Mysore Trip - Post I

The first post from much hyped Mysore trip is here.:)

More posts will follow soon.

Date - 29 March 2014

Time - 11:30 (approx)

Though we had planned to start for Mysore early in the morning, we could start only by 8:00. By 11:00 AM we had reached Srirangapatna, which is around 20 kms before Mysore. As it is a historic city we decided to stop there and check if we could paint there. The sun was already very harsh and after cooling ourselves with some tender coconut water (which was really very sweet and refreshing) we found this arch, which is actually the entrance to Srirangapatna city. We took shelter below a tree and decided to paint there.

The subject was great and both of us were really excited to paint. It all went well till we started putting paint on paper. The heat was so powerful, that by the time we went back to a wash with more paint, it would already be dry. It was a huge challenge to paint that way. To add to our woes the sun had gone around the tree and hence the shade also was gone. So we decided to move with unfinished works.

After I was back, I looked at the painting, evaluated it and then completed it as the memory was still fresh in my mind and I had already got the major shapes in place in the painting. Hopefully you'll be able to feel some of the sunlight through this work.

Have a great week ahead. Will be back with the next post in a few days time.

Plein air @ Srirangapatna 29 March 2014

14 x 10 inch

This is what I had managed at the location.

One more post before Mysore posts

I know I should be posting works from Mysore trip. I have created so much hype about it already. LOL. But I guess you'll have to bear with me for just one more post. I am analyzing those works, correcting them and in some cases completing them as they could not be completed on the spot. I'll post them real soon. Till then here are two more plein air works, which I painted on 16 March at RMZ Infinity Food court.

I'll be back really soon with works from Mysore trip.

Plein Air @ RMZ Infinity 16 March 2014 - II

14 x 10 inch

Plein Air @ RMZ Infinity 16 March 2014 - III

10 x 14 inch

Back from Mysore Trip

I made a trip to the heritage city of Mysore last weekend with fellow artist Madhu Kumar. Mysore is at a distance of 140 kms from Bangalore. We started very early on Saturday and were back in Bangalore on Monday evening. Mysore is a very beautiful city. Mysore is known for monuments like the Mysore palace, Chamundi Hills, KRS Dam and Vrindavan Gardens etc. But the artist's eye sees much more than that. Mysore was simply stunning. We were surely spoilt for choices, when we started painting. I felt like a greedy child who was left to swim in a ocean of candies, and he did not know where to start from.

The only let down was the weather. It was too hot and in the afternoon we had to stay indoors and could not paint during that time. But otherwise it was a great trip for learning and exploring my creative side further.

One thing that I learnt was that such trips with fellow artists are a great time to learn and share. As painting is the only thing that everyone has on their minds, it creates great energy, focus and intensity. It surely brings out certain aspect of an artist which otherwise may have been laying dormant. And moreover the discussions, critiques etc by other artists is a great value add to one's learning. I am really looking forward to more such trips in future.

And couple of days and half was no way good to be in Mysore for. One needs at least a couple of weeks to do some justice to the beauty of Mysore.

I'll be posting the works in the coming weeks, when I photograph them. Till then I'll leave you with a study from my trip and another plein air work that I had done a couple of weeks ago.

Plein air at RMZ Infinity 23 march 2014 - I
12 x 9 inch

Study at Srirangapatna (20 kms from Mysore)

Thats me painting on Chamundi Hills

Compilation of Madu and my works at the end of the trip

Memories from Ramnagar

Two months back I went for a sketching day to Ramnagar (about 60 kms from Bangalore) with two of my sketching buddies. We spent the entire day travelling, sketching and enjoying the beauty of rural India. The divided sheet is one of the things I brought back from Ramnagar. It is fun to paint on a divided sheet.

Later I decided to do a big one for one of them, which is posted here. I am going for a 3 day sketching trip to Mysore, which is a heritage city. I hope to soak myself in the beauty of Mysore and hopefully bring back something worthwhile from there too.

Wish you all a very happy weekend.

Smoky Morning at Ramnagar

18 x 24 inch

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

Excited will be an understatement

I really dont remember the day of the week and the time when Malgudi Days used to be aired on National TV. All I remember was I always watched Swamy and his friends with a lot of fascination and would wait the entire week for the show. That was the magic of R.K Narayan on whose book the series was based. Ordinary stories about everyday people in everyday settings is what RKN wrote about. But his characters and stories never failed to evoke thoughts in the reader. It never failed to touch. Probably because of the simplicity of the characters. Or may be because of the profundity of the ideas that his stories expressed.

RKN's works have touched the lives of many around the world. I have been a great admirer of his work. And in my wildest of dreams also I had never thought that I would be so fortunate as to have my painting as a book cover of an RKN collection of stories. I am deeply humbled. I got my copy of the book from the publisher today and I was still in disbelief, though only about a month back I had done this painting and sent it to them.

Here is the book available on flipkart.

I could not have got a better gift at the start of my new year. Thank you Universe.