Day 16 - 30 in 30 Challenge Jan 2015 - Tiny and Large Apple

Happy Dance!! Starting second half of 30 in 30!! These are 2 different kinds of apples. Lot of the fruits that artists paint are so common. When I do the setup, it does not look exciting. But as I start observing the lights and darks, it is fun to find different patterns in the the fruit and it makes the effort interesting. The most common pattern I find in all fruits and vegetables done so far is the heart. See closely, you will see it too...
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Tiny and Large Apple - 6 x 6 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_15_016
Available here

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer - SOLD

Inspired by Christmas decoration and lighting in the garden, I felt like doing this lighted Reindeer. There is a lane in our neighborhood that does lots of christmas decorations and lighting. Its a very lively street and many people from far away neighborhoods come to visit here during christmas time. I took lots of pictures and when I was looking at pictures to paint, this red nosed reindeer captured my attention.

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Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - 8 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas panel

SOLD

Code# PK_14_029

For more available paintings isit my etsy store

Below are work in progress pictures:

Work in Progress pictures. Rudolph th Red Nosed Reindeer - 8 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Holly Berries - SOLD

'Tis the Season!!
Our block is all decorated with Christmas Lights and through the windows at night, one can see Christmas Tree decorated. Feels like a happy time and I cannot wait for the Holidays.
Talking about decorations Holly Berries are a MUST!! Inspired by decorations, here is my painting. The painting started out looking like this:

Holly Berries - Stage 1: 8 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

 As I worked through different stages and layers of paint, the final painting emerged here:

Holly Berries - 8 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

Code# PK_14_028

Laurel Pumpkin - Work in Progress

Laurel Pumpkin Stages are below.
Upper left - Stage 1
Upper right - Stage 2
Lower left - Stage 3
Lower right - Stage 4 - Also the final painting

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Laurel Pumpkin - Work in Progress - 8 x 10 inches Oil on Canvas Panel

Hardy Pumpkin - Work in Progress

Hardy Pumpkin Stages are below.
Upper left - Stage 1
Upper right - Stage 2
Lower left - Stage 3
Lower right - Stage 4 - Also the final painting

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Hardy Pumpkin Work in Progress - 8x10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

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!!

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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.

Golden Sunset on the Pacific - SOLD

Now back to Oil Painting... I enjoyed the rhythm of sunset colors flowing on the board. And since this is a bigger piece, I got to use the biggest palette knife I have, which I rarely use! I used a photo reference, but but mostly picked colors from my imagination rather than trying to mix paints to match the photo reference.
Feeling happy with the result!

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Golden Sunset on the Pacific, 24 x 30 inches, Oil on Hardboard

SOLD

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.

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

SOLD

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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...

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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!

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

SOLD

Here it is installed in a beautiful niche:

Plaza Fountain - SOLD

Few weeks ago, I went to Chapman University in Orange CA and passed through the downtown in Orange. It had been long time since I had been to this place for plein air painting (painting outdoors on location) - about 4 years... I was quite a beginner, but it was fun to stand out there in front of the fountain and paint. This time though, I took my camera along and clicked a lot of pictures around the fountain since I wanted to paint it again. After browsing through many pictures I chose one that I liked best and painted in studio. Here is the result and I am very happy how it turned out.

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Plaza Fountain - 14 x 18 inches, Oil on canvas panel

SOLD

Rainy Dark Night on El Toro Rd - SOLD

I had in mind for a long time to do a night scene and that too when it is raining. Last time when I had the urge to click a picture of such a scene,  about an year ago, I did not have my camera on hand. About couple weeks ago, as I was returning back from the First Thursday Art walk from Laguna Beach, I got a perfect opportunity to click pictures. It was dark and rainy, but I was driving. I pulled out my camera from my purse, and clicked many many pictures while driving. After coming back home, I uploaded all pictures on my laptop and sorted through until I found the best picture I wanted to paint. Here is the result:

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Rainy Dark Night on El Toro Rd - 11 x 14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

This picture is clicked as I was slowing down at the signal at the intersection of El Toro Road and Rockfield.

Looking back - 30 paintings in 30 days Challenge Jan 2014

Looking back at the month of Jan - first can't believe that the month is over!! I started the year very excited about doing this challenge a second time. The last I did was in September and had really finished 30 paintings. This is what I expected from myself this time too. But guess what... turned out that I had not anticipated that this month will be so busy. Sometimes feel like saying "the damn life came in the way". But on the other hand, I learnt that there are other things that can take priority and had to let go of the painting for that day. Also learnt that I had to catch up with some good sleep to get some fresh painting ideas and to be able to enjoy my painting process. I could not finish 30 paintings, but I still accomplished 17 paintings which I consider still a SUCCESS!! All of them are oil paintings except 2 are watercolor florals. My aim in doing this challenge was to paint something new that I have not done before - different subjects like the pomogranate and pear that I had not painted before; different materials - like cloth, glass, ceramic, silver, gold (couldn't get to few others that I had thought). To think about it... it was very interesting to start off with a blank canvas and come up with a finished painting. Here is a collage of all 17 paintings I finished this month.
The best I liked are pomogranate, onions, carrots, peppermint candy, the watercolor floral (floribunda), and the grand finale - Peanut M & Ms.
Which ones did you like the best?

All in all I had a WONDERFUL experience - will repeat the challenge once again..

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Day 25 - 30 Paintings in 30 days Jan 2014 - Peppermint Candy for You

The other day I went with my daughter to an Alterations shop to get one of her dress altered. The lady there had bunch of these peppermint candies nicely kept in an attractive container. I had seen few paintings of candies in the 30 in 30 challenge, and I found a different subject to paint! The candy itself would not be a different surface for me, but the interesting part would be to paint the "wrapped" candy. Hope I am able to capture the effects of wrapper... What do you think?

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Peppermint Candy for You - 4 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas

Day 24 - 30 Paintings in 30 days Jan 2014 - My Favorite Scarf

Here's an experiment in painting fabric - it is my scarf and it reflects double colors - purple and green under light. I hung it over a cardboard box and got quite interesting folds. Hope you like it!

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My Favorite Scarf - 6 x 6 inches, Oil on Canvas

Day 22 - 30 Paintings in 30 days Jan 2014 - Scentimental Floribunda

My favorite flower - Rose!! This rose is from my front yard, I had clicked a picture of it some time back and bookmarked it for painting. Finally, I got to it this morning... after painting a flower yesterday, I was in a mood of Roses and that too in watercolor. This type of Rose is called Scentimental Floribunda. Although it is called "Scentimental" it has very mild fragrance, at least compared to the roses in India. But the color is just phenomenal!! A newly blossomed flower has very strong Red and Yellow color. But as it grows, the yellow and Red fade away - it is wonderful to watch different phases of its growth. The flower I have painted is middle aged - the color has faded a little bit, but still is in full glory. The roses grow in bunches of 5 or 7 on one single branch - probably that's the reason it is categorized as Floribunda.
Looking at the petals it feels like the flower is doing a Flamenco Dance!!

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Scentimental Floribunda - 6 x 8 inches, Watercolor on Arches Paper

Day 21 - 30 Paintings in 30 days Jan 2014 - From a Bee's Eye View

It had been long time since I worked with watercolors and I was tempted to paint my favorite subject - flowers. This time it is a view I presume bees or butterflies would be able to see through their eyes as they fly for honey towards the center of the flower. It turned out to be very soft colors, I like it!

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From a Bee's Eye View - 6 x 8 inches, Watercolor on Arches paper

Day 18 - 30 Paintings in 30 days Jan 2014 - Egg Shells

I see lot of artists painting eggs and eggshells etc. I got tempted and I thought I should try it too. So I saved these egg shells after I made omelette for kids and set it up under light for painting. Don't know if my thoughts were colorful or what.. but my eggshells turned out to be really COLORFUL!!

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Egg Shells - 8 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

I first blocked in colors as follows:

Egg Shells - Stage 1 

Next trying to get the "real" colors, I got following:

Egg Shells - Stage 2

 Now adding more variations in each color area:

Egg Shells - Stage 3

Finally adding finishing touches, I got the final painting as shown in the very first picture.

Day 17 - 30 Paintings in 30 days Jan 2014 - Toy Turtle

Here is another ceramic surface - this ceramic toy was made by my daughter as an activity when she was in girl scouts and elementary school. I loved how she had painted different greens on the turtle. It was fun to paint and brought back memories of that time with her.

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Toy Turtle - 8 x 8 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

I have been quite behind this time in my challenge, I have 6 paintings in backlog as of today. But on the positive side, I have finished 11 paintings in 17 days so far, which is far more than I would have done normally. So still good results and I am happy to be able to try painting different textures and materials - ceramic, silver, gold, glass...etc so far. I am eager to try out steel, bronze and more...