Streaming Mist

I want to hear the sound of trickling water - not just wipe it off my neck as it trickles down! Just as I was about to begin painting this scene, the power went off and with it, went off half my enthusiasm to look closely at the reference picture on my computer!

"Ugh!", I thought to myself. The very next moment, however, saw me "folding up the sleeves of my work-clothes and putting my shoulder to the wheel"! I finished this painting really quickly and thoroughly enjoyed watching the washes blend into each other on the stone. I loved the multitude of colours, though I know I could have done a much better (read 'realistic') job of it! But I forgave myself partly thanks to the fact that I was doing it purely out of memory of the reference picture and partly thanks to the fun that painting this was!

Monday Morning Blues

Bridge over...

Crags

Ecologically yours affectionately...

These are perhaps the first two paintings in years that I have made without ANY reference pictures. I thought it would be more difficult than this - but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed painting these. These pictures are part of a presentation that a teacher needs to make for little kids to introducs/remind them of the difference between an artifical, mechanised, interfered world and one that is left to work on its own.

The first picture's got a perfect produce - the end product that all our energies are focussed upon - but lifeless, dull flora and fauna. The second picture shows the diversity and vibrance in a natural environment where the produce is more diverse, as rich, but perhaps takes somewhat longer to grow. There are other subtle differences that I'd rather not point out. Of course, the shadow of the photographer in the second one is one of them :)

Hmmm... now for the splash of colour for my perky friend!

Where stories unravel...

Those shadows are understated - the sun is at its sunniest best this afternoon. I decided to push myself a little and go out, around the campus and sketch a little something here, a little something there. I ended up walking straight to the "Round Hut" in the Junior School.

It's a lovely little straw-and-mud hut that we listen to all kindsof stories in. Stories from children and why one of them hurt the other last evening. Stories of children and their silliness, shenanigans or secrets. Stories for children and how white-winged fairies swung them around with their magic wand. Stories about childhood stories that teachers look back fondly on as anecdotes or life's lessons. And every other kind of story that this one little hut often tends to evoke.

...And I'm back!

I can't paint - oh, I just can't paint.

Three days ago, I decided to vacate my art-shelf in the cupboard and put it to better use. I'll remember it as one of those fleeting fancies of life, I told myself (almost) tearfully.

It seemed like ages ago that I last picked up the paintbrush and it certainly has been a really long time that I painted something that I was a tad proud of. I didn't know where to pick up the thread from - I had lost it! The lack of practice translated itself into a complete lack of confidence. The earlier notes would tell you about how wishful (and dramatically ambitious) I was (and continue to be) to begin a floral series (just can't keep the awe-inspiring intricacies of flowers out of my mind). I must confess, when I sat to get back to painting now that the long stretch (two FULL months - the perks of being a teacher- yeeehoooo!) of summer vacation's finally begun, I sketched the ever-inspiring Iris. I began painting it, too. But that was that. Soon enough, I realised that I had to give it up. Read the first couple of lines of this note, and you'd know what thoughts my mind was resonant with.

It was only when I became conscious of the fleeting calendar that I decided to 'fight back' this obnoxiously nauseas feeling. I decided to get back to the basics - these sketches came, all in an hour and a half. The idea was to familiarise myself with the feeling of the process of being patient (difficult -SO difficult!) and thoughtful while putting in the brush-strokes rather than the final outcome.

This felt good. Really good.

For some reason, I chose to explore landscapes (thanks to David Bellamy's watercolours - he's SO inspiring!). My mind was cloyed with all the floral reference pictures that I had been satiating my hunger for, all this while. So I got back to painting without an underdrawing (pic.1), painting for colour (pic.2) and finally painting with a limited pallete (pic.3 - monochrome!). It was so much fun, that I couldn't sleep till the wee hours of the morning. Yes!!!!!

The floral series is on its way. I promise. But before that, I need to get the rust off my fingers - and mind.

I'm back :)

The Happy Bush!

Like all grand plans, I'd thought tonight would be the night of endless paintings - what I refer to as 'the churn'. I had recently picked up a dusted book from the 'botany' section of the Junior School library for lack of a trigger/inspiration even though I have been dying to paint for the last one week! I've stuck bookmarks all over the book - it's a delight!

I just wanted to keep the pencil at bay. This wasn't as bad as I'd prepared my mind for. Neither was the Visteria - what do you think? More florals coming up - watch out!

P.S.
The title's spun a pun... unintentionally - I promise :P

Melt 'n' Mirror

Tomato Farm

Snow-flakes catcher

The valley's been misty in the morning and chilly in the late evenings. Winter's slowly creeping in - almost unnoticed. We've taken out our thickest, snuggest blankets and all I can think of are the Pine trees in Shimla's snow-laden landscape. Here's a toast to the swirls of branches that balance porous snow and look upon the city!

The Afternoon...

I'm not sure why I made this painting. There wasn't a tree with crimson flowers anywhere in the vicinity of my painting table. There wasn't a fence. And if I remember clearly, the day I painted it, it was cloudy, not as sunny as this!

It was an afternoon when I wished there to be sun and wanted those yellowed trees to magically blossom into their floral version that they had been, not so long. I lost patience with the underlying shadows and there isn't any attention to detail. There wasn't meant to be. As simple as that. I wanted some colour to a rather overcast afternoona nd this happened to be how. Period.

Capital Crags

Mountains intimidate. Period.
Especially when it's snow-capped ones with the rock underneath jutting out devilishly at the contours.

This painting was inspired by a similar work that I came across in an art-book and almost forced me start right away. The only condition - I couldn't look at it once I begin painting. It's been a revelatory to find that painting is most fun and fulfilling when I'm concentrating on one painting at a time.

Cryptically Curvilicious, Majectically Magnificent...

There are some days that you don't snooze the alarm-clock. There are some days that you wake up with a tickle, smile on your lips, a song in your heart. I woke up humming Denver's "Country Roads" and withing an hour, took to the Valley's country roads, with my drawing book and art-supplies in tow!

I've walked these roads earlier - but never in sunny mornings, and never ever with a satchel of drawing supplies. As promised to myself, I'd stopped at the first instance that something caught my fancy - it was this tree. I've simply not been able to do it's curves the justice. It wasn't luxurious or majestic - simply elegant.




What was majestic, though sparse, was this scene, replete with the famous "Three Sisters" rocks (see top-left corner), extremely beautiful rock formations and the ephemeral play of sun-and-clouds and light-and-shade. What could be more inspiring! A set of 12 colour pencils initially made me want to reach out for the oil pastels box like the previous one, but the lure of the softness and the precision that pencils give was too much to trespass. I wanted to capture the shadows of the clouds on paper - the darker patch on the left hill is a vain attempt at that. It was a great learning experience in elimination of certain details for the sake of the larger picture.

The big black ants got used to me after I brushed them away 50 times. I must confess, the smiles of the passerby villagers was intriguing - thank God I still don't know what to make of those grins! As the first one, the final outcome does not do justice to the beauty and the serenity of the place. But you know what? I'm grinning from ear o ear for the sheer fact that I did my first "outdoors" today!

Ribboned Waters

In response to the innuendos of the sky to call it a day, the city flickers for "just a little longer". While the day sees the grey of citiscape, it is the dusk that glimmers to an oft-colourful kaleidoscope of various hues.



It's a drawing that just had to be made - regardless of the medium. In line with the flavour of the day, I ended up putting 60 minutes of crayons in spite of my doubts about the final piece. I won't say I'm delighted - but I'm certainly happy that it's as colourful as it was meant to be, nearly as vivid as desired and that the 60 minutes have been as tiring as a good walk at the end of which you simply know you've shed half a kilo!

Light-tickled still waters maketh many a citiscape memorable, isn't it?

Swaying Daydreams

It was one of those lazy mornings when bed-in-breakfast suddenly climbs up your wish-list as and urgent priority. Was it sheer lethargy that brought about Impressionism - I heard myself woolgathering. A gentle, subtle heady feeling made me grin stupidly at the idea of painting today. I didn't want to work too much with pencilling in any details.

Aimlessly wandering across some seemingly cobwebbed web-pages suddenly made me sit up with a discovery. Poppies have long been associated with daydreams, it said, thanks to the properties of one of its derivatives - opium.

Hmm... From meandering moods to bewildering brush-strokes - here it is!

PS
I've never cared much for the flower before this.

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!

Stalwarts

There's something elegant about finding a grove of trees in the middle of nearly dried grasslands when you drive on the Grand Trunk Road while going to Chandigarh from Delhi. The stretch is really a visual delight, with patches of crops varying from blooming sunflowers to paddy, eucalyptus trees to nearly-barren grasses, and refreshing greenery to small ponds that dazzle reflecting the noon rays.

We didn't have a camera and we would drive too fast for me take down a rough sketch. But for a while now, each summer vacation would have this particular scene further embossed in my mind. I could have painted it much earlier - but like most to-do's that aren't tagged with a specific personal deadline, it never happened...

... until I happened to come across a water colour demonstration video on YouTube. If I could tell you how elated it had me instantly, how I whizzed across the room pulling out my paints and painting-book, and how I was glued for the next 2 hours, rewinding and playing various bits of the video for a closer look...I'd be a great writer!

And once I was done, I was jumping up and down. Though it was much different from what the demonsration intended, it looked so much like the one in my mind.

It was also a moment of self-discovery...I miss those annual drives SO much more than the vacations themselves...and SO much more than I thought I did!

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!