Chilika Explorations

About four months back I had made a trip to Chilika lake (again) with my family. We traveled on an open boat for about 3 hrs to reach a small island. The island had a small temple where people from the land came to offer prayers sometimes. We managed to cook our lunch on the boat which we devoured sitting under a tree in front of the temple. It was the migration season so birds from far away countries gave us company all the time. 

Among all this I was struck by the serenity of the majestic lake once again. After I returned for the last four months I have been trying to replicate the 'feel' on paper since then. I wont say I have been successful, but the journey has been good. Here are some of the works that came out of this journey.

Chilika Explorations - XI

20 x 28 inch

Chilika Explorations - VII

21 x 14 inch

Chilika Explorations - X

10 x 14 inch

Chilika Explorations - II

21 x 14 inch

Few WC sketches

Hampi series continues

I have to blame it on Facebook. It is so much easier. It makes me lazy to come here and post. But I am not giving up. Though not as frequent as earlier, I have made it a point to come and post here. So many of my friends are not on FB and also many of my artist friends do not post on FB. So I am not going to miss out on the art work here for sure. :)

So my Hampi series continues and these are the next three in the water series. I guess I'll put a full stop to the water series and move on to something else. Till then I hope you enjoy these.

Elements of Hampi Series: Water - IV

"Transport"
10x14 inch

Elements of Hampi Series: Water - III
"Music"
21x14 inch

Elements of Hampi Series: Water - II
"Tungabhadra"
14x21 inch

After a long break

Its been long. Really long. Almost two and half months. A lot happened during this time. I had to move out of my old place. So I had to search for a new place, move in there, setup my new studio and do all that stuff which end up taking too much time. 

Anyway now that I am back, hope to catch up with everything that is happening in blogosphere. And the updates from my side is that another book just got published for which I did the cover. Its available in stores now. Here is the flipkart link.

Cover Illustration for "She Was"

I have started my new next series. And this series will be on Hampi, where I had been about six months back. This is the first one of the series. Hope you enjoy this..

Elements of Hampi Series: Water - I
Title - Still
Size - 10x14 inch

Muvattupuzha - VII

It has been a long drawn series. And it comes to end with this one. Presenting to you the last of Muvattupuzha. Hope you enjoy this.

Muvattupuzha - VII

11 x 15 inch

Muvattupuzah - VI

I did this just before I started my prep for the exhibition. And since then I have not been able to get time even to post this. Yes. I have been busy. :)

A solo exhibition is really demanding. Fortunately I am quiet good on the plan right now. Nothing has got delayed till now and I hope it stays that way. Just got stuck with the invitations a little. There was no printer guy who was ready to print the envelopes of the invites for me for a reasonable price. The envelop was actually going to cost more than two times the invitation cards. And others were not ready to print on envelopes.

So I decided that I would do all the envelopes manually using my brush and paints. And it really did not take that long really. And moreover I enjoyed doing these. 

Muvattupuzah - VI

11 x 15 inches

Hand painted covers for the invitations cards

Kodaikanal series continues

Latest 2 paintings from my Kodaikanal series are here. Struggled quiet a bit with these. Painting water can be very daunting at (most) times. Both paintings are of the same location by the way.

Have a great weekend. And Happy Deepavali to all my friends in advance.

Misty Kodai (KKNL III)

Daybreak @ Kodai (KKNL - IV)

Kodaikanal - II

This is the second of the Kodaikanal series (Since I have more than one painting now I can call it a series safely. LOL). We were boating on the lake and the sun was playing hide and seek. There was this one moment during which the lake was under shadow, but the adjoining hill was lit up by sun light. I loved that and wanted to capture that feel here. It was tough. Hopefully I managed to do it.

Hide and Seek - KKNL series II

20 x 26 inch

Watercolor on paper

Math

The title is not Math as in mathematics as most would think. Math (in Hindi and Odia) generally means a place where holy men (Sadhus) stay. This is a math in my village Bhusandpur in Odisha. The math complex has temples dedicated to different Gods and Godesses. The two temples that you can see in this photo are that of Hanuman and Jagannath.

Anyway coming to the painting, I am not at all happy with it. The villages in India have such a different atmosphere and mood. It is so different from cities. And since I am not so used to that kind of mood it becomes very difficult to paint it. But still I keep trying. One day I hope I'll be able to get that mood on paper successfully.

I have been on a little bit of travel cut off from the internet most of the time. So I have not been really able to paint and post of late. And I have also not been able to visit all your blogs on a regular basis. Looks like it is going to continue like this for some time. Hopefully by October everything will be sorted out.

And yes I'll be taking a workshop in October in Bangalore. Details will soon follow. 

Signing off now. Have a great day.

Title : Hanumant Math

Size : 15 x 22 inch

Medium: Watercolor on paper

Morning Dew

90% of the painting was done in a single wash and I loved that. The rest 10% really did not add anything to the final product. I wish I had taken a picture of the first wash.

Anyways can you feel the dew!!!!!!

Title : Morning Dew

Size : 15 x 22 inch

Medium : Watercolor on paper

Sappers at Ulsoor

This is the boat club of Madras Sappers Regiment at Ulsoor lake. Ulsoor lake is one of my favorite places in Bangalore. In a cramped city here one gets to experience a little bit of space. And with greenery and avian life around the lake spending time here always brings peace. This was done from a plein air sketch I had done about 2 months back. Both are posted. 

While the plein air one is crisp, this has a little more subdued feel. It was not planned that way. It just turned out that way. As they say watercolor has its own ways. We'll never know.

And of course the plein air work always has the spontaneity that studio pieces fail to have.

p.s. By the way Superb Sandra's painting has been shortlisted for a competition. Please visit her post (click here) to know about it and if you like her entry dont forget to vote. :)

Title : Sappers @ Ulsoor

Size : 20 x 26 inch

Medium : Watercolor on paper

Plein air sketch @ Ulsoor lake

Lillies

Today I am posting a painting I had done earlier, because in the last week I have not painted. I have been drawing mostly. Just thought that my hands were not moving so well with the pencil. So have been just drawing. This painting was a tough one. Did not do justice to it. And further to that my camera did not do justice to the painting. But posting it anyways.

Title - Lillies (What else :))

Size - 15 x 11 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper

Photo Courtesy - Satyesh Naik

The final final one

Okay here is the final painting of the Chilika Stills series. My last painting in this series was the final one when it was painted. But I thought I just might do one more. My initial composition was a vertical one and consisted of only the left side of the painting. But I thought that would be too obvious a composition and hence I did this horizontal composition with more of the water on the right. Had to add those buoys to lead the eye into the painting. Whether it worked or not I dont know. But I am glad that I tried it.

By doing this series and reflecting on it I found that I tend to become a bit tight when there are not much of free shapes to play around. I got to keep this in mind when I am painting from now onwards. Hopefully it will make me a better painter.
 

Title : Chilika Stills - V

Size : 15 x 22 inch

Medium : Watercolor on paper

By the way my 2 day group show at Aliiance Francaise went off very well. It was well atteneded and my work was appreciated.

And here is a plein air painting I did yesterday at Tipu's summer palace here in Bangalore. It is a small palace made completely of teak wood. I found that there was a good play of light and shadow on the side wall of the palace than any other place. So I painted that. Though it does not reveal anything much about the palace, I think this was a good subject. Or at least I painted what attracted me.

Signing off now. Wishing you all a great week ahead.

Plein air @ Tipu's Summer palace, Bangalore - 05th Feb, 2012

Size : 15 x 22 inch

Medium : Watercolor on paper

Chilika Stills

First of all thank you so much for suggesting title for my painting in the previous post. I really loved all of them. The title that I chose was inspired by a title suggested by a friend on facebook. So my painting is now called 'Ode to the superhero', the superhero in context being the farmer who keeps al of us well fed. 

Currently a watercolor exhibition by Mr Kashinath Hiremath is going on at Chitrakala Parishat. I had had the good fortune of meeting him last year in January and again this year I met him at his exhibition. It was really a nice experience chatting up with him and it was a treat experiencing his work at the exhibition. It is on till 15th Jan. So you may want to go there if you are around. You can see some of his works here.

Coming to this painting now. This is a scene of the banks of Chilika lake. I had visited this place in December and had spent a night in one of the islands in the lake. The landscape in that time of the year was very still. Everything looked almost like a photo, where nothing moved. I have tried to capture that stillness here. Tried, but not sure whether captured it. I am calling this Chilika stills - I, because I plan to do one or two more of such scenes. I hope I carry out my plan. :)

How have you been. What is that you are trying to capture in your next painting? I would love to hear from you.

Title - Chilika Stills - I

Size - 15 x 22 inch

Medium - Watercolor on paper

Eevening on Ganga

Title - Evening on Ganga

Size - 20 x 30 inches

Medium - Watercolor on paper

This painting is not something I usually do. Firstly the colors and the feel are very melodramatic. Putting a wash of pure crimson and vermilion takes a lot of courage on my part. Secondly its a full sheet painting. And this has to be done standing, which I do not really prefer (Its not such a crime to be lazy.. Right!!!). And managing a full sheet is much tougher than doing a half sheet painting. But anyway this was a good stretching I got. Literally. :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Somewhere in Germany

Title - Somewhere in Germany
Size - 15 x 21 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper

Okay here is the painting.. I hope you like it. It did not go according to the plan completely, but to quiet an extent.

Plein air..

I did some plein air work this weekend and the last weekend too at Lalbaugh. I am posting the outcome. Some okay, some not so okay. Anyway here they are. But its always great fun to paint outdoors.

I also realized that for some tricky compositions I needed to have a view finder. Hopefully I'll have one next time. And being a not so organized person I always end up forgetting something or the other. I think a checklist will of help. Those, who do not score very high on being organized must have a checklist for plein air painting I guess. Imagine if you forget your pad or your brushes.

Happy painting..

Backwaters continued..

Title - Lets Talk
Size - 14 x 21 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper

Title - Boat Stop
Size - 21 x 14 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper

Here I am again with 2 new paintings of my backwater series. I am not very happy with the way things are coming out now. But I guess they are leading me somewhere. So still some more to paint in this series.

It has become quiet hot and dry now here in Bangalore. That means paper dries really fast now a days. So you can guess how frustrating it gets some times. I think I'll have to increase my speed of painting to counter the heat. I have to adapt. That is it from my side... until next time..Take care..

Escape - II

This painting of mine reminded me a little bit of the Lord of the rings. But I thought the water was not as it would be in the Shire. There would be a a gentle breeze causing smooth ripples on the greenish water which would then reflect the golden sunlight to create a magical ambiance. So I thought of redoing the painting.

Though this did not come anywhere near what I imagined still it looked good to me. I hope you enjoy it too. By the way I have one last ticket to the Shire left. Anybody game? :)

Title - Escape - II
Size - 21 x 14 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper

Inspiration

About 3-4 months back I had come across this blog which looked very interesting. I did not have time back then to go through it and in due course of time I forgot about it (I am a busy person after all... LOL). Then it was a small coincidence that brought me back to the blog again and this time I started going through it. This is a travelogue which explores that part of India to which I belong. I found it so engaging that within 2 days I had read all the posts. Some of the posts were so well written that it kept taking back to my growing up days. And when you can paint such blogs do serve as inspiration.

The author of the blog Satyesh was kind enough to allow me to use some of his photos. This painting comes from this post of his. I have tried to capture the feel of a lonely little forest stream. Can you hear the water flowing down?? :)

Title - Untitled
Size - 14 x 19 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper

By the way I'll be there in Mysore participating in Mysore's first Chitrasanthe (art market) on 3rd of October. The venue is Najaraja Bahaddur Choultry near Metropole circle. If you are there you can drop by. It will be nice to meet you.

Detour

A little detour from portraits that I was trying out. Actually this is a second level of detour so to say. Landscapes -> Portraits -> Landscapes. LOL.

After a very long gap I met up with PC to paint. Enjoyed good food cooked by his parents and wife and painting with him. The reference picture was originally on a calendar. It was great to be painting landscapes again. It gives much more freedom you see.

Title - Escape
Size - 15 x 22 inch
Medium - Watercolor on paper