Design depictions may also vary as they reflect traditions, folklore and practices that are unique to each area. It is traditionally done by women. Generally, this practice is showcased during occasions such as festivals, auspicious observances, marriage celebrations and other similar milestones and gatherings. more on wikepedia.

Day 27 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Dressed for Halloween - SOLD

This one is #5 on my Halloween series!! I am surprised at how quickly I finished this painting! Normally for such paintings, I draw a grid and then sketch exactly before I start. But for this one I sketched the outline freehand with oil paint itself. Then did the initial block in of all the darks and then the lights. Next for second stage, I painted local color. For third stage, I painted variations within each mass of color and for the final painting, few more variations and highlights. After all of these paintings just this month, I think I have definately made good progress!
For the remaining paintings in this challenge, I am just going to take up miscellaneous subjects and see what I can come up with.

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Dressed for Halloween - 7 x 5 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

Day 26 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Eyeball Smoothie

Aghh...!! I can't believe I painted this, the name is so disgusting...
On Halloween Parties, people get dressed up scary, and make very creative drinks, snacks etc. Kids go Trick or Treating and get sack full of candies.

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Eyeball Smoothie - 5 x 7 inches, Oil on canvas panel

Lake Mission Viejo Sailing Fun

Mission Viejo is our neighbouring community and year round there are lots of activities around the Lake. I painted this from a picture I took before the Jazz festival on the lake. One of the activities on that day was Paint the Lake competition. I painted this as my entry for the competition, but did not post on the blog, since I was posting one painting a day in this month.
Hope you like it!

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Lake Mission Viejo Sailing Fun - 20 x 16 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Day 25 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - WickedWitch - SOLD

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I don't keep Halloween Decor, so I painted this from a photograph on Wetcanvas library. If you are an artist, you must visit this online Artists Community -Wetcanvas. There is lots going on there, there are challenges for all mediums and critiques and great support from online fellow artists!
This is also a lot made up by me, reference image was just used for the sketch purpose. I would say this will fall into an abstract painting category, something different than I usually do. You can tell I had absolute fun with colors on this one!

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Wicked Witch - 5 x 7 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

 Below is photo I used for reference:

inspirational picture for Wicked Witch painting

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 23 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Laughing Ghost - SOLD

Excited that it is the beginning of my Halloween special series...
For the first one, I had a lighted laughing Ghost at home, so the setup was easy, I just turned its light on and kept it in darkness. Then made up the spider and spiderweb!

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Laughing Ghost - 8 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

Ya ya.. I am missing a painting from yesterday, in fact my total backlog is 2 paintings as of now, But I am confident that I can make up for these by the end of 30 days challenge. It was a really good break yesterday, I took some good rest and had fun with my long time friend who visited me from San Jose!

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 20 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Feeling Grateful Seashell

I am having so much fun with this sea shell series. After the fact, I think I picked up a bit tedius subject. It took me longer for each of the shell series paintings and got behind.. As I painted, it felt like each shell has its own personality and that is how I arrived at the title. It feels like this shell is so very grateful for its beauty and glow. I looks majestic!

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Feeling Grateful 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 18 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Feeling Blessed Seashell

As promised - here is my #2 shell - Feeling Blessed, first for having this shell in my collection and second for being able to paint it! I am throughly enjoying these painting days!

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Feeling Blessed Seashell - 6 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

 Setup picture - now that I look at it together, I think I took my setup picture in a different angle. Anyways.. you get the idea:

Day 17 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Feeling Happy Seashell

I am posting for 17th day, but missing one painting from yesterday - I had a glitch :)) I will squeeze in one painting for 16th day before this challenge ends to make up for it!
But today I could not resist picking up this happy looking sea shell for my set up. Just look at it, doesn't it appear smiling !? (the photo came out blurry, I will replace with a better one later)

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Feeling Happy Seashell - 6 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

 Below is my setup picture and how I got started with this painting:

Feeling Happy Seashell Stage 1

Feeling Happy Seashell - my setup

Day 15 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Turkey Enjoying Pumpkin Patch - SOLD

I set up a still life with Turkey. But while I was sketching the Turkey, I added few pumpkins and made up the painting. I could not take a picture in good lighting, so I will post what I got today and then put the new picture after I get a good one. Again this one can be written up as a story!

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Turkey Enjoying Pumpkin Patch - 6 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

Day 14 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Story of a Scarecrow and Two Pumpkins - SOLD

Dear friends, for all those writers out there, I have an illustration in place and the challenge is to write a story based on my new Fall painting. I have the title too - "Story of a Scarecrow and Two Pumpkins". Please feel free to write your short story as comments.
If you are not a writer - even then your comments are much appreciated!

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Story of a Scarecrow and two Pumpkins - 6 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

 Below are couple stages of how my painting started out. I am missing picture of Stage 3 in this - oops forgot to take a picture.
STAGE 1

Story of a Scarecrow and two Pumpkins - STAGE 1

 STAGE 2:

Story of a Scarecrow and two Pumpkins - STAGE 2

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 12 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Dried and Fallen

This dried leaf is from my backyard and such leaves have started falling just about last 3-4 days. It is something new and our puppy thinks they are treats of what! She goes crazy over these and its hard for us not to let her eat those...

After doing yesterday's colorful fall leaves, I thought it would be a nice contrast to do a dried leaf!

Dried and Fallen - 5 x 7 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Day 11 - 30 Paintings in 30 days - Fall Glory

After 5 Christmas Themed paintings, I changed the theme once again. Some of the next ones will be on the theme Fall/Autumn Season. This is the most colorful seasons of all and I used to love the fall leaves until recently... Our new puppy - Lily,  goes in the backyard and although the leaves are not so colorful, she still likes to chew on them. Its not fun for us because we got to constantly watch out for her not to eat those leaves. Any ways here is my painting, hope you like it!

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Fall Glory - 5 x 7 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel in daylight

 Below is how it looks in Studio Light:

Fall Glory - 5 x 7 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel in Studio Light