The Rise and The Fall

She was teary-eyed when she saw it. Perhaps because she's given up hope of its every seeing the light of day! As I confessed in my earlier post, this was the promise that I'd made, the promise I'd procrastinated acting upon and the one thing that made me feel my lowest low in a long, long time.

On the last weekend of the term, I sat with the resolve to have fun and finish it by 4pm. I didn't care about reference pictures or technical flaws. I just needed the final painting to have enough detail and tons of warm colours - the yummy yellows, the ornamental oranges and oh-so-radiant reds. This was also the first painting where I used water colour pencils, though I haven't yet experimented with them enough. I used them for the bark of the trunk and branches at first, but what's more clearly visible are the brush-marks. I used some spray-painting for the finer details and a little oil pastel instead of masking fluid in very insignificant parts (Wish I'd used them more!).

It was just not going to be a smooth ride, I realised within 10 minutes into the process. There was a dinner-party in the evening that I had to cook for a dozen people. New recipes, few supplies, even lesser time. Random incidents demanded me to run out, walk half a kilometer to and fro various nooks of the campus. Tons of distractions later, I saw myself panting to her house with one arm outstretched. That I don't need a CHUNK of time to myself to sit to paint was quite a discovery - yay (that's the usual grouse for procrastinating. I just don't seem to have 7 hours to myself!)!

I finally did it! I was thrilled to bits with the whole process. Not really with the final product. I think I've broken the mental block that I'd developed for a 6 months... now. I can't tell you how much lighter I feel. Here is how it looks.

Autumn Revisited

There's something revolting about the general melancholic connotation with Autumn. The sundance of summer's gone and the chills of winters await round the corner - but could the seasons share a better cordiality than one spreading a splendourously warm welcome that the town's awash with? The yellows, oranges and red of autumn leaves mesmerise me with their nearly fiery vibrance. The barren tree branches, having let go of these vivid companions finally show their hereby hidden artistry of shape and dimension. I just love it!

At least I loved it till I tried to put paint to perception. I confess I was nervous to put that up here initially - and each time I logged on, I'd ignore that one post deliberately, just as you don't want to bump into the teacher who punished you years ago in school. I've hoped no one would see it either - or better still, choose to not comment on it even if they did.

Thank God they did. It didn't go unnoticed and I dared not feel escaped. My day began with a friend calling in commenting on everything else and subtly mentioning his disappointment at that particular one. The tree seems aflame; the green grass underneath looks unnatural for the season and the streaks of light look too fake!

That's it, I told myself - I need to give it another shot. I just had to do it - and do it today - at the earliest. Not that I had any better confidence in my abilities, but I simply couldn't log on to the blog another time without having an answer to my own guilty mind which taunted each time with "What about that one?" Here's what I did over the last two hours. I thought I worked at it and looked at my reference picture (and the flaws in the previous painting) carefully.

It isn't great. But I'll get better. I promise!

Happy New Year!

A much belated post, this painting was made in the spirit of the sun's first rays on January 01, 2008 streaking through the autumned memories of the year gone by.

I'm not sure it was the play of wet-in-wet or the fun that spattering always is that made this such fun to paint... Though it was a little disappointing to see the final result much duller than attempted, I've learnt from my errors, I promise!

Happy New Year (It still feels new!)!

The Autumn Tree

I started this painting before the turn of the last page of the calendar. It started as an experiment, metamorphosed into a fun-filled colour-splash session and ended up being a discovery. Does that make it worthy of being put up as the first painting of the year? Maybe, maybe not. To make this periodic decision less subjective, let's just go by chronology :)

Salt grants water colours a certain granular texture - an interesting way of depicting foliage. The amateur in me was excited to learn that - my imagination failed me in conjuring up an intricately explicit picture of the plausible final product. I was curious - and itching to experiment. Enthusiastically I oozed out various colours on the palette and one by one, began to paint wet-in-wet. Honestly, a freehand to a splash of multi-colour wet-in-wet is all that's needed to bring out the kindergarten kid in you. Forget about the end product or the composition of a painting - I'd say, just give it a shot! It's the same feeling that a gull experiences when it swooshes over an endless sea.

And oh! I discovered a lot of things...

It's nice to have a reference picture, but chances are, the gap between the finished painting and the picture can seem intimidating enough to want to take up reading as your favourite hobby for the next few days. A demonstation from art-books is even better. But since most of my paintings begin with a big brouhaha in my own head, by the time I'm done with following Step 3 of 10, the brouhaha has been brewed into quite a bacchanalia.

Nothing beats the kick that a sheer flight of imagination can give. I guess my next painting would be the result of close observation of some snaps that my new shutter-bug has recently feasted on. However, I want to give myself 10 minutes of such staring-time and all the time in the world to play around with the flights of fantasy that emanate thereafter. That's the biggest discovery.

And yes, too much salt dries up the water AND gobbles up the paint!