The Odd Pair

This is my first still life painting in oil. I have been reading quite a bit on impressionist painting techniques (thank you google!) and had to try it out. Also I have never painted fruits! So when I found this apple and banana lying around in the kitchen I arranged them on the table and tried to make them immortal! Yes the apple was shaped like that... it was different and that interested me and the banana had just started ripening. This wet on wet technique was completed on a 9 * 11 canvas board. By the end of this exercise I ate the apple! :)

At last......I'm back! and Sunflowers are In!

Finally! After close to 5 years I was able to complete an oil painting. I love sunflowers - they are always bright and cheerful! It took me more than 2 weeks to complete this oil painting.. I was so excited that I wanted to add a lady bird to one of the petals but I resisted! This painting is oil on mounted canvas 9 inches * 12 inches. The photo has not come out that great...it hardly seems to do justice to the light sky blue background of this painting. The canvas is still drying and I will take a better picture when its completely dry. Maybe that would help. What do you think of the painting?Please be brutal with your thoughts!

Une jolie fleur pour la belle dame

My second real water color painting attempt. I should say it went better than my first one. After all the reading up on water color techniques this is what I came up with. I also tried a collage like technique to present the painting by superimposing my painting on a plain white sheet. Fancy eh??Being more of an oil colors persons, I just don't understand these water colors! They seem pretty complicated to me. But being a watercolor neophyte I am trying to understand the mystery behind these colors.

On a different note, I would like to dedicate this one to the person who is always the first one to take a look at my posts on this blog and comment. She is getting married later this week and I thought this would be the best gift from me!

Swarna, wish you a happy married life!

The Ballerina

Finally my first piece of art for the year! I managed to go above and beyond my lazy phases and started working on this sketch. I have never sketched human figures before. I have painted loads of them but never really ventured to sketch them. I decided to do a ballerina after recalling the ballet performance that I was a part of at school. At the end of the training and performance I ended up with a ligament tear! That probably explains why this sketch is not as good... This is my first attempt at doing a stick figure. The details are minimal and the sketch has been kept as simple as possible.

Pup on the rocks

After eons here is something from me. Blame the stress....times are bad! This one is inspired from a cute yellow Labrador pup playing over some rocks. A colleague who adores dogs showed me a picture of this guy a few months ago. This is my first attempt at using charcoal pencils.They are kinda messy so now I need to look for some kind of fixative to preserve the sketch. I hope there aren't too many delays before my next sketch. In the meantime your views on this one are welcome.

Halloween Pumpkins

It has been more than a month since I sketched anything myself and I blame other priorities that seem to have taken over my life! In the week end that passed I came across some pumpkins that were painted for Halloween celebrations. Most of them had some really unique expressions and faces. I have never ventured into painting vegetables before but it seems like a fun activity! I wanted to post a pic of these two pumpkins that seemed really unique to me - they were just sitting there in the corner amongst the dead leaves and stones and blissfully happy with their lives! I am pushing myself to start something real soon, in the meantime however I hope you enjoy this work of art by an anonymous artist!

The Rose - Up close and personal

The queen of all flowers, beautiful beautiful in all its colors with the power to make every woman smile. Its sweet smell has the powers to soothe the soul and its praise has been sung by many a poet. When I came across this arial view, I couldn't resist transferring it to my sketch book. It seemed to me that every petal of the blooming rose contained a secret or a story to share!