Portrait Study completed in Uday Bhan Workshop

Back in Feb 2024, I took a workshop from a popular Artist in India - Uday Bhan.

His portraits are superb and I had been watching his instagram handle for quite some time.

I am glad I enrolled in this workshop as he taught Still Life, Monochrome value study Portrait and a full Color portrait.

Below is the Portrait I completed in this workshop.

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Portrait Study, 11x15 inches, watercolor on 140 lbs coldpress Arches paper

Code# PK_24_005 
Not for Sale

Still Life completed in Uday Bhan Workshop

Back in Feb 2024, I took a workshop from a popular Artist in India - Uday Bhan.

His portraits are superb and I had been watching his instagram handle for quite some time.

I am glad I enrolled in this workshop as he taught Still Life, Monochrome value study Portrait and a full Color portrait.

Below is the Still Life I completed in this workshop.

click on image to view larger 

Still Life, 11x15 inches, Watercolor on 140 lbs Arches paper

Code# PK_24_003
Not for Sale

Bromeliad

It has been a while I have not updated my blog.. So here is a painting of Bromeliad I did last year - Feb 2023. 

It was after long time I had gone to office (after Covid) and walking through the corridor I saw this plant near the door, shining bright. I had to take pictures. Out of the many photos I clicked, I decided this close-up composition for my painting. 

Completed - Feb 7th, 2023

  

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Bromeliad, 11x15 inches, Watercolor on Arches paper -140lbs coldpress

Code# PK_23_001
Available - contact preranap@hotmail.com

Remover of Obstacles

I was getting in the mood of creating Ganesha Sculpture for the upcoming Ganesha Festival. Casually browsing through Pixabay, I thought of searching keyword "Ganesha". To my surprise, I found a real good image of a Ganesha Sculpture. I could not resist painting it, even though I knew I would be delaying other projects that I should finish... I did crop the original image to just do the head and see if I could get the texture of the stone that I desired in the painting. I am very happy with the results. I will be doing a larger one for sure! Another challenge I overcame in this painting was to get subtle color variations. I just love how this came out!

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Remover Of Obstacles, 8x10 inches, Watercolor on 140lbs Coldpress Arches Paper

Code# PK_19_007

SOLD

Orange Rose

I love Roses and after finishing up the previous Yellow Rose, I set out to create a series of Roses - all on 8x10 inches size. So I chose Orange, which is the color of Energy, Joy and Creativity. Hopefully I will continue with my series further with different color Roses... Lets see how many I could do this year...

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Orange Rose, 8x10 inches, Watercolor on 140 lb Coldpress Watercolor paper

Code# PK_19_006 

Available - Click Here

Yellow Rose

Not sure what inspired me to pick yellow rose photo reference.. Just wanted to do a smaller size painting. Also I have been painting lots of pink color, just wanted a break from it. This is also a rose from my backyard and in this super bloom season, there is inspiration all over!
I decided to do it in the Chemer's Gallery Artist Demo. When I started there, I felt that I had painted the shadows too dark or what! The yellow started turning into green since I had a blue underpainting for shadow. Anyways, after coming home, I was able to fix some shadows and added more yellow pigment to make the yellow stronger!
I like how it came out finally!!

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Yellow Rose - 10 x 8 inches, Watercolor on 140 lb Coldpress, Arches Paper

Code# PK_19_005
Available - Click Here

Full Bloom - Pink Rose - SOLD

I feel like I am going at a snails pace... but I am so happy that I am getting good results with my paintings. The first one was a hit! And this one too! I love love love it!!
This is painted from a picture taken of Roses in my backyard. There are hundreds of pictures from the same flower. This particular one was taken in morning light. I chose this picture because I wanted to paint the left over bud with just one petal. While I was clicking away, I held my breath hoping that this one petal wouldn't fall off... As the rose grows in age the color in its petals fades out and you can see the color completely faded out in the painting too. But it was lighted up so beautifully in the morning light.
The background is pretty much made up. This flower is in the backyard facing a greenbelt. So I thought green background would be appropriate. I love the blue light in the background and the petals, it brings a nice contrast and luminosity to the pink colored petals!!

BTW I wanted to finish this painting on Valentines day but I did the sketch itself a day after valentines :) So I am pretty much half a month or so behind in this painting!!

Pink is becoming my new favorite color!

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Full Bloom - Pink Rose, 15x22 inches, Watercolor on 300lb Coldpress Archespaper

Code# PK_19_002
SOLD

Prints of this painting are available on my Etsy Website!!

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!!

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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

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

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..

 click on image to view larger 

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

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

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....

click on image to view large 

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

Code# PK_17_010 

Available - Contact me - preranap@hotmail.com

My First Poinsettia - SOLD

I haven't posted since August!! Didn't realize that it was so long.. For a while I was busy sharpening my sketching skills. Then for about a month, I was training for the Century miles bicycly ride to San Diego. Then after that, just about a month focused more on the Kathak Dance recital coming up.

Now finally back to my studio and in the spirit of Christmas, pulled out a Poinsettia photo reference to paint. The first couple days I found it hard to sit, but quickly got into the flow as I was about half way there. Loved doing the light effects and how each leaf unfolded. I feel each leaf has its own dance and yet they all stand together as if in a dance pose !!

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My First Poinsettia, 8x10 inches. Watercolor on Arches paper

Code# PK_16_022 

SOLD 

An Art print can be made available on request, 

contact me - preranap@hotmail.com

Dancing Joy

It was a joy to create this painting - my favorite Dance in combination with my favorite peacock feather!!
Many thanks to Sampada Deshpande for providing me photographs and allowing me to paint from her photographs.
For those who don't know this is Kathak dance - one of the classical dance forms of India. Click here to know more about this dance form on Wikipedia.
The speciality of this painting is that it is mixed media piece with peacock feather and stage painted in watercolor on arches paper; and the dancer is painted in traditional Oil paints on canvas panel.

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Dancing Joy, 16x12 inches, Mixed Media on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_16_018

Here is how I did it: I first sketched the dancer on canvas panel. Then traced the dancer outline on tracing paper. Used carbon paper and tracing paper on top to get the exact outline of the dancer on Arches Watercolor paper. Next I cut out the dancer shape from arches paper. Pasted the arches paper on canvas panel carefully matching the cutout to the drawn dancer on canvas panel. Once the paper was attached to the panel, I let it dry overnight with weights on it. 

I first painted the watercolor part i.e peacock feather and stage.  Once I was happy with the watercolor part, I let it dry throughly before starting with oils. Now the figure was painted similar to traditional oils but I always paint with palette knife, which is what I chose to do for it too. 

I am very happy with the piece and it is my very first mixed media painting!! Love it!

Day 30 - 30 in 30 Challenge Jan 2016 - Bird Of Paradise - SOLD

This is my last one from the 30 in 30 challenge! I love flowers and this one is one of my favorite. It is a blessing to see this flower bloom in abundance all around us in Southern California region!! I always always stop by to look at each flower planted all around my office building! What a blessing to see beauty all around!

 click on image to view larger

Bird Of Paradise - 5x7 inches, Watercolor on Arches paper

Code# PK_16_015 
Original SOLD 
9x12 inches size print can be made available on request - $30.00 - preranap@hotmail.com

Day 26 - 30 in 30 Challenge Jan 2016 - Cana Lily - SOLD

This painting is an orange delight!! Once again played around with light and shadow on the Cana flowers. I love the bright blooms of Cana and of course I have these planted in my backyard!

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Cana Lily, 7x5 inches, Watercolor on Arches paper

Code# PK_16_014 

Original SOLD
9x12 size print can be made available upon request for $30.00 - preranap@hotmail.com

Day 18 - 30 in 30 Challenge Jan 2016 - Magenta Bougainvillea - SOLD

In my childhood we had 2 different colored Bougainvilleas. Magenta was on one side of the pillar of the open veranda and I loved this color. Last year I planted one in our front yard too and is getting beautiful blooms. And now I have a painted version of Bougainvillea too!! It had been on my list of reference pictures for a long time.
If you are wondering - opera pink is the name of the watercolor tube I bought, and it is Winsor and Newton professional brand.

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Magenta Bougainvillea - 7x5 inches, Watercolor on Arches Paper

Code# PK_16_012 

Original SOLD
9x12 inches size print can be made available on request for $30 + shipping

Day 6 - 30 in 30 Challenge Jan 2016 - Yellow Plumeria - SOLD

Now this Yellow Plumeria gave me quite a bit of troubles... I thought I could easily complete in a day in one sitting. But as I progressed into it, it felt like never ending. I found myself painting over and over the same areas. Something wasn't going right and the flower wasn't looking right to me. I was almost to a point of getting rid of it, but I didn't. Next morning, thinking that I have already ruined the painting, I felt free to try and experiment on it more. I went up to it and pushed a punch of color - and there the petals started singing and twirling!!
I didn't develop the branches and background as much since it would take away focus from the flower itself!
Its a great experience to be painting everyday - this one really taught me to be patient with myself.

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Yellow Plumeria - 7x5 inches, Watercolor on Arches paper

Code# PK_16_004 

Original SOLD
A 9x12 inches size print can be made available on request $30.00 - preranap@hotmail.com

Glowing Hibiscus

Painting in watercolors is my childhood passion and I love painting flowers. This painting is inspired by the great American Painter - Georgia O'Keeffe.

"When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else."
Georgia O'Keeffe
American Painter

Glowing Hibiscus, 7x5 inches, Watercolor on Arches Paper

Code# PK_15_049

Available - Click here

Morning Glory

I came back from walking our dog in the morning, opened our backyard door to get in. Right behind the door in a dark corner, I saw this flower shining bright - back lit by fresh morning sun. I couldn't resist taking a picture! I tried some different ways to get texture in the background, wasn't quite happy. However a good learning experience!

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Morning Glory, 5 x 7 inches, Watercolor on Arches Paper

Code# PK_15_046

Available - click here