Dog Portrait - Biscuit - SOLD

It was such a delight to paint this commission painting!! It is a different subject for me and I decided to do in Watercolor. I was sent a picture of this cute dog standing in grass. I have done the grass and florals quite a bit. Doing a "white" dog felt like a challenge first. But as the painting progressed I realized I was having fun to create the fur effects on this dog!!
The owner will be gifting this painting to his daughter as a Christmas Gift. What a great idea, I am sure she will cherish this painting for long time to come!!

click on image to view larger 

Dog Portrait - Biscuit, 8x10 inches, Watercolor on 140lb Coldpress Arches Paper 

Code# PK_18_006
SOLD

More paintings are available on my Etsy website - www.etsy.com/shop/preranap

To Order a custom painting, reach out to me @ preranap@hotmail.com

Joy of Kathak - SOLD

Painting is my passion and Kathak is my favorite dance form!! So it was a double pleasure doing this painting.
This is a commission Portrait painting of a young dancer - Anushka, doing Kathak Dance.
Kathak is an Indian Classical dance form - more about it - click here.
The painting is done from a picture of Anushka performing in Anaheim Convention Center during BMM 2015 marathi convention. In the painting I loved doing her costume. I must say that most challenging for me was to get a good likeness to her. After about 3 passes, I finalized the painting and her parents are very happy with it too.
So its a SUCCESS !!

click on image to view larger 

Joy of Kathak - 16x20 inches, Oil on canvas panel

Code# PK_16_020
SOLD

I would love to do a custom painting from your photo - your favorite vacation spot, or your home or your pet, or portrait - contact me - preranap@hotmail.com

After presenting few framing choices for this painting, we all loved the Cherry colored frame with carving on it. Here it is framed - 

Joy of Kathak - 16x20 inches, Oil on Canvas. Framed size ~ 24x28 inches

Meal Preparations - SOLD

Thank God it is Leap Year and I managed to do at least one post on the last day of Feb. 2016!!
I have been working on this for sometime on and off.. This is a custom painting requested by a client. She gave me few pictures to select from. I picked one and talked to her about the changes/color scheme she wants in the actual painting. At the end of our discussion on the painting, we decided to split the picture to 2 paintings. I showed it to her in the initial stages and towards the end. Incorporated couple more changes and made it final today!! I am happy that she likes it! This is called a dyptich painting - it can be hung together the way below or hung separate.

click on image to view larger 

Meal Preparations 1 and 2 - each canvas is 10x8 inches, Oil on Canvas

Code# PK_16_016 & PK_16_017

SOLD

Here are the individual paintings:

Meal Preparations 1 - 10x8 inches, Oil on Canvas

Meal Preparations 2 - 10x8 inches, Oil on Canvas

FitBodyBootcamp Custom Painting

This year I have been taking up very different projects and this will be the last one for this year, I think! Before I started off this project, I met with the client who wanted to commission a painting. I talked about their vision for the painting and where it will be used. What all elements the painting should consist of, logo, color considerations etc etc. I made detailed notes and came up with a checklist of requirements that I used during my painting.
So the image of this painting is going to be used on promotional materials - postcard, notecard and such.
After completion, this is the feedback I got:
"Thank you for the beautiful artwork. I am so happy with the result. It is exactly what I was envisioning. ...."
I feel really accomplished!!
Hurray!! for a successful painting!

FBBC Aerial View - 14x18 inches, Acrylic on Canvas Panel

Happy Diwali to Everyone!!

Happy Diwali!! This is a different painting experiment!! Finished this couple months back. Posting it now, since the Diwali-e-magazine with this painting as front cover is published. The theme given to me was Diwali - Saat Samudra Paar (meaning Diwali Overseas). It got me to thinking how do we really celebrate Diwali here? The celebrations in India are really a lot festive. Here, kids don't have holiday for this festival so celebration cannot be the same as in India. However, I do make few traditional sweets/snacks, decorate with lamps/candles and put on traditional clothes. With the few fire crackers that I save from July 4th weekend, we have "mini" fun in our backyard. Call our parents on facetime to greet them and show what we are doing for Diwali. With these thoughts in mind, I created the painting. My very first attempt to get published in a Magazine!!

Click Here to enjoy reading the e-Magazine!

click on image to view larger

Diwali_2015 - 11x14 inches, Acrylic on Canvas Panel

Healthy Choices - SOLD

This is a custom painting based on 30 paintings in 30 days challenge I did in January. This time, I set up the still life outdoors in my front yard, keeping the table in full mid afternoon sun. Even though I stood in the shade and painted, it became very hot. Since there are more objects in the painting, it was taking me long to paint. After about 3 hours, I was not approx close to half done. But the light had changed, the shadow had changed a lot and I was getting tired. So brought everything inside and took rest. The next day I decided to complete the painting in my studio from the reference picture. Its drying on my shelf now and will be on its way to India by end of this month!!

click on image to view larger

Healthy Choices - 14 x 11 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

Ring on Blue River - SOLD

The scene is on Blue River in Colorado. This is a commission painting for her upcoming wedding!! It is the place where she got engaged.

It was fun and relaxing to paint this - my favorite time of the day - sunset, beautiful rocks, sound of river flowing, a bit chilly weather - perfect romantic atmosphere!!

click on image to view larger

Ring on Blue River - 16 x 20 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

This picture is taken under studio lights, in daylight, the colors will look different.

In the Woods 2 - SOLD

I painted "In the Woods 2" to present a different perspective of the forest. My client suggested minor changes in my earlier painting - In the Woods. I did those and then thought I would create another view of the forest, to give a choice. But **SURPRISE** she liked both my versions of In the Woods and bought them both together!!
The painting looks different in different light conditions - the first is a picture in normal room in daylight, the second one is when painting is placed under light.

click on image to view larger

In the Woods 2 - 81/2 x 11 inches, Watercolor on Arches paper - SOLD

SOLD

 click on image to view larger

In the Woods 2 - 81/2 x 11 inches, Watercolor on Arches paper

Below are both paintings "In the Woods 2" and "In the Woods" side by side:

 

In the Woods - SOLD

Here is one more water color magic experiment. I used lot of salt and alcohol for the texture in the background.
As I walked, each step was making sound - krrrr.. krrr... krrr... due to the dried leaves that had fallen on the ground. And looking up, the sky was lit with colors. Enjoyed the hike throughly!!

Now I am itching to do oil paint, have been away from it for quite a while...

click on the image to view larger

In the Woods - 81/2 x 11 inches, Watercolor on Arches Paper - SOLD

SOLD

Glowing Branch - SOLD

I love to try out different mediums. Here is my latest, experimenting with Watercolors. I find watercolors a magical medium. This time I tried out spraying water on the painting to create the background effects. If the painting is too wet, then the water spraying did not work quite well. I darkened the background colors once again, waited for it to dry a little. You can tell how much a painting has dried by looking at it in at an angle and observing how much it shines. The shimmer is quite less as it dries. This is a perfect time to gently spray water and it creates magical texture on paper. Had fun with this piece. Hope you like it!

Glowing Branch, 81/2 x 11 inches, Watercolor on Arches paper - SOLD

SOLD

Dancing Ganesha - SOLD

Painting a Ganesha has been on my mind since last few months. Finally I finished it today!! It is little different than my usual style and medium. It is painted in Acrylics and not quite impressionist style.
It is interesting how I came up with this dancing pose. I love dance and saw multiple images of Dance poses to figure out what best pose will fit my Ganesha. After having shortlisted couple of poses, I sketched on paper first in very small scale to get the proportions right. Once I finalized the pose and the best fitting Ganesha, I sketched it to a small scale on drawing paper once again, so that it would be easy to transfer to the bigger size hardboard. This project has been moving very slow about 2 months, on and off as time permitted. Finally, it is DONE!! It feels accomplished!

click on image to view larger

Dancing Ganesha - 24 x 36 inches, Acrylic on Hardboard - SOLD

SOLD

Here it is installed in a beautiful niche:

Best Friends - Lorikeets

Their color inspired me to paint it, and their pose suggests as if they have been "best friends" since long time!

These are a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets are colorful parrots found in Australia, Indonesia... A lot of people have such Lorikeets as pets too. I am not sure if I am ready to have such pets, but I had fun fun fun painting them!

click on image to view larger

Best Friends - 8x10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Portrait of Anushka

I wanted to paint a portrait for this year and feel very accomplished. I probably will tweek a little here and there on this painting still, but this is 99.9% finished. Hope you like it and do send me your comments:

Portrait of Anushka - 11x14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Here is how the painting progressed:

Anushka - Stage1

Anushka - Two



Anushka - Three



Anushka - Final

Mommy N Me - Strawberry Picking - SOLD

Mommy N Me strawberry picking says it all! I had so much fun painting this, brought back great memories. Best of all, this painting was sold even before I finished painting! It felt like magic.

click on the image to view larger

Mommy N Me - Strawberry Picking - 11x14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel - SOLD

SOLD

Ganesha - SOLD

I am a big fan of this elephant headed deity called "Ganesha". He is popularly worshipped as the remover of obstacles. All ceremonies and rituals begin with invocation and worship of Lord Ganesha.
This was my first sketch on canvas in this year and finally got to paint and so happy to have finished this painting!

Ganesha - 12x12 inches, Oil on Gallery wrapped canvas

SOLD



Since this is gallery wrapped canvas, I was able to paint all the sides too. So there is no need of a frame, it is ready to hang. Below are couple pictures of painted sides:


Ganesha - 12x12 inches




Ganesha - 12x12 inches

Little Gymnast On the Beach

It was sunset time, we reached Newport Beach. It was bit chilly weather in November and so very few people on the beach. Someone must have played in the sand before us, so there was already a rectangular boundary drawn. My daughter quickly made it "her" spot to show off her Gymnastic skills!

click on the image to view larger

Little Gymnast On the Beach - 16x20 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Time to celebrate - Happy Holidays - SOLD

Wish you all Happy Holidays!!
The photo reference for this painting is from my friend's garden. Although I don't like red wine I liked the setting in her garden and with this glass of wine - the color is heavenly! This is the first time I have tried painting glass objects. I am happy and feel accomplished to get this done.

click to view larger

11x14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD