Orange Slices and Vase

It was a very gloomy day here today and I was completely lacking any kind of motivation to paint. Started a couple of sketches but abandoned them mid way, as I wasn't sure if I could give it my all today. It was then that I wanted to take something familiar, something that I could do justice to and I chose this simple still life with my purple vase. The orange slices from yesterday were still around and came in handy.

Orange slices and vase
Oil on board, 7 by 5 inches
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Doubly Citrus - a new experiment

This morning, I wanted to paint some orange slices under sunlight. I had some sort of a setup in my mind and went ahead arranging things and playing around in the studio. Just when I was about to finalize on a setup, the sunlight vanished. I had not even taken a picture and the light had completely changed. I was really disappointed and walked out of the studio.

After a while, I had another idea. To split up the slices and set them up against two different objects on two backgrounds. Hence I set up these identical still lifes side by side and decided to paint them simultaneously too. What's more, they use *exactly* the same palette. I went in for Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Red Deep, Cadmium Yellow Lemon, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White. This is pretty much my usual palette, when I do not need any saturated greens. 

We all know that using any 3 primaries and white, you can pretty much mix the entire spectrum. But to see that in action like this is surreal. I mixed a purple, a blue leaning variant, a red leaning variant. One went on the left panel and the other on the right panel. It was great fun, something that I am itching to repeat already. :) 

Doubly Citrus
Oil on board, each 7 by 5 inches
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Looking back at 30 paintings in 30 days

This is the first time ever that I have painted for 30 consecutive days and I had a blast! I have started Leslie's 30 Paintings challenge a couple of times before, but have never gone beyond 12 paintings or so. I think I did 12 this Jan too. So I was quite apprehensive to sign up for the challenge, knowing very well that I do not have the time to do one painting a day. It has been a particularly loaded period at work too.:)

Somehow managed to pull through and complete 30 paintings! I am very very thrilled and proud of it.:)

Here's a look at my 30 paintings over the last 30 days. Let me know if you have a favourite.

30 Paintings in 30 Days
September 2015

September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 30!

And that's how it's done! I cannot believe I actually managed to paint 30 pieces, so celebrating with a slice of pumpkin pie today. Neither do I bake nor eat desserts, so painted this from a reference I liked at morguefile. :)

Pumpkin Pie
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 29

On the Tuscan trail again..

Knock Knock
Oil on board, 7 by 5 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 28

September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 27

I had to paint the gorgeous fruits all over again. Just love the light on them, and I hope to have done justice!

Golden hour gossip
Oil on board, 18 by 24 cms (7 by 9.5 inches)
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 26

The other day when I painted these fruits under bright sunlight, I had taken a few pictures moving the fruits around a bit here and there. Very similar compositions under great light. I really liked this square composition amongst them and had to paint it today. :)

One vs Two
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 25

After painting my purple vase with the pears yesterday, I had left the setup untouched on my table. When I walked in this morning, I just felt like tackling the same subject a little differently. In came a dim light source and I changed the direction of my easel. Voila! A brand new painting. :) 

If you guessed there was a nocturne coming, brownie points to you :-)

Nocturnal Pears
Oil on board, 7 by 5 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 24

I painted this green pear a week ago. After that, it was left unattended in the studio and the poor pear turned yellow. Now that's what happens when you buy fruits only to paint with no intention of eating them. However, the now yellow pears looked gorgeous with my purple vase and had to be painted again! :) 

Purple vase and pear
Oil on board, 7 by 5 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 23

Evening Huddle
Oil on board, 9.5 by 7 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 22

The more I look into my pictures from Tuscany, the more I have screaming at me to paint them. So here's one more :)

Of alleys and windows
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 21

I painted this one real quick, much fast than I usually do and much more deliberate too. I could feel myself very comfortable with it, which is always a great sign! I stopped at a point when I felt one more stroke would ruin it. And for a change, I am quite happy with the result. :)

Somewhere in Tuscany
Oil on board, 7 by 5 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 20

I painted this Tuscan balcony sometime ago, but I wasn't quite happy with it. I could not point out my finger at what it was, but the overall feel of the painting did not come across. So I painted it again in a closer crop. I like it much more this time around, and I might paint it all over again! :)

Hydrangea love in Tuscany
Oil on board, 7 by 5 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 19

Today, I was not really in the mood to set up a still life. The weather has been so gloomy and I was longing for some sunlight. Since that was not to be, I decided to paint sunny Tuscany instead :-)

Just another corner in Tuscany
Oil on board, 5 by 7 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Days 17 and 18

I was in an experimental mood yesterday, so tried something that I have never tried before - painted two panels simultaneously. I set up this simple still life in my studio, and decided to paint two versions of it - a day and a night version. The night panel is illuminated by a single lamp and the day panel is naturally lit. Both the paintings use exactly the same palette of only the three primaries and white. 

Day and Night
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches each
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 16

Vase and Pear
Oil on board, 5 by 7 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 15

Catching up with posting, though I have been painting everyday :-)

Sliced again
Oil on board, 5 by 7 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 14

Today was a long day at work and a very hectic evening chauffeuring the kiddo around. I was too tired and dazed to come up with a still life set up or anything. But, I did not want to let the day go without painting something. So just popped up this teapot in front of me and painted it. It was a blast! I will be using this teapot in future paintings, so it was good to get a start today.

Just a teapot!
Oil on board, 5 by 7 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 13

I had planned to paint one of my daughter's cute little piggy banks this morning. I had it all setup and walked into my studio. However, when I walked in, the morning light was glowing and I fell in love with it. I wanted to paint the nectarine slices under that light and just put this up together in a couple of minutes. I also wanted to brighten up the backdrop so went in for real colourful sheets of paper. I am quite happy with how this one turned out! 

Sunday Breakfast
Oil on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 12

After painting the nectarines in full the last couple of times, I had to cut them up today. But you knew that was coming, didn't you? :-) Also wanted to go in for a bright background, so went in with this blue sheet of paper. I love how it turned out! 

Sliced nectarines
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 11

This is a reference from my vacation in Florence, Italy earlier this year. I had done a sketch of it on location and had clicked pictures to paint it. It was around mid day and the light was sharp and beautiful. And I fell in love with these awnings. 

Pizza in Florence
Oil on board, 7 by 9.5 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 10

Nectarines and Vase 2
Oil on Board, 7 by 5 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 9

I have never painted nectarines before, and haven't eaten one either. Since I never bothered to buy these fruits, I haven't gotten around to painting them. This time I bought some just to paint. They make such inspiring subjects with beautiful colour and they just had to be painted.

As I was trying different set ups in my studio, the one that I loved the most was setting up the fruits and vase under a dim light. I went in for a dark low-key painting with the focus only on the fruit. I am quite pleased with the result.

Vase and Nectarines
Oil on Board, 7 by 5 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 8

Rustic Italy
Oil on Canvas, 7 by 5 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 7

This week has seen such drastic drop in temperatures that we seemed to have skipped autumn altogether. With over 15 degrees drop in a week, the tropical girl in me needs something to cheer myself up. Hence sunny gorgeous Tuscany on my mind today :-)

Lunchtime
Oil on board, 7 by 9.5 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 6

I had planned to paint one of my Tuscany references today, from a photo. However, when I got up this morning, the sun was shining bright into my studio. Now I could not let go of the sunlight and my cityscape had to wait for its turn. 

The innards of tomatoes always give me the jitters, I have always stayed away from this subject. Today, I wanted to set up something red against the sun and these were just perfect. I hope I have done justice to the beautiful light. 

Sunny tomatoes
Oil on board, 18 by 24 cms (7 by 9.5 inches)
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 5

I have a red vase that's exactly like the purple one that I painted for day 1. Since I wanted to do another fabric study, picked this one up and set it in a very simple arrangement. 

Red Vase and Fabric
Oil on Canvas, 7 by 5 inches
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Painted using a very limited palette - Cad red light, Cad red deep, Cad yellow medium, Ultramarine blue and Titanium white. And boy it was a blast! 

September 30 Paintings in 30 days - Day 4

I am not a fan of pears at all but love painting them. So when I saw these red-yellow pears at the market, I just had to pick them up. Slightly modified the previous composition and painted another pear today under different light. 

The two pear paintings would look great when hung together. :-) 

Pearched
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 3

Rainbow on my way
Oil on board, 18 by 24 cms (7 by 9.5 inches)
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September 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 2

Painted in an early morning session today, before I left for work.

Alone on Top
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
$50.00
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September 30 Paintings in 30 days - Here we go!

One just can't believe the pace at which time flies these days. It is already September and that means the next 30 in 30 is already there! :-) As usual, I will be joining in and I will try to paint as much as I can. 

I will be working on my fundamentals - edges, brushwork, clean colour, counting my strokes etc. I will be doing simple compositions, which would mostly mean still lifes here in my studio. I will, as is my practice try to make the pieces into a series. 

Purple vase and fabric
Oil on Canvas, 7 by 5 inches
$50 + shipping
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This piece was done using a limited palette of just four colours, including white. I have used cad red light, ultramarine blue, cad yellow medium and titanium white. Such experiments will be my focus during the month and I hope the challenge makes me more productive. Good luck to all other participating artists! 

Blue and Orange #2 - Original Still Life in Oils

After the last painting, I was left with quite a bit of blues on my palette. So I had to paint the vases again, at least one of them. This one too is painted just using the palette knife, with the sides painted too. It doesn't need a frame and can be displayed as it is.

Blue and Orange #2
Oil on Canvas, 6 by 12 inches
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Blue and Orange - Original Still Life in Oils

When I got out of bed this morning, I woke up with this urge to paint something large. Specifically, a large still life using the palette knife. I could even say I woke up with an image in my mind and all I had to do was put it together with the things in my studio. It's been ages since I have painted large, this one is 16 by 16 inches and is my largest canvas in the last few years. 

I bought this set of three turquoise vases in Ikea long ago. I had earlier painted only the smallest of them, the other two were patiently awaiting their turn. They looked great together with a couple of oranges thrown in. 

Blue and Orange
Oil on Canvas, 16 by 16 inches
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Up and Down - Original Still Life in Oils

This morning, I lost sleep very early. At a really ghostly hour even by my standards. After tossing around in the bed trying to sleep but with no success, I decided that I might as well get up and paint. The strawberries from the weekend were still in decent shape in the fridge and I put together this set up quickly. 

Up and Down
Oil on Canvas, 8 by 10 inches
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This creamer was painted the last couple of times under natural light. Since that wasn't a possibility early in the morning, I made do with a tubelight instead. 

Strawberries and cream - Original Still Life in Oils

Fresh from the easel today, another bunch of strawberries that had to be painted. I like neither strawberries nor cream. But boy do they make gorgeous subjects to paint! 

Strawberries and Cream
Oil on Canvas, 8 by 10 inches
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One for Life - Original Palette Knife Painting of Birds

Exactly a month back, there was a weekly challenge on DPW. It was on the theme of Valentine's Day and we had to paint a pair of animals/birds that mated for life. Now, I am a sucker for love stories and feel good stories and I just *had* to do this challenge. It was besides a great opportunity to paint swans as I shy away every single time from painting white subjects. White and seeing colours in white gives me nightmares. 

One for Life
Oil on board, 18 by 24 cms (7 by 9.5 inches)
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This painting is based on a reference from morguefile. I loved the lighting in it and knew it was going to be a huge task with all those rocks and everything else. I felt that the palette knife would be good for doing stones and rocks and instinctively started the painting with the knife. This was probably not a great idea that everytime I sat to paint, I was questioning if it was the best approach. But every time I was tempted to pull out my brushes instead, the image kind of screamed to go on with the palette knife. All part of an artist's life. 

Anyway, I continued with the palette knife and I loved the effects it brought out. The shapes in the water and the feathers are all way better in real than in this image. Hope you like it! 

Spring on a plate - Original Still Life in Oils

So spring is officially here and so is the deluge of strawberries. There were some strawberries at home over the weekend, but I wasn't very keen on painting them. I was in the middle of some other painting, a couple of more birds that I am doing and I had the onions set up on my table. So strawberries were really not on my mind. And then suddenly on Saturday I dreamt of a set up with fruits and my knife etc. 

So I had to paint them and paint them NOW. My kids love eating them and I had to literally steal these fruits away from my little one in order to paint these berries. The only thing that I do not like about berries is how quickly they get spoilt. So I had to paint them as soon as I could :-)

Spring on a plate
Oil on board, 18 by 24 cms (7 by 9.5 inches)
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This painting has been done using both palette knives and brushes as I wanted to explore a bit with the edges. I am not entirely pleased with it but will continue to push more in this direction. Hope you like it.

Ms.Glowing beak - Original Bird Portrait in Oils

I loved this bird reference in morguefile. I was looking for some more owls but a few eagles turned up too. No complaints, as I love most of them. This fella was great fun to do and it suited well as an "end-of-palette" piece after my still life yesterday. I could mix a variety of greys with everything that was left over on the palette. How cool is that! 

Ms.Glowing Beak
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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Onions and Porcelain - Original Still Life in Oils

I picked up not one but two of these gorgeous jars in a flea market sometime last year. I had painted them earlier and the painting sold a long time back. The jar was in my shelf and I kept telling myself to paint it once again soon. I could finally get to it only today. I went in for onions again as I really like how the colours work well together. This one is a little larger than the previous painting too.

Onions and Porcelain
Oil on board, 18 by 24 cms
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What's up?! - Original Textured Bird Portrait in Oils

What's up?!
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
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I usually shy away from too close crops. This one just drew me in. After a long time, I am so thrilled to be painting birds again and I am having a blast. There are a couple of more birds in the works, stay tuned.

Look at me - Original Palette Knife bird portrait

Look at me!
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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Painted from a reference in morguefile.

Up close - Original Palette Knife Bird Portrait

It's been a while since I painted with the knife, and I was itching to an exclusively knife piece. I wanted to have some fun with a bird portrait, but something that I haven't painted earlier. As I was browsing morguefile, this owl just popped out and said "Paint me!" :-) I could not refuse. 

Up Close
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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An afternoon by the Alster - Original Painting of People in Oils

So the 30 in 30 officially challenge got over with January. I wanted to sneak in a couple of more paintings but then I fell sick. That was that and so I ended the challenge with 12 paintings. The great thing however is that 4 of them sold already :-) 

You might remember my earlier painting of this couple from Hamburg. Imagine my surprise when I found a couple of more images that I had clicked in my library :-) I immediately got to those and here's the first one.

An afternoon by the Alster
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
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30 Things about me #12

Pink Umbrellas
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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30 Things about me - #12 - I love rain

Rain is beautiful, more so when you grow up in a place where it rains not more than a month in a year. It was so rare that we treasured it dearly. I am not the kind that curls up with a book and coffee/tea when it rains. I rather love watching the rain. Watching it fall, every droplet hit the earth and then bounce back. Few sights are as lovely. In Germany though, it rains a LOT that it drives me nuts many a time. And it gets cold here when it rains and that makes me very uncomfortable. So what I have in this country is a love-hate relationship with rain. 

SOLD - 30 Things about me #11

As the world goes by
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
SOLD

30 Things about me #11 - I love painting people without faces

Most of my figurative art does not focus on the faces of the subjects. A lot of them are infact cropped without the faces seen. A couple of reasons for this. One is that I want my subjects to be relatable to everyone and not having a face helps that. Anyone looking at the painting could see a bit of themselves in it. The more important reason is that I am pathetic with doing faces and have a long way to go.:) Most of the time I do not want to overdo a face and end up spoiling a decent painting. So there!

The image in the DPW link is more accurate than the one here. It seems very saturated here. The background is not so green in real. I wonder what it is with blogger! 

30 Things about me #10

From my window
Oil on board, 5 by 7 inches
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30 things about me #10 - I have a day job that has nothing to do with art.

I have a full time job that I love. Well most of the time atleast :P What exactly I do is beyond the scope of this blog, write to me if you'd like to know more. I have for long toyed with the idea of quitting my job and plunging into art full time and all that jazz. However, I have reached a stage now where I am at peace with having two careers and I think it will continue to remain so for a while. I have come to appreciate the flexibility it offers even though I have way less time to actually create. 

So there, you now know why I lag behind in these 30in30 challenges. I do as much as my work allows me to. The painting featured here is the early morning view from my window at work. 

SOLD - 30 Things about me - #9

Onions
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
SOLD

30 Things about me - #9 - I am a vegetarian

I have always been a vegetarian, grew up in a vegetarian household. I can just live on salads and the likes. But more than all that, I wanted to paint these onions today :P 

I usually set up my still lifes under bright light, either under direct sunlight or with a strong source of light. I was playing around with this set up with a similar light source but somehow did not like it. When I turned off the light it looked much better. It was a good exercise and one that I should do more. 

30 Things about me - #8

Muse
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
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30 things about me #8 - The single biggest regret of my life...

...is that I cannot play an instrument. Make that even worse, I have no knowledge of any music whatsoever. I did not pursue it even though I attended some classes as a child. Yes yes, I do know that I can still go learn something. I am definitely planning on that once I get some breathing time. My life currently is too full and I have no meaningful time that I can devote towards this. It is on my bucket list though.:) 

This painting has been done using the Zorn palette of cadmium red light, yellow ochre, ivory black and titanium white. It is based on a reference image from Morguefile.