Wake up in Paradise

This is painted from a photograph, I wish I can visit this island in Hawaii and paint plein-air.
I think this is Mokulua Island off the Lanikai beach in Kailua, Hawaii. The sunrise is fabulous and I love the sky.
This painting is not for sale.

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Wake Up in Paradise, 16x20 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel, palette knife painting

Code# PK_18_003
Personal Collection, Not for Sale

Beautiful Evening On The Beach 2017 - SOLD

It is interesting how this painting came about... As I was talking with a customer in my booth in Sawdust Art Festival, I got a call which I didn't pick up (since I wanted to attend to people in my booth). I later called back and found out that it was call from Lisa (not giving out the real name). I didn't recognize her but she mentioned she had visited me in Newport beach art fair. She had really liked one of my paintings but it was sold !! Her request was to make another one like it. I looked up which painting she meant, and was really surprised... I had painted in long back. I wasn't sure if I could do a similar one since lately I have been working on my florals.
Anyways I took a plunge and thought to give it a try at least. And that's how this painting came about. I did slight modification on Lisa's request and I was so happy she liked it.
She right away bought this painting and another one too with Christmas theme.
Having quite fun it this season, I think I should revisit my earlier themes I had painted.

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Beautiful Evening On The Beach 2017, 9 x 12 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_17_018
SOLD

For more available paintings, visit my etsy store HERE.

Ready to Pick Guava

Guava is one of my favorite fruit. Back in childhood I spent many hours climbing on guava tree and sitting on the tree until I felt full with the Guavas. This painting brings back those memories...
This is painted from a picture I took of a ripe Guava from my backyard tree. In So Cal its a blessing to have Guava tree at home. The picture was taken couple years ago and finally I took it up for painting it.
I started painting this as part of the Artist Demonstration in Chemer's gallery on May 6th and finished it after coming back home.
I have been doing more watercolors lately so definitely felt good getting back to oil to change it up.

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Ready to Pick Guava, 8x10 inches, Oil on canvas panel

Code# PK_17_013
Available - Click Here

Fixing My Bells - SOLD

After about half a year I arrived back on Oil Painting and had so much fun with my palette knife, the wonderful smell of oils is in my studio again, yay!! I took up my other passionate subject - Kathak dance to paint. Last year i.e in Dec 2016 I did my first Kathak dance recital in Irvine with Sundar Kala Kendra Kathak Dance School. Completed one year of training with Guru Smt. Anjani Ambegaokar. At the time of recital, I took lots of pictures with the intention of possibly doing a painting from one of them. That's excatly what I did in here. This was the costume of our "Women's Group", a beginner level group and I loved it. The picture was taken in the dressing room where my friend was fixing her Ghungroos (Bells) before we hit the backstage for our cue.

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Fixing My Bells, 11x14 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_17_008

SOLD

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 !!

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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

Desert Jewel

First of all I love painting flowers and second, I love desert flowers!! Every spring we have wonderful blooms on the cacti in our neighborhood, on hikes specially. They look like jewels growing on the cacti plants. Here is an attempt to capture one such jewel. Can you feel the heat on these blooms?

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Desert Jewel - 16 x 12 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_16_019 

Available - contact - 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!

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.

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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

Day 1 - 30 in 30 Challenge Jan 2016 - Serene Buddha Statue

Starting out the New Year with peaceful thoughts and so I chose to paint this Buddha Statue! Happy New Year everyone!
Once again I am participating in 30 Paintings in 30 days challenge and I am severely backlogged since day 1... But I am not going to worry or stress about it, will just keep chugging along as best I can!
Got delayed in posting this, it took me good 2 days to finish this since it is a bit bigger and involves figure too.

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Serene Buddha Statue - 9x12 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_16_001 

Available - Click Here

Stuffed Animal in Sun

As plein air (i.e painting outdoors from direct observation) practice, I placed a big stuffed toy animal on a chair in our backyard. Positioned it to get some interesting light on it and originally had placed a trash can on the side instead of the bush. After about 3 hours the painting was not complete but light and shadows had changed drastically, so I had to stop. In my studio finished the stuffed animal, but the trash can was looking rather odd. So instead I converted it into a bush with pink flowers following the same light and shadow pattern as it was on the trash can. Looks good to me now!!
How do you like it?

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Stuffed Animal in Sun - 8x10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_15_050

Available - Click Here

Coconut Halves

Here is the demo painting I completed on the day of Ganapati Festival in LA. It took me 2 hours to paint this, while I was painting there were people watching as they were passing by, few stopped to talk. But there was a very curious little girl who stopped with her Dad and brother and watched for sometime. Eventually she asked me questions and it was fun chatting with them during the demo.

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Coconut Halves - 8 x 10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_15_045

Available - click here

Perfect Coconut Split

This painting was created as a practice for doing Live Demonstration during the Ganesh Festival in Los Angeles. A week prior to the actual demo, I set up this still life in my back yard. It was fun to paint, standing in the shade. I chose to paint coconut because that is what I had on hand for preparing the sweet offering "modak" - a favorite of Ganesha.

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Perfect Coconut Split - 8 x 10 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_15_044

Available Click Here

Here is what I made after doing the painting:
Modak: my favorite too and I make them only once a year during this festival time.

Modak

Modak Offering for Ganesha

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!!

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

SOLD

Holy Jim Waterfall - SOLD

Last year in summer, we went for Hiking to Holy Jim Trail about 4 -5 miles from our home. It was a medium hike and not very steep actually. It felt like a long way at first, but after reaching the waterfalls, it was nice and cool and felt very rewarding! Took lots of pictures there and I loved this one. The painting is from one of the pictures cropped to show only the waterfall and close up view. I wanted to bring out the rugged rocks and the trickling waterfalls all over, the algae around it! All together formed interesting shapes and colors!
I would again go hiking there for sure!

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Holy Jim Waterfall - 12 x 16 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

Red Rock Canyon Shades

In December we went for hiking to Whiting Ranch, very close to our home. There are quite a few trails in there for mountain biking as well as walking. We followed the Red Rock Canyon Trail, it took probably 2 hours or so, but at the end of the trail, there was this gorgeous view and specially at sunset, the rocks were glowing! What a reward after hiking so much!! I took pictures and painted this from a picture I took up there.

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Red Rock Canyon Shades - 14 x 18 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel - picture in a warm lighted area

The painting looks different depending on light. The above one in clicked with warm light on. Posting another below with just normal daylight:

Red Rock Canyon Shades - 14 x 18 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel - picture in normal daylight

Spring Tulips

I bought a new Soltek Easel and had to try it in my backyard first. It was valentines day, I bought tulips and put it in vase and placed it outdoors on a table. It was awesome experience to paint outdoors, I love the light for painting!! And BTW this painting will be taught in my One Day Workshop coming up on 28th Feb!!

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Spring Tulips - 12 x 16 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Setup and Work in Progress pics for 30 in 30 challenge

This time around for 30 in 30 challenge, I did the painting the night before for the following day. It gave me a feeling that I am ahead of the game and I posted the painting on my blog around midnight! I had planned for the set up early enough in December and that way my stage was ready for the performance by fruits and vegetables. The set up was rather crude, but worked really well. I took a cardboard box and cut out couple of circles for the light to show. See it below, the cutout for light is on left side top. There was another cut out on right side that I used to secure the inside fabric. See how I have arranged the background fabric. Sometimes I used different colored fabrics, in that case I simply placed the second colored fabric at the bottom surface and then placed my subject on top.

This is the simplest setup anyone can do at home. For the light, I used the clamp light from Home Depot, that way if I needed the light from front, then I clipped it onto my easel (which was in front). In all of my paintings except a couple, I used the light source on the top left as shown in above picture. So I got a lot of practice of painting backlit objects. Next time around though, I am going to construct my stage using the pipes from home depot, which will be sturdy.
However, you might think looking at the setup - this is not exciting at all!! How the heck this could have turned into a beautiful painting and how any artist can get inspired by such a thing..!!!??? Let me reveal the secret....
See first 2 pictures below: Shadowbox Setup (more zoomed in than the earlier one) and Setup Closeup (further zoomed into looking just at the fruits). Another thing I must add here - this is cell phone picture - so not great quality, but its handy to get the idea. Believe me - the fruits and vegetables look gorgeous with reflections of fabric on it and the shadow of fruits reflecting the orange color in this case. So once I focus my attention to the layout of fruit and veges, I sketched it on 6 x 6 canvas board. The Stage 1 as I am showing in collage are the first color notes - where I note the light and dark colors - irrespective of the actual color of the object. My next layer is Stage 2, where I painted actual color of the objects - orange for the objects here and blue-green for the background ...etc. Stage 2 is really the most important stage in the painting, this determines if a painting is going to be successful or not. Further Stage 3 is developing more color variations lighter / darker etc within the area painted in Stage 2. Stage 4 is the final painting with highlights - lightest light and darkest area etc.. At this point, the objects have come alive on the canvas and it is the most fulfilling aspect of painting for me.

Day 31 - 30 in 30 Challenge Jan 2015 - Looking back at 30 days

As I look back at this snapshot of 30 paintings, I extend many thanks to the Artist Leslie Saeta who hosted this challenge. There were 1483 artists around the world who participated in this challenge, which is really impressive!! Also really feel blessed and thankful for the support and appreciation I received from home, friends and family which helped me focus on this creation. Feeling really encouraged! This is the third time I participated in this challenge and I will do it again!! Love Love Love it!!

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Day 29 - 30 in 30 Challenge Jan 2015 - Vine Tomatoes - SOLD

Ok fine, I created few tomato paintings already, but not these Vine Tomatoes that came fresh from the farmers market.. So I had to do them!! And actually I use lot of tomatoes in my cooking and salads equally, so I have them always handy!!

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Vine Tomatoes - 6 x 6 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_15_029
SOLD

More paintings Available here

Day 28 - 30 in 30 Challenge Jan 2015 - Asparagus with Tomato N Cilantro - SOLD

My husband bought Asparagus from the farmer's market on the weekend. This is a vegetable that I have never painted, so took up the challenge along with my favorite tomato and cilantro!!
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Asparagus with Tomato N Cilantro - 6 x 6 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

Code# PK_15_028

SOLD