Water color painting. Butterfly

Hi everyone.  Thankyou for visiting and following my blog.  I found a calendar on butterflies and they were so colorful and designed that I got a jolt to start painting again. This painting I have done on rIce paper from China. I am planning to decoupage this on a pot. So back to work on it.  Do let me know how you like it.

For the New year 2014

Wishing all my blog viewers a very happy and artistic new year. Hope that we all will be able to keep maximum to our resolutions of painting every day,every week , attempting challenges ,putting up exhibitions etc. Mine is also along these lines , to be able to blog every week and paint every week.I hope I will be able to improve and master more of this colorful hobby.I know I have been away from painting lately and crocheting instead , but I hope to recover and concentrate on the painting.

So I look forward to being in  conversation with you guys and thankyou for visiting my blog, do come again.I combined crochet and watercolor paints to make this new year card.Happy New Year 2014.

Potrait in soft pastels

Well  looks like I am now away from watercolors for a long time. I am dreaming about what I want to do with watercolors but somehow not able to sit down and start it. Past few days I have been working with soft pastels. During my Ladakh trip last year  the photo of this ladakhi girl came to me when one of our group members shared her photos with me. I think the photograph was taken by Poornima.

I couldnot do justice to the girls face at all. Her eyes were unusally big very innocent and face was very pale . This young lady will grow into a beauty with years.I loved her different look .Soft pastels are dusty to work with and I need lots of practise .Potrait is also foreign to me!But I liked the final picture and would like to  welcome your comments.

My First Exhibition

Here is my great news.My  first exhibition at Asset Zing a lifestyle botique in my neighbourhood.As part of promoting women artists they are holding a group exhibition of paintings of three artists from february 14th to 24th.Please see their invite.Do wish me luck! .Will come back with more details.

Row houses at tea plantation in watercolors

My attempt to restart  watercolor painting after a gap.This is a scene from the tea plantation at thekkady.

Do give your comments please.

Save the Tiger ; Watercolor painting

After two busy weeks I am back to painting. There was too much things to attend at work and home that I  I took a long time to complete the picture I started painting. It was a difficult subject too.This picture of the tiger was in a publication called Biotech news(2008) on their cover page. There was an article in this journal about conservation of Indian Tigers. I used this picture as a reference for the painting.I had kept the cutting of the picture  to paint and only now I had the confidence to start on it.I started off  with watercolor  and then used watercolor pencils. Tigers are magnificent animals . The strength and beauty of this one is reflected in the fur coat and in their eyes.I want  improve how  to do  the fur in watercolor,so my artist friends please do give your comments.  Enjoy  this magnificient animal.

Rose flower in watercolor

Last week I had posted photos of the flowers in my garden.Finally I got time to sit down and  work on my paintings again.Today I had a long talk with my friend Usha  on our latest experiments with colors.She is also a hobby artist . She is very good with oil paintings and lately she has been experimenting with acrylic and watercolors.

by usha rethish

by usha rethish

Its always a pleasure talking to her and see her paintings. Here is her two watercolor paintings.We learn a lot by reviewing our paintings ,the progress that we make with each one we paint and also learning from each other.The flowers above and the second one with the birds are painted by Usha Rethish.

I came home after visiting her and straight away went to paint my rose . I mixed the crimson and scarlet and a little gamboge hue to paint the petals. As usual the leaves came out well .The thorns  has to improve a lot.So here is my rose straight from my garden after a morning shower.

Wild tulip in watercolor

This is one of my earlier post  which  is not there in my blog now. A simple tulip flower found in the wild  and this was done in watercolor.I was pleased with the effect of the veins on the leaf and the petals.

Monasteries of Ladakh in acrylic completed

Here is the completed painting of my previous post. I got delayed as I got  nowhere trying to paint the monastery and its details with acrylic . Finally  I tried out the water color pencils to draw the buildings. Some minor alterations and high lighting with acrylic and its ready. So its mixed media actually. Hope all of you will leave your comments, I really enjoyed painting this one.(size 10x12'')

Monasteries of Ladakh in Acrylic

Buddhist Monasteries ,Buddha ,Dalai Lama all are  blend into the history and culture of Ladakh. Monasteries are build  as if they are part of the mountain range. The monasteries have buildings for temple,study center for monks, and their residence.Each of these sections are in stages  or in different steps. It is indeed a steep climb  which is worth it for the view from the top. The wind , peace and quiet and top of the world feel  is fantastic  here. Breathless in all sense!!

I have been keeping the painting of the monastery  till now ,thinking I will keep the difficult one for latter. Today I started on one since I had a beautiful post card  of Chemre Monastery.Chemre lies east of Karu  in a valley .(This is my reference picture)

All monasteries here make great pictures  against the background of the mountains. My painting  puts  on canvas a monastery raising from the valley and  reaching the mountain top. This is the  place of the Buddhist monks, seeking peace and reaching out to the  inner self  and reaching out to God leaving behind  the mundane fears and stress of  human life.

Beyond the fields there is the lush green trees protecting the peace of the monastery .The steps at different levels takes you  higher and higher up the mountains to the top through the simple white  buildings at each level. Though the drawing was tough for me I can see already it is looking nice .First I did the sky,then the mountains ,after that I started to sketch the monastery . But I was lost soon.So I did the foreground and the trees . This came out well and now I have filled in my sketch with the rest of the building.

Tomorrow I hope to finish painting the monastery and complete the painting.

Here is what I did today .

The Painting medium is  Acrylic  on Fine Art canvas board  10x12inch 

White lily in water color

So finally I could break my  inactivity and start painting flowers. Today I completed a white lily picture I saw in a cutflower  catalogue.These white lilies look lovely and robust .These are not fully opened as the other variety of lilies.I was more confident to take up painting white flowers in water color after I attempted the challenge of doing the last PADT (Paint and draw together) challenge of white flowers in a pot. Thankyou Lela.

Here for this picture I could mark out the white area well but had to do the background color a second time  to make the flowers become more prominent.  Size of painting 15"x10.6" water color paper

Let me know your comments.

Also I include the my picture posted for the PADT challenge

Oriental poppies

June is the month for poppy flowers . The vibrant hues and silky petals of the poppy flowers are so attractive.The poppies with their dark red flowers and black eye is very popular as gardenplants and also  as stunning cutflowers.

I really loved painting these poppies.The top flower came out well and my experiment with lots of colors in the background washes really paid off.

Irises in water color

When I saw the photograph of Iris gardens in Japan  posted by my friend in the facebook  it was my turn to paint the next flower for my floral series.What a lovely blue!. Iris lilies are beautiful in a group as well as individual flower.The dark blue violet color is eye catching  so are the shapes of each petal. In this variety  the flower is small. Yellow flower is also a common color found in these plants . Happy to inform you this painting  and 8 other paintings posted in this blog (apple blossoms,wild tulips,paeonies,lilies ,autumn leaves etc have been selected for display at Wallframes Art gallery Kochi. 

Lilies again in water color

I made another picture of lilies  in a more brighter color and with the strong background washes.The color of this one is different from the subtle pink  lily I posted last time.The color  of the petals is not exactly orginal  but there sure is a possibility that this color variety is available. The shape and color of the buds blend with the background washes . 

Paeonies in water color

Here is my first attempt on painting the Paeonies in water color.I choose a very dark colored variety but there are many light shades also which are very beautiful. The center stamens  in deep yellow is in a very good contrast to the petals.Even the petals can come in different shapes and some flowers also resemble roses.

Hope to do some more  of these flowers in light shades and giving a transparent look which I could not achieve here.

Autumn leaves

Some of us have never seen natures colour changes with different seasons. We are fortunate to have greenery all the year round but we do miss out  natures dramatic changes which are awesome . For many people  their landscapes become a kaleidoscope  with each season. For the first time I took in a visual delight of yellows,reds and browns when I visited Bremen in Germany some years back .Truly Beautiful!

So here is a water color experiment  of autumn leaves to remember those days.

Orchid in watercolour

This is another addition to my series of paintings on orchids.This orchid has been done in water colors.Flower has been highlighted with a rusty brick  red lip petal .The leaves were kept minimal but suggestion of other leaves and flowers are shown in the background with different washes.

Cattelya orchids are pot plants with beautiful flowers. There are many varieties with different flower colors in cattelyas.

Sunflowers in water colour

Sunflowers is always a subject for paintings and I wanted to paint it for sometime now .Last week I have done this one with water colours  on a handmade paper. The  paper used for this painting is more rough and the effect is different from the  other paintings I have done in water colour.For the flower I have used the colours permanent yellow , yellow ochre and burnt sienna  .

Sunflowers or Helianthus  have other colours than yellow and some of these are used as ornamental plants.

Tulips in watercolor

Garden tulips of different colors .Most beautiful for their form,and color. Three different forms and colours of tulip  in this painting. The petals worked in detail to highlight  the veins and shades of color.

SIZE:38*27cms

Dahlias in watercolor

Dahlias in different shades of crimson and scarlet shades.Each petal in this flower is unique . 

SIZE:38*27cms