A splash of color

Evening glow - textured floral oil painting by Nithya Swaminathan, 6 by 6 inches

2012-01-25T12:15:00.000-08:00

This floral is done from a reference that I clicked at an amusement park last summer. We were done with all the rides and were too tired just waiting to get home, when I spotted this gorgeous bunch of tulips. And then with a renewed shot of energy, I captured them in every angle I could and delayed the trip back home by 15 minutes. :) The things these flowers do to you!

Evening glow
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
Click here to bid

Click here to bid

Extra Baggage - Small Oil Painting of Children in Summer, 5 by 7 inches

2012-01-13T09:42:00.000-08:00

Kiddo trying to hurry up and match pace with dad. Summer impressions, 2011.

Extra Baggage
Oil on Canvas, 5 by 7 inches
Click here to bid.

Click here to bid.

"In safe hands" - Textured small oil painting of children, 7 by 5 inches

2012-01-11T12:24:00.000-08:00

Taking cautious steps for a first time experience with water. :-) Exploring the world, one step at a time.

In safe hands
Oil on Canvas, 7 by 5 inches
Click here to bid

Click here to bid.

"Daddy!" - Original Textured Oil Painting of Children, 5 by 7 inches - SOLD

2012-01-10T12:11:00.000-08:00

This little girl is from a reference at a park nearby. When I saw her picture, the first thought to cross my mind was that she was running towards her dad. That's how my girl runs to her dad, and I am sure all of them do.:-)

Daddy!
Oil on Canvas, 5 by 7 inches
SOLD

I started this one originally with the canvas in the portrait mode, and the shadow was getting cut off midway. The husband was vehemently against it and suggested it would look better in the landscape format. Looks like he was right, as I like it better than what I started with. There's a reason why he is my biggest critic you see. And do I even need to mention how kicked and proud he was about me titling the painting so. Ugh!

"Need no Company" - Original Figurative Oil Painting, 7 by 5 inches

2012-01-09T11:56:00.000-08:00

I love watching waves, patterns in water and so on. Endlessly. And I *love* watching people who do the same. Enjoying the company of nature and some solitude, just the way I like it.

Need no company
Oil on Canvas, 7 by 5 inches
Click here to bid.

Click here to bid.

"Mine"craft - Original Small Textured Painting of Children, 5 by 7 inches

2012-01-08T11:51:00.000-08:00

This one was painted exclusively with the knife. Because of the limitations of using a knife, I could not capture intricate details, but I quite like the overall mood it captures. Also went a little crazy with the colors, let me know how you like it.

Click on the image to view it larger, or better still, click on the bidding link to view the details of the knife work.:-)

Minecraft
Oil on Canvas, 5 by 7 inches
Click here to bid.

Click here to bid.

Bliss - Original Small Textured Oil Painting of Children, 7 by 5 inches

2012-01-07T13:25:00.000-08:00

Bliss is biting into a juicy popsicle on a hot summer day. :-)

Bliss
Oil on Canvas, 7 by 5 inches
Click here to Bid

Click here to bid.http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/31557

Reading by the lake VIII - Original Figurative Painting in Oils, 9 by 12 inches

2012-01-06T14:14:00.000-08:00

One more in my "Reading by the lake" series. The whole idea of reading at peace in a public place kind of fascinates me. It is unimaginable in India, considering the level of noise and crowd around. That's probably the reason why I am drawn to these references. :-) There are a few more to come.

Reading by the Lake VIII
Oil on Panel, 9 by 12 inches.
Click here to Bid

Click here to bid.

Blue on a Bike - Original Small Textured Painting of Children, 5 by 7 inches

2012-01-05T12:11:00.000-08:00

On the first of his very many rides, a little boy discovering the magic of life..:)

Blue on a Bike
Oil on Canvas, 5 by 7 inches
Click here to Bid

Click here to bid.

"Sunday Headlines" - Original Figurative Oil Painting with Textured, 9 by 12 inches

2012-01-04T13:03:00.000-08:00

Continuing with my reading series. Painted with the palette knife on birch panel.

Sunday Headlines
Oil on Panel, 9 by 12 inches
Click here to Bid

Budding footballer - Original Textured Oil Painting, 7 by 5 inches - SOLD

2012-01-02T09:12:00.000-08:00

The Germans probably start playing "fussball" before they start walking.;-) Loved this little boy carrying a ball and walking towards the lawn for a game of football. I am truly having a ball with all these paintings of children and I am getting some very nice feedback for them. Hope you like it.

Budding footballer
Oil on Canvas, 7 by 5 inches
Textured with palette knife
SOLD

Marching Along - Textured Oil Painting on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches - SOLD

2012-01-01T14:25:00.000-08:00

First painting of the new year and all I hope is to be able to post regularly! A very happy New Year everyone!

Marching Along
Oil on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches
SOLD

Looking ahead - Textured figurative painting in Oils, 5 by 7 inches - SOLD

2011-12-31T14:20:00.000-08:00

Looking ahead
Oil on Canvas, 5 by 7 inches
SOLD

Perched with a Popsicle - Painting of children, 9 by 12 inches

2011-12-29T14:14:00.000-08:00

Perched with a Popsicle
Oil on Panel, 9 by 12 inches
Click here to bid

Click here to Bid

Eiscafe - Textured Cityscape in Oils, 10 by 10 inches

2011-12-28T14:12:00.000-08:00

Eiscafe
Oil on Canvas, 10 by 10 inches
$200, Buy on Etsy

Color coordinated - Textured Oil painting, 9 by 12 inches

2011-12-27T14:10:00.000-08:00

Color Coordinated
Oil on Panel, 9 by 12 inches
$200, Buy on Etsy

A German Summer - Textured Oil Painting on Canvas, 10 by 12 inches

2011-12-26T14:06:00.000-08:00

A summer evening with some coffee and conversation, a scene so typical in Germany!

German Summer
Oil on Canvas, 10 by 12 inches
$200, Buy on Etsy

Tech Tuesdays - Integrating Disqus comments on your blog

2011-06-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

Today, I would like to show you how to go about integrating the Disqus commenting system on your blog.

Why Disqus?

Rich features - threaded comments, reply by email, track all your comments etc.
Sign in with ANY id - you can sign in with Facebook, Twitter, Google and so on. Anything.
Well integrated with social media - You can share your comments and replies on twitter and facebook too.
Other add on widgets like Recent comments, popular commenters etc.

Until recently, it was not so easy to integrate disqus with blogger, it had to be done manually. But now it takes less than a minute. I would strongly recommend every serious blogger to do it. Here's how we go about it.

Step 1 - Sign up for Disqus and add your sites.

After you sign up for an account with Disqus, be sure to add your blog to the list of sites that you manage. Then go to your Admin panel and click on the "Install" tab.

Admin -> Install

Step 2 - Choose the platform on which you have to install. Blogger, for instance.

When your site is already added to your disqus profile, all you need to do now is to click on the button as it is shown below, to add the widget to your blog.
You will then be required to login to blogger and authorize the widget.
When the page element is added in blogger, you can drag and drop it to where you want. Typically, in the end of the post body.

Install to blogger

Step 3 - Import existing comments

Since disqus is the default commenting system on your blog now, you have to also import the older comments in your blog so that they don't disappear now.
Click on the tab "Tools" in your admin panel.
Now select "Import and export" and select the platform from which you have to import comments. Here, it is blogger again.
This will take a while, depending on how many comments you have in your blog.
Once it is completed, you would be able to see your old comments in the new system.

Import comments from Blogger

Wasn't that super easy?! Try it out and let me know if you face any issues. I'd be glad to help. If you have any suggestions for posts in my "Tech Tuesdays" series, drop me a line.

Song of dusk - Textured Oil painting, a brand new subject!

2011-06-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

I have never been drawn to painting animals. I think it boils down to the fact that I am not too much of an animal lover. Birds interest me though, I have sketched quite a few and done a couple of bird paintings way back even when I used to dabble with colored pencils. And I was drawn to these bird images recently, just to give a shot at a new subject. It was also a challenge to myself, just to see how much detail I could bring in only with the knife. And on that count I must say I am really pleased with the result!

When I paint with the knife, I tend to work really quick, quicker than with the brush. I took it rather slow with this piece, because I did not want to less it up. I wanted to bring in as much detail as possible to the feathers and the form of the bird. What a beauty she/he is! Everything including the eye and the white little dot was done only with the knife and I gave myself a pat on the back. :)

Song of dusk
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches (palette knife)
© Nithya Swaminathan
$100 and ships free worldwide
Click here to Buy

This painting was actually done before my vacation, and I just realized that I had not blogged it at all. And I listed it today on Etsy. I logged in to Etsy after more than a month and was pleasantly surprised to see the changes in the listing process. Listing was Etsy's only pain point and the change is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant!

It is a recent favorite of mine, and I would be pleased to hear what you think of this piece.

Tech Tuesdays - How to set up a custom welcome tab for your Facebook page

2011-06-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

So here comes the first installment of my new series - How to set up a custom welcome tab for your Facebook page. If you are a blogging artist, I assume you have a business page on Facebook already. If not, get yourself one right now and come back to reading this. :)

Here is my page on facebook - Fine Art by Nithya Swaminathan, and what you see when you click on the link is my "custom" welcome page. You will be shown this page if you are not a fan of my page already. If you are a fan of my business page, then you will be seeing the "Wall" by default and you can click on "Welcome" to your left to see the welcome page.

Why do you need a welcome tab?

When someone visits your facebook page for the first time, this tab will give them "intro" to your work. You could list all your important links, like your blog, website, online store and so on so that a visitor is not left searching for them.

You could include a call for action, like I have, requesting them to like the page.

Now shall we go about building such a page in less than 30 minutes? Here you go!

Step 1 - Choose your app

Search for an app that builds custom tabs and add them to your fan page by giving it the necessary permissions (clicking "Allow" to authorize the app).
A simple search for "custom" in the facebook search bar will list many apps that provide this functionality. Examples are Pagemodo, Custom Welcome Tab, Static FBML etc.
My page uses "Custom Welcome Tab" and it is very easy to use.
When you "add" the app to your page, you could also specify the text that is to be displayed in the left side of your page. I have just chosen "Welcome".

Add the app to your page

Step 2 - Configure Custom Tab

After adding the app to your page, when you go back to the app you will be able to see your page listed in the dashboard. Click on the "Configure Tab" button to customize it's contents.

Configure Tab

Step 3 - Add content to your custom tab

The app provides a rich text editor to add text, images, links and format them as you would like your page to be.
In my page, I have added an image just like I have done in the home page of my website. I have actually added the same image as on my website. You could even add a video introducing yourself and your art. The possibilities are endless.
I wanted to keep it simple, so my welcome tab shows an image of my work and my links.
The editor also provides an option to preview your changes so that you could make changes after previewing them. Save your changes and come back to your page admin panel.

Rich Text Editor with image added

Add links to website

Step 4 - Configure the landing tab

Once you have designed your custom welcome tab, it has to be configured as the "default landing tab" in your page, only after which it will be displayed when visitors land on your page.
Go to your fan page and click on Edit in the left side.
In the admin view, click on "Manage Permissions".
In the option "Default landing tab", select the tab that we have just designed from the dropdown box.
Save your changes.

Set as landing tab

Voila and you are done! That's it and when a new visitor, who is not a fan of your page lands there, they will be shown the welcome page first. Cool isn't it. This is how my page looks.

Custom Landing Page
Fine Art by Nithya Swaminathan

How did you like this step by step guide? Was it useful? Was it confusing? This is the first time I am trying something like this so I welcome all your feedback. Do let me know what was fine and what was not. And do come back for the next installment on the 28th of June 2011.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Introducing Tech Tuesdays - a brand new series on A Splash of Color

2011-06-21T13:47:00.000-07:00

When I interact with other artists on various venues, one thing that I come across is that a lot of them find technology a tad confusing and even overwhelming at times. If you are one such artist, read on.

I am starting a new series on my blog that is aimed at artists who wish to overcome the challenge of technology. A step by step approach to demystifying things. This new series is titled "Tech Tuesdays", and yes, it will be published once a week every Tuesday.

As of now, my plan is to deal with one very specific topic every week, mostly related to maintaining an art blog, a Facebook page for your art, a website and so on. I will try to be as detailed as possible with screenshots and step by step guidelines.

Who would benefit from this -

Artists and art bloggers who have very less or no knowledge of HTML, customizing your facebook page, integrating your various online presences, etc.
This series is NOT for people who are in front of the system all the time. It is much more basic than that.

How you can participate?

Leave a comment suggesting any topic that might be of specific interest to you.
I am an engineer and having worked enough in software development, there are things that I might not necessarily find "challenging" and I could ignore them. But if you have a suggestion, I am more than willing to help.
Share the articles with your friends or anyone else whom you think would benefit from them.:)

Now a member of Daily Paintworks

2011-06-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

Ever since I heard Carol Marine and her husband David on the Artists Helping Artists show a couple of months ago, I have been waiting for the Daily Paintworks site to be opened up for membership for all artists. David has been doing such a phenomenal job with the site that it is a pleasure to exhibit there. The search features are totally awesome, it is unbelievable how many improvements are being brought about in the website every other day.

Do check out my gallery at Daily Paintworks. Today, I inaugurate my DPW auction with my recent piece "Mirror mirror on the wall". This is the first time I am trying out the auction format, so I have kept the starting bid very low at just $20. Do check it out.

Mirror mirror on the wall
Acrylics on Canvas, 5 by 7 inches
Click here to Bid

I will be auctioning pieces every now and then, apart from selling in my other venues. Sign up to my mailing list to stay up to date with the latest auctions.

Back from vacation!

2011-06-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

Oh well, I was technically back on the 2nd of June itself, but was too immersed in the real world to even get to my blog. We were away for a good part of May spending awesome time with family at NYC. My sister lives there and it was getting together with family after a long time and every minute was well worth it.

I cannot even begin to describe how fascinated I am with New York. What a city full of life, it was love at first sight for me. There are some places that have caught your imagination for longer than you can remember, and very few of them will actually live up to all that and more without underwhelming you. NYC certainly falls in that category. I so couldn't get enough of it that I will be painting a series of cityscapes/impressions of the city. First impressions of a tourist :) That is soon to come on the blog, stay tuned.

My favorite part of the vacation, more than all the museum visits, was watching a play at Broadway. It is always fascinating for an artist to see other art forms, and for someone who has no knowledge of theater, this was just the best I could ask for. The set designs and the performances, everything was so impeccable. It should ideally be one of the first things to do in the city, and I would rank the experience much higher than getting to the top of the Empire State and such. Truly one of it's kind.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was such a heaven, the best museum that I have seen after the Louvre. We spent one full day at the museum, and I was wise enough to leave my little one at home so that I could spend time undisturbed. Right from the intricate tile paintings and stained glass paintings to the sculptures, every piece was so stunning. My favorite at the museum this time were the timeless ballet dancers of Edgar Degas. Those pastel sketches simple blew my mind! This was also my first time coming face to face with a Sargent. Enough said!

Ever since we got back, we were badly jet lagged for a few days and then I have been too busy with work. Being three weeks away is a luxury in a consulting job and so the post vacation period has been a little more work than usual. This past week kept me occupied for most of the time with preparations for my little one's birthday. Our little bundle of joy just turned 5, when did my baby grow up into such a big girl!!! We had a nice party with her friends yesterday and it was a lot of fun.

One reason why I hate vacations or any breaks is that the break invariably gets extended longer than I would like it to. This time too, it's been more than a month since I have painted and I am feeling so rusty! I started working on a piece last week and hope to post it in the next couple of days. I promise!

Video of paintings in March and April 2011

2011-05-02T22:55:00.000-07:00

Here'd the video of my paintings in March and April 2011. Both these months I was tied up with a huge workload in my day job and painting did take a backseat. And whatever time I had for painting was taken up in doing my website and so on. However, I did manage quite a few pieces and surprise surprise, I was happy with most.

Now I could churn out 50 paintings in a month and think they all suck. Or I could paint 20 above average ones. I think I now prefer the latter. And yes, as always I have a dozen works in progress in the studio.

It is remarkable that I have painted quite a few landscapes these past two months. Thanks to all my plein air adventures, all about which you can read here and here. Hope you enjoy the paintings, do share the video with your friends if you like it! :)

Make an offer - May 2011 - Original Landscape in Acrylics

2011-04-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

Did you check out the latest changes in Blogger? I can't get over the new dashboard and the features. It seriously blew me away. So sleek and completely awesome. I am sure this itself is an incentive to the lazy blogger like me :)

Farmhouse
Acrylics on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches.
Bidding starts at $60
Mail me to place a bid.

This painting is from my plein session last weekend. A rather lonely house in my neighborhood. The bidding for this painting starts at $60, which is more than a 50% discount from the normal price. Plus, it ships free worldwide. So what are you waiting for? You can place a bid by shooting me a mail with your offer price.

Hope you like the painting, why not write to me with some feedback?

Springtime Sunshine - Bring on the yellow!

2011-04-28T14:37:00.000-07:00

I found time for some more plein air over the long weekend and it was fabulous! Yet again I set up my easel amidst the stretches of yellow and the hills behind provided a great backdrop. This one was terrific fun to paint. This again is painted just with the primaries - crimson, ultramarine and cadmium yellow pale.

Springtime Sunshine
Acrylics on Canvas, 12 by 6 inches
$150 and ships FREE worldwide.

The entire painting was completed with the brush and I finally added some intense yellow with the palette knife, to make the fields really "pop". And I quite liked it! It's actually been a while since I painted with the knife. Having some fun with brushes right now and hope to get back to the knife soon.

Over the 4 day long weekend, I planned to paint outside at least on two days, but ended up going out only one day. Most of the time was spent with family, which was very welcome given our hectic schedules during the week. My daughter loved it too. I do hope to paint out this weekend again, to catch a bit more of the yellow fields before they disappear just like that!

Let me know what you think of this one. I will be sending out my monthly digest, my first ever newsletter this weekend. Do consider subscribing if you haven't already. :) It includes a draw for an original painting from me, exclusive only to my email subscribers.

Sign up to my newsletter.

Springtime Indulgence - And there's some more berries coming your way!

2011-04-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

This is the last of my strawberry paintings in this set. As of now. Who knows, before the season ends, I might give them a go again. This one is only very slightly different in arrangement from Toppled. There is in fact no change in the arrangement, only in the angle in which it has been painted. This one has a bit more stronger light, which of course I love.

Springtime Indulgence
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
$100 including shipping
Click here to Buy

Here is how the painting would look framed, with a chunky black and gold frame.How do you like it?

Springtime Indulgence
Framing Suggestion

Very Berry - Some more strawberries in Oils

2011-04-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

Those who know my still lifes, don't you also know that the top view is my favorite? Hell yeah, I am a complete sucker for the top view, of objects I mean. :-) So soon after I finished painting Toppled, from life, I captured a few images of the set up from different viewpoints, one of which is the quintessential top angle.

Very Berry
Oil on Hardboard, 6 by 6 inches
$100 and ships free worldwide
Click here to Buy

There is one more strawberry still life coming, but this one is my favorite among the three. I especially like how the coffee mug turned out in this one, more than the fruit itself. Do you like it? Why not write to me with some comments? I love to hear from you!

Very Berry
Oil on Hardboard, 6 by 6 inches
Framing suggestion

Let me leave you with a framing suggestion. I love chunky frames as this one and love to see my art in them, even if it is only a collage :) Frames are not included in the price of the painting, this is only a suggestion. I would be very happy to guide you in choosing a frame though, just write in and let me know!

Made for each other! - A Complementary Colored arrangement!

2011-04-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

This painting was done yesterday for this week's challenge at the Daily Paintworks is the Color Challenge. Carol Marine had asked the participants to choose a color scheme - triadic, complementary or split complementary and then come up with a painting with that color scheme. I opted in for a complementary scheme of Blue and Orange, which is one of my favorite schemes.

I set up this still life at home and painted it from life. Last time I used the same vase and some oranges for my paintings Blue and Orange and Blue and Orange #2. Both of those were done with the limitation of using one color per stroke, completely out of my comfort zone. So I went it for a set up as simple as possible. This time however, I wanted to have orange as a dominant color, so brought in some orange fabric as well. Been a long time since I painted fabric and boy do I love it!

Made for Each Other
Oil on Deep Cradled Panel - 8 by 16 inches
$250 and ships FREE Worldwide
Click here to Buy

Instead of making it completely blue and orange, I thought I would bring in a wee bit of yellow-orange and red-orange, the split complements of Blue in the regular color wheel. Hence that little yellow flower in the middle and some reddish touches in the cloth.

This painting is my first attempt with a deep cradled panel and I must say it is fantastic! There is no worry of warping of the wood and stuff, all I did was one coat of gesso and it could be painted! Awesome! And what more, it can be hung as it is with natural wood colored sides and without a frame. Easy peasy! I even managed a photo hanging it on my wall, though in this photo the colors are not so accurate I must warn you!

Made for Each Other
Oil on Deep cradled panel, 8 by 16 inches

Would you like to see my set up from which this was painted? I have had many people ask me to write more about the process, my tools and stuff. Well I would have never thought an artist's work behind the scenes would interest others, but now I know that it does interest people and indeed makes them curious. So here it is, a juxtaposed image of the set up and my painting in the same frame. :) Enjoy! I took a similar picture after my plein air last week, and then it struck me today, why not when the life session is at home!? So here!

Made for Each Other
The painting and the set up :)

How do you like this one? Write to me with all your feedback and anything else! I love to hear from you.

Featured on the front page of Artfire!

2011-04-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

I am THRILLED to let you know that I am featured on the front page of Artfire! I am their featured artist for today and tomorrow and my profile is right there on the front page with a link to my studio and a short interview. This interview was good fun I must tell you! Do check it out.

Here is a link to the interview - Featured Artist on Artfire - Nithya Swaminathan.
My shop - Fine Art by Nithya Swaminathan on Artfire.

For those who do not know, you can buy art from Artfire even without signing up as a member. That to me is a huge plus and one that makes this site really stand out.

Toppled - Luscious, yummy strawberries!

2011-04-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

Spring in Germany is synonymous with Strawberries and Asparagus. And as luck would have it, I eat neither. I do not like the strawberry flavor at all and do not consume it in any form. My little one on the other hand loves this fruit. With or without cream she gobbles them up. So we bought a bunch of them and both of us were happy. I set them up first, paint them and then she gets to eat them. The husband sure knows how to keep both women in good spirits. :D

I wanted a simple set up, as usual, and picked up my black coffee mug to contrast the luscious red pieces of fruit. The little reflection on the mug awas a bonus due to good sunlight. This one was painted alla prima from life.

Toppled
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
$100 and ships FREE. Click here to Buy.

And by the way, this spring I have ventured into some gardening and we have a little strawberry plant growing at home. So the next time I feel like painting some berries, I hopefully just have to pluck them and not have to go to buy them. Long time for that, but let's hope anyway.

Mirror mirror on the Wall - Some fun with figures!

2011-04-09T14:44:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, I make random searches for images in stock websites and in the reference image library in WetCanvas. Not that I am done painting with all my own images and am running out of stuff to paint, but just to get my creative juices flowing I look at different images, and then work up possible compositions in the mind and so on.

That's how I landed on this image at sxc.hu. And loved it so much that I just dropped everything else that I was doing and got to this. Loved the idea of painting this guy and his very many mirror reflections without showing a glimpse of the face. This one too is painted only with the primaries. No burnt sienna on my palette, though it forms a large part of the painting.

Mirror mirror on the wall
Acrylics on Canvas, 5 by 7 inches
$100 and ships FREE. Click here to Buy

Coming up with a title for this one was great fun. I first named it "Glass Palace", which was of course oh-so-boring and pretty lame. And then I wanted to name it "Infinite Loop". That's the first thought that comes to my mind thinking of these endless mirror reflections. My husband felt that non techies would not get it though and that would be a bummer too. Just then my friend Arvind suggested this title to me on Facebook. He originally said "Mirror mirror on the wall, tell me who can count them all". Since it was too long a title, I just cropped it :)

Spring on the Highway - Original Landscape from my backyard

2011-04-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

Whenever I thought about doing plein air, I always wondered how I would find the "perfect" spot to paint. How I would identify a great landscape and then capture it on my canvas. This was a mental block of unimaginable proportions let me tell you. And then as mentioned before, I started reading Kevin Macpherson's "Fill your oil paintings with Light and Color" that mentions working from the same spot repetitively so that the same location can be captured in different moods.

Spring on the Highway
Acrylics on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches
$120 + $20 shipping worldwide.
Click here to Buy.

And then, I ditched this idea of "finding" a spot. I just went to a place amidst some fields, less than 5 minutes drive from my home and set up my easel there. As I stood there and looked on all sides, I could see at least half a dozen views that I could paint. Phew! So much for hoping that some day one mysterious landscape would suddenly pop in front of me.

The first view I painted was "Ocean of Yellow", a view of the rape seed fields that glow here in Springtime. And when I turned to the other side, I loved this view of the highway with entirely earthen tones except for those little spots of pink. What screams Spring more than flowering trees anyway?! I'd have even painted some more, but it was nearing noon and it became too bright to see the colors properly on the canvas. So the next time around, I hope to start earlier and work plein air. Let's see. Hope you like this one, let me know what you think.

An Ocean of Yellow - Finally some plein air!

2011-04-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

I have a weird relationship with Plein air painting. I have always wanted to do it, but never got the hang of it really. I tried it once exactly a year ago, but I would think of it as a disaster. I did about a third of a painting and wanted to complete it in the studio and never got to it.

This time, my approach was new and more effective thanks so some knowledge from books. I am reading this book "Fill your Oil Paintings with Light and Color" by Kevin Macpherson, and that helped me get a better understanding of the thought process behind plein air. The last time I tried it, I just set up my easel, made a mental note of what would be my boundary and started sketching right away. I mean directly on the canvas. And oh, the book is lovely! It is not an art instruction book that gives you how-tos, but it makes you think with the help of a lot of images provided. I love it.

Ocean of Yellow
Acrylics on Gallery wrapped Canvas, 8 by 8 inches
$120 + $20 shipping worldwide.
Click here to Buy.

So this time around, things were different. I went with a view finder proportionate to my canvas size, decided on my view, sketched it entirely first on my sketch book and then started painting. And I deliberately made an attempt to squint a lot and see the values. It was great fun. This time since my approach was better, the whole process was indeed a lot more enjoyable.

Also, I painted this entirely with the primaries. No green anywhere on my palette. I went in for a palette of Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Pale and Titanium White, also as suggested in Kevin's book. While this makes the painting great fun and makes me think better in terms of colors and color temperature, I love the fact that it makes traveling so easy with paints. Just 4 tubes and I am ready to go! Is that fun or what?! I hope to write in more detail about my learnings from the plein air session, so stay tuned.

Splashing Around - Sun, sands and some kids!

2011-04-03T14:11:00.000-07:00

While I can sit for hours together all alone at a beach, the other thing that I greatly enjoy is children playing in the sand and water. It makes me very nostalgic and I get transported back to my childhood when playing with cousins and friends at the beach was such a regular affair. I loved this boy running around in the water.

Splashing Around
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
$100 and ships FREE. Click here to Buy.

I added the bigger male figure in the front to bring in more distance into the frame. I was quite in a double mind whether or not to add the bigger figure, then went for it. What do you think of it? Do you like the painting? Do let me know.

Crossing Paths - More fun on the beach

2011-04-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

As soon as I finished Sand Castles and Looking at the Horizons, I was in that zone and had this urge to paint a couple of more pictures of children. And this was the outcome! Let me know what you think.

Crossing Paths
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
$100 and ships FREE. Click here to Buy.

Bleeding Blue! - Stuff of a billion dreams!

2011-04-01T09:04:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my post on Daffodils, the cricket World cup is going on and guess what, India are playing in the final tomorrow! Whoooo! This painting was completed after their semi final win over Pakistan on Wednesday. It was a great exciting match and this is my way of celebrating my team's victory.

It is a palette knife painting of a blue tulip! I was looking for some blue flower to paint, and while I was looking for references with mainly bluebonnets in mind, I was rather pleasantly surprised to find a blue tulip! So started it right away.:) Let me know if you like it!

Bleeding Blue
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
$100 and ships FREE, click here to Buy

It is probably the most cherished dream of any Indian, that our cricket team must win the coveted cup. And tomorrow is a great chance for us, I really really hope we pull it off. The last time we were in the final, in 2003, we were beaten black and blue by Australia. It was so disappointing as my whole class was watching the match with so much of enthusiasm in college. The last edition in 2007 was a very forgettable outing for us. So this is definitely our best chance. Sri Lanka, the team we are playing against, are as tough as opponents can get, but then let's see. I think the momentum is with us.

A FANTASTIC Blogger improvisation for Art blogs - Try it NOW!

2011-03-31T10:17:00.000-07:00

Blogger has launched "Dynamic Views" today, where you can choose how you want to view a blog. It is essentially how a viewer who lands up in your blog can easily view the most important stuff your blog has to offer.

Read all about it at Blogger Buzz - Dynamic Views for Blogger.

Palette Knife Painters
"Mosaic View"

Why it is a love at first sight?

No brainer really, isn't it?! For an Art blog, instead of having to scroll down and view post by post, if you can see all the images at once, doesn't it capture the attention of an audience immediately? It gives you a portfolio view of your work, right here on your blog. Awesome isn't it!

Biggest advantages?

I'd jump in and say art bloggers stand to gain the most. I'd also add food blogs and of course photography blogs. Essentially any image intensive blog will benefit immensely from this. I know so many awesome food blogs with such mouthwatering pictures, which I am sure if seen in a portfolio view, the readers would be all the more tempted to check out the recipes.

With the normal blogger view, there is a limit on the number of posts that one can see. And on an average if we have one image per post, it limits the number of images on the front page as well. However, with these views, the images are loaded on the homepage. This, however, doesn't slow down your website. The images are rolled as you scroll and not during launch, so you cannot believe how super fast the page loads.

Views allow Sorting

In the flipcard view, there is this great feature where you can sort the images by date, author and so on. Imagine how awesome this would be in a group blog like Palette Knife Painters that I am a part of, to easily see the posts by various authors. You know what, personally it will be very useful for me for Palette Knife Painters, as I often forget which are the paintings I have blogged there. Now I have a ready reckoner!

Which is my favorite view?

I love the "snapshot" view, because it gives all the images and the post titles too. The other views do not give the post titles. I somehow like images with titles and find this view best. Check out A Splash of Color in the Snapshot view. The numbers next to some of the posts show the number of comments in those.

A Splash of Color
Snapshot View

How to view your blog in dynamic views?

To view your blog in these different styles, type append /view to your blog address, like http://nithyaswaminathan.blogspot.com/view, and have fun with it! Oh boy! the "normal" blogger looks oh-so-boring now!

What if you don't like these views?
Dynamic views are enabled by default, and you can disable them however. If you want to disable this feature and do not want your blog to be viewed dynamically, you can do so by Logging into your blogger dashboard ->Settings->Formatting->Enable Dynamic Views. Select "No" there and save it. But trust me, if you are an art blogger, you will love it. Try it out right now!

So, which is your favorite dynamic view?

Daffodils #2 - Celebrating Spring and an Indian win!

2011-03-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

I was not really planning to paint today, as I had so much work and there was a crucial cricket match going on between India and Australia. I was so occupied the whole day and the match was more important than anything else. For those who do not know, I love watching sports. Cricket, Tennis and Formula 1, in that order.

Daffodils #2
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
$100 and ships FREE, click here to Buy

Daffodils #2
Framing suggestion.

It is common knowledge that when you want something really bad, the whole universe conspires to make it happen. I did not really want to paint today, but the universe conspired nevertheless. We were having some issues with our work systems, and India were looking to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the match. To keep myself sane and not keep swearing at the cricket players on the TV, I went into my studio for refuge. :)

It so turned out that just after I switched off the TV and went in to paint, the match swung in India's favour and we pulled off an awesome win. Hurray! We have now sent the three times World Champions packing home! So being the superstitious self that I am (only when it comes to matches), I'll probably follow this pattern for the next couple of matches too. But then, I may not. Why give up on some excitement. Anyway, I am thrilled today and quite happy with the painting too. Let me know what you think!

Update on the Help Japan auction

2011-03-23T17:24:00.000-07:00

I had submitted two paintings for the Help Japan challenge at DPW. I am very happy to note that both paintings have been bid upon for $50. I'd like to thank whoever has bid on my painting, I do not know who it is yet.:) The auction will run till this weekend and you can still bid at a higher price.

I also donated one more painting today, an old one of my red tulips. Yet another palette knife painting with acrylics.

Looking at the Horizons
SOLD

My painting will be shipped unframed, but doesn't it look cool with a frame? Let me know what you think.

You can bid on my paintings here -

Red Tulips

Over $12000 has been raised so far, the auction is going on really good. There are nearly 300 pieces of original art available for bidding, do consider bidding in the auction on your favorite piece. It is being donated for a great cause, please spread the word.

Welcome Spring! - Textured Oil painting of a daffodil

2011-03-23T16:59:00.000-07:00

Is it any secret that I love the German spring? I simply can't get enough of it, and it is definitely my most favorite season of the year. The daffodils have been in bloom for more than a week now and I was waiting for some good sunshine to take pictures. Got some nice references of the flowers today and got to painting them.:) I missed painting the daffodils last year, so did not want to miss them this time around.

Daffodils #1
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
$100 and ships FREE, Click here to Buy

During spring, more than the flowers, I love the spring green of the leaves. It is so heartwarming to see leaves after the long barren winter. This year, touchwood, the winter in Germany has been rather short and extremely mild. We hardly had any snow after Christmas and the temperatures have been pretty mild.

Daffodils #1
(framing suggestion)

I have also provided some framing suggestions, and will be glad to assist you in selecting a frame that will suit your decor. Let me know what you think of the painting.

Looking at the Horizons - Art auction for Japan

2011-03-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

One more painting that I am donating to the cause of Japan. This Acrylic Painting is done with the palette knife and is textured. Click on the link to zoom in to the painting and see the details. Bidding starts at $50 and runs for a week.

Looking at the Horizons
Acrylics on Board, 6 by 6 inches
SOLD

Check out the contributions from artists world over for the Help Japan Challenge. If you have always wanted to buy an original piece of art, I'd say this is an awesome opportunity. Do check it out and spread the word.

Sand Castles - Art auction for Japan

2011-03-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge at Daily Paintworks is a fund raiser for the cause of Japan, with the theme being "Home". Home is where the heart is, and to me, it is always in Madras, South India. That's the city that I grew up in and the one that is closest to my heart. It being a coastal city, the first image that comes to my mind when I hear "home" is undoubtedly the beach.

The beach has been an integral part of our lives and no trip to Madras is complete without a visit to the beach. Since we are a tropical city, the water is always warm and soothing and I simply LOVE standing at the shores with the waves lapping up my feet. I can sit there for hours together and just keep watching the waves, which I mentioned in my painting "Wave watching" too.

Sand Castles

Acrylics on Board, 6 by 6 inches

SOLD

This painting is a precious memory from my childhood. This painting is done with the palette knife and is textured. I have uploaded a hi-res image at the DPW site and you can zoom in to see the details. This feature is really cool! You can see the texture generated by the palette knife.

I hope you like the piece. Bidding starts at $50 and I ship worldwide. Please spread the word.

Art for Japan - A fundraiser for the Tsunami Relief

2011-03-12T14:38:00.000-08:00

An update:
Artists at Etsy, I am sure most of you would have seen this already, but sharing it once again here -

Artists at Etsy have also been brainstorming ideas to set up a collective shop for charity purposes, but the Admin's stance is not yet clear on this. I will continue to update this post as and when some concrete information is available.

Meanwhile, I am making this fundraiser active on my Etsy and Artfire stores. For every painting that is purchased.

This is an attempt to help the earthquake and tsunami victims of Japan in a small way, and I will be donating a THIRD of my sales to the Red Cross. By purchasing an original painting from me, you could donate an amount starting from $10 to the Red Cross towards the relief efforts.

This is not an auction. The prices of my paintings can be seen in my stores roughly a third of the sales will go towards the relief efforts in Japan. For EVERY painting that is sold, I will donate 1/3 of the price to the Red Cross. This will mean $10 for the small paintings priced at $35, $20 for my $60 paintings and so on.

About the paintings -

My paintings are all done with high quality Acrylic and/or Oil paints.
Most of the pieces are done with the palette knife and hence textured.
I will ship them varnished (unless you specifically tell me not to) so that you can frame them with a standard store bought frame. I use a UV protecting varnish with a gloss finish.
The paintings can be framed without a glass and I will be more than happy to offer framing suggestions.
Since I paint in a series, you could frame a set of 3 or 4 similar themed paintings together and they would make an awesome collection.
Most importantly, each piece is an original, one of its kind, signed and dated by me. I do not sell reproductions.

My Artfire store
My Etsy store

Please spread the word. Thank you.

P.S: There is no need to "sign up" in order to purchase a painting from Artfire. Guests can make purchases directly and it takes less than a minute.

Seduction - Palette Knife Tango painting in Oils

2011-03-12T11:30:00.000-08:00

By now I am sure it would be very evident that I love painting the Tango and it is such an oft repeated motif in my work. I just thought how it would be to do without the legs for once. Most of my Tango paintings, if not all of them, primarily have red and black in the palette. I also went in for a different palette doing away with red and going in for a lot of browns.

And this painting is much larger than my other Tango pieces. Let me know what you think. I did not like it that much initially, but now I like it. After setting it aside for a while I did not want to change anything about it, which is a good thing.

Seduction

Oil on Canvas, 16 by 16 inches

$350 + shipping, click here to Buy

This painting is done from a lovely photograph on flickr by Sungnicholas, used with the permission of the photographer.

Blue and Orange #2 - Original Still Life

2011-03-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

Have I told you how I paint? Mostly sitting on the floor. Not even mostly, make that close to 95%. Unless I am extremely motivated to stand in front of the easel or sit at the table, I perch myself in a cozy corner on the floor and I can stay put for as long as I want.

So I was sitting with this still life from Blue and Orange in front of me. And in between the session, I just got up to fetch myself some coffee and was taking a critical look at my work in progress. It so happened that I also glanced at the set up itself, from above and liked it even better. Thank God I did not stop my previous painting half way and start with this one.

Blue and Orange #2

Oil on Canvas, 5 by 7 inches

$100 and ships FREE, click here to buy

As soon as I wrapped up Blue and Orange, I rearranged some of my stuff and painted this one standing at the easel for a change, for it was a top view that I was painting. An oblique top view infact. And I like this one much better. By then I was a little familiar with the whole "mix anew and lay each stroke" approach, besides the painting itself being smaller. I like this one quite a bit. Which one do you like? Do let me know!

Blue and Orange #1 - A brush strokes experiment

2011-03-09T12:33:00.000-08:00

I love challenges that really stretch your limits and motivate you enough to come up with something different. This past week's challenge at Daily Paintworks was one such, and hands down one of the toughest paintings I have ever done. The challenge was to paint anything, subject doesn't matter, but by mixing a different color for every single stroke laid on the surface.

Blue and Orange

Oil on Canvas, 6 by 12 inches

$120 + shipping, Click here to Buy

My head reeled at the very thought, as I for one get very easily tempted to pick up the smaller brushes and pore over the details. And my painting would've been a never ending soap opera if I had to do this with a small brush. For the uninitiated, what this technique meant was that I mix a color on my palette, and lay a stroke, again mix and so on. It makes you really think before you mix, and think really hard in terms of values. For someone totally not used to painting this way, it is very unsettling initially. But then I kind of found a rhythm and took the painting to completion amidst a lot of huffs and puffs.

My set up was very simple, I wanted to make it as simple as possible and just picked up whatever was readily available. The effort was a lot more rewarding than the end result I would say, and it is something I will definitely try again. Let me know how you like it!

Make an offer for March 2011 and some updates!

2011-03-08T12:50:00.001-08:00

I wonder if you already noticed, and I'd request you to take a look if you haven't, that the website has changed upside down. I have just redone the whole thing, removed a lot of clutter. I think I have now made it much easier to buy work from me, check out prices and what not. I have done away with all kinds of slide shows and animated displays and have gone in for a much simpler and functional layout. Let me know what you think.

Yes, there are still some broken links, and I am fixing them. What is very important though is that the work is updated and recent. It has all my pieces over the last year or so.

I had imposed upon myself that until the website is done to my satisfaction, I would put off painting itself and would focus on this task. Glad that it is almost out of the way now and I am looking forward to getting back to the studio. I was so tied up with this website task plus some work pressure that I could not even paint something new for my Make an offer painting this month. So I am offering one of my paintings from last month. :)

Pepper Delight

Acrylics on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches

$120 + shipping, Click here to Buy

I painted a series of colorful peppers and this one is a personal favorite. I love how the colors really came together in this one. The texture is also really distinct and feels great when touched. If you would like to make an offer for this colorful palette knife painting, shoot me a mail!

And once again, let me know what you think of the changes in the website. Your feedback is extremely valuable to me and I really look forward to it.

Now a proud member of the CFIA

2011-03-08T12:20:00.001-08:00

I chanced about the "Contemporary Fine Art International" from another artist's facebook page and came across their monthly challenges. I saw this just in time for the February challenge and thought my painting "Sisters" already fitted with the February theme of Friendship. And guess what, I won the first place in the non-member category! Thrilled or what?!

Sisters

Oil on Canvas, 10 by 12 inches

1st place winner (non member) at the CFIA challenge, Feb 2011.
$200 + shipping, Click here to Buy

The best part about this is not just winning, but that I won a membership to the society for a year. Really cool I must say! I am so honored to be in the company of some of the best in Contemporary Art. Do check out my page and work there.

Check out the winners here.

News Update - Original Oil Painting of people at the Beach

2011-02-15T01:14:00.000-08:00

With every new painting these days, I always start with the Oils vs Acrylics dilemma. My mind almost does a dry run of the whole process in either medium and then I toss the coin. Sort of. This one had nothing much in the background so I just went with oils. There was no need of any texture to it, instead the colors had to be more exciting and vivid.

I was initially not very excited about the entire background being only indicative of sand and no water. But looking at it now I think I decided right. I like the way the woman pops out of the rather dull background and even if I say so myself, this painting totally rocks in person. It looks much better than the photos!

News Update
Oil on Board, 18 by 24 cms (7.1 by 9.4 inches)
© Nithya Swaminathan
$120 + shipping, Click here to Buy

And oh, my books have all arrived! They look so awesome and arrived couple of weeks earlier than I expected. I am kind of tied up over the next couple of weeks though, and I hope to get to these books early next month. By the latest. Book reviews shall follow as and when :)

Let me know what you think of the painting!

Layered Love - Be my Valentine!

2011-02-13T05:49:00.000-08:00

I really don't care much for Valentine's day or any other such day. But this was a good reason for a "red rose challenge" at Daily Paintworks. This also happens to be my first ever attempt at a rose, making it very special indeed.

The whole of last spring, I painted every flower that exists in every possible color, but I never painted the rose. It has somehow always intimidated me, I get bogged down thinking about the details in a rose. The circles of petals make me go dizzy and I somehow never believed I could paint one decently well. Am glad that I persisted today though. Actually persist isn't right, as there wasn't much to. I am glad that I set aside all my apprehensions and just started painting it.

Layered Love
Acrylics on Canvas, 5 by 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$35 + shipping, Click here to Buy

The whole idea of these challenges is to push yourself and to try new stuff. So while I was not too confident pulling it off with the knife, that's what I eventually did. Decided not to touch the brush at all, so much that even the sides of the canvas are painted with the knife. :) I am totally in LOVE with this one. Extremely pleased with the outcome. Let me know what you think!

Also, I usually keep saying "sides painted", "can be hung without a frame" and so on. For people wondering what the hell that actually means, I also took some snapshots of this painting from different viewpoints today, that will show the painted sides. Hope you enjoy these views too! :)

Where's my cuppa? - One more coffee mug!

2011-02-13T05:35:00.000-08:00

After painting my coffee mug eight times for the "ten minute challenge", I just could not let it go without one more normal attempt. One without a timer that is. However, I am quite incorrigible and ended up timing myself. It was around 20 minutes :-)

I was working from life after a really long time and it was so liberating and great fun. I have missed it so much and I hope to work more from life soon. Let me know what you think!

Where's my cuppa?
Oil on Canvas, 5 by 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$100 and ships FREE, Click here to Buy

Eight times over!

2011-02-13T05:18:00.000-08:00

One of the very few sites that I subscribe to, Daily Paintworks, has introduced a weekly challenge. And it is open for artists all over to participate. This challenge by one of my favorite artists, Carol Marine is to paint a single object within ten minutes. It is called the "Ten minute challenge". All we had to do was to zero in on one object, divide the canvas into squares or rectangles of a couple of inches and paint the same object repeatedly with only ten minutes for each attempt.

Eight times over
Oil on Canvas, 6 by 12 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$75 + shipping, Click here to Buy

I was excited about doing this one, as it is something I have never done before. I chose my simple coffee mug and painted it eight times on a 6 by 12 canvas. With each attempt I tried to change not only the position, but also a bit of my technique, background etc. This was the first time I painted with a timer and phew it was scary! Like writing an exam after all these years!

It was a great exercise in "cutting the crap" and focussing on just what is necessary. When I work from photos, I will many a time zoom into great detail and try to incorporate more detail. There are so many times I over work a painting as I just don't realize where to stop. This was a great idea for that. At the tenth minute, I stop no matter where I am. It was awesome! Let me know what you think.

Do you have a favorite? Can you take a guess which square was painted first? I expected that the first one would be the worst and things would get better from there. But this was quite challenging with every attempt that I personally don't think mug #1 is the worst. My favorite is the top left square, which was I think attempt #5. Let me know yours :-)

Reluctant beginner - Impressions of a European Summer

2011-02-06T16:26:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite pieces in the ongoing series, if not the favorite. I completed this one yesterday and today I found quite some things to tweak, but still like the overall output and mood of the picture.

Reluctant beginner
Acrylics on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$120 + shipping, Click here to Buy

I decided to paint this one seeing the little girl and her cute little swimming dress. Initially I started sketching both figures in full, the girl and her dad. But my canvas isn't too big and the girl became insignificant in the picture when the dad was done in full size. I then struck gold with this crop and loved it to bits. This way, the focus I believe is on the girl and her pose. Let me know what you think.

In other news, Facebook email has been activated for me since sometime last week. My first thoughts are not very positive about it, I don't like a lot of features or lack thereof. What I like though is having a mail id with just my first name. :) It being a very common name among South Indians, I have never had one just with my first name so far. Trivial pleasures I tell you!

Wave watching - New Oil Painting

2011-02-05T06:51:00.000-08:00

The original reference for this painting had a couple of more people sitting in and around this umbrella talking. Lying down and talking casually. I did not want to make it too crowded because I wanted the umbrella in focus. I loved the colors it had and it made for such a cheerful picture. So instead of painting just the umbrella, I included only one figure too and liked the outcome.

Wave watching
Oil on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$120 + shipping, Click here to Buy

What could one person sitting in this pose possibly be doing? She ain't reading a book or not even geting tanned. I thought about it and what immediately struck me was that she could just be relaxing and admiring the waves! I can do that for hours on end, just sit at the beach and look at the waves. Repeatedly lashing the shores, the noise of the seas, and so on. It has an inexplicably calming effect on me. That was and still is one of my absolute favorite things to do in Madras, my home. I drive to the beach and amidst hordes of people and hawkers all around, I can still sit there and keep looking at the waters and waves in complete awe. More so if it is a moonlit night. The irony of the painting though is that the beaches here do not really have such high tides as we did in India. Ha!

I hope you like it, let me know your feedback.

Featured in Stylish Home

2011-02-05T06:23:00.000-08:00

I am very glad that my painting "A book and some sunshine" is featured in the list of "weekly Etsy finds" in this gorgeous blog Stylish Home focusing on home decor. Do head there and take a look at their creative ideas for home styling and also a host of other paintings featured along with mine.

Thank you!

Not exactly summer, maybe Spring time impressions :-)

2011-02-04T06:51:00.000-08:00

This painting is from a reference I clicked last year, sometime during spring. But it is quite bright and sunny to be part of my current series I thought. I loved the moment, two young women engaged in a very casual banter, probably sharing a joke or something like that. Loved the setting and everything about it and I just had to paint it.

Chit chat
Oil on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$120 + shipping, click here to buy

I tried a burnt sienna background for this one. It was very different, helped judge values better and I think it helped to get the final outcome a tad better than what it would've been on black or white. I am not too sure. For a long while, I was feeling completely bugged with the painting as just did not seem to come together, it was like all my values were in the same range and all merging with the background. Terrible I tell you! And then I worked some more to bring in more range and was generally satisfied at how it was taking shape. I deliberately avoided much detail in the background and kept it as simple as possible as I wanted the focus on the women.

Let me know what you think.

New video: Paintings in January 2011

2011-02-03T07:42:00.000-08:00

When I tried to make videos of all my paintings in the end of 2010, I almost fainted at the number of images and was exasperated by the time I put them together. They were so many that I could manage only 3 videos that covered about half the number of works that I did last year. I did not have the enthusiasm to make videos of the remaining ones.

So it was one of my goals this year to do this on a monthly basis. It makes my life much easier and gives me a chance to publish new content on my channel at least once a month. So here it is, paintings for the first month of the year. It is hardly surprising that most of them are people, considering that's what is keeping me excited for the time being.

Hope you enjoy seeing them all together. I quite like them. I could be hallucinating but I think they look coherent together. Let me know what you think. And I have a lot many more beach and summer paintings coming up, this whole month for sure and maybe a bit into March too.

Make an offer - February 2011 - At the beach

2011-02-03T07:33:00.000-08:00

I'd like to firs apologise for the delay in posting my make an offer painting for this month, as I was busy with work. I was first thinking about one more painting from Venice from one of my references, but then just went with the flow and chose to do one from my ongoing series itself.

I was feeling very rusty over the last week or so and that too is a reason for the delay. I was painting mindlessly but not happy with anything that came out of it. As a result, I started around 5 new paintings and did not finish even one. I was switching canvasses, just waiting for it to click. Today too was a difficult painting day, the brush just did not seem to flow. But then I decided to persist some more and then decided to stop at a point where any more work I felt would ruin it. I am not entirely happy with the painting, certainly not my best work but that's the way it is now. All I hope is tomorrow is a better and more productive day.

At the beach
Oil on canvas, 8 by 8 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
Starts at $60, click here to mail me

The process is the same, if you are interested in this painting, please send me a mail. The offer price starts at $60, which is at a 20% discount from the actual price of the painting, which is what it will be when I list it in my store. I hope you like it and your comments are welcome.

This painting is mildly textured, as I started with the palette knife and did even parts of her body with her knife but completed it with a brush.

Dancing feet #22 - New Tango Painting

2011-01-24T05:02:00.000-08:00

So it is back to the dancers now. Working on the summer series over the last whole week was just the break I needed, I was indeed a little fatigued with the dancers and I felt a monotony setting in. And yesterday I was *so* ready to do another dancer! I missed them! Have a couple of more belly dancers underway and will be getting to them asap.

Dancing feet #22
Acrylics on board, 5 by 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$100 and ships FREE, Click here to Buy

Reading by the lake VI - Impressions of a European Summer

2011-01-23T06:32:00.000-08:00

The whole of last week I was working with oils. While it was an awesome break from Acrylics, it was high time I got back to another Acrylic piece :) I tend not to experiment much with oils, as I do with Acrylics. I generally tend to be more realistic with oils than with Acrylics. Anyway, I love to be able to context switch with ease between the two mediums and choose either based on the subject matter and my mood on that day.

Reading by the Lake VI
Acrylics on Canvas, 12 by 10 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$200 + shipping, Click here to Buy

With this piece, I started with a green background. I was thinking of doing it on a black gessoed canvas, but switched to green at the last minute. This was my first time with a toned surface and it was good. I might try it more. The background was painted in Olive green and the foreground in green lightened with some white. The figures were painted on this base. The reference was particularly interesting because of how the guy's face and body were hidden behind the grass.

I got some very positive feedback for yesterday's skyscape demo video, my friends loved it. I wanted to try the same thing again with this painting but did not enjoy doing it. Pausing, taking photos and resuming is not fun at all. And definitely not when you are racing against time to work in with the paints before they dry! I also thought the skyscape video would've been even better with some commentary added, info about what colors have been mixed at each step and so forth. That's my plan for the next video.

Hope you like this painting, let me know what you think!

Framed, naturally! - Sunset skyscape in Oils

2011-01-22T06:48:00.000-08:00

Last week, we were driving somewhere when I noticed one of the most beautiful skies that I have ever seen. Layers and layers of clouds reflecting such a range of colors. I just wanted to freeze in that moment forever. And decided that I HAD to paint a sunset sky asap.

Framed, naturally!
Oil on Canvas, 6 by 12 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$120 + shipping, Click here to Buy

Skies have never been my strong point, I tend to make the edges too "hard" and the colors don't seem to flow seamlessly. Not that I am entirely happy with this one, but it definitely is one of my better attempts at painting a sky. Do check out the detailed shots in my store, they are quite nice. :)

I also managed to take a lot of progress images this time and put them together into a video. I usually do not pause to take photos when I am painting, because it disrupts my flow badly. Wanted to make an exception this time though. I have not yet been able to film an actual real time demo of me painting, and this is the best I could manage right now. :) Hope you enjoy the process!

http://bit.ly/i7DPtj

A walk on the beach - New Beach painting in Oils

2011-01-21T06:38:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorites from the beach/lake/summer observations series. I landed on this particular crop by accident. I started sketching the full figures of these two young ladies on an 18 by 24 cm panel, and then just zoomed in to look at some detail. And voila! It just struck me that I could just go in with the feet and ditch the faces. I was completely excited by the idea, but wanted to do it bigger. So picked up this 10 by 12 inch canvas and went ahead.

Sisters
Oil on gallery wrapped canvas, 10 by 12 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$200 + shipping, Click here to Buy

This was a great lesson in value studies, as reflections generally are. I almost heard my painting teacher telling me from several years ago, that a reflection is always darker than the original. :) LOL! I was also doing waves after god knows how long. Figured out that they were still as challenging as the last time I painted them.

The painting is very different from the others that I have done in the series, in that the colors are very subdued. I have not gone in for intense color at all. And more than the technical aspects of the painting, I like the mood. Two anonymous women, best friends, sisters, whatever! I hope you like it. :) Let me know your feedback.

Light study II - New study in oils

2011-01-21T06:21:00.000-08:00

Yet another study, some playing around with various greens and yellows. With mixing every other color with green. It was fun!

Light study II
Oil on Canvas, 5 by 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$100 and ships FREE, Click here to Buy

Golden path - a simple light study in oils

2011-01-20T06:25:00.000-08:00

Of late, I have been obsessing about what I suck at and where I could improve and all that. Last week, I was analyzing my work quite a bit and came up with things that need immediate attention and ordered some books that I believe will help me in my quest. I ordered 5 books which were all in the $15 range, but my shipping cost was the highest item on the bill, at about $20! Phew! But then, if I ordered from Amazon's German site, the cost of the books itself was much more and I could order only 4 books for the price of 5. I decided that it is better to order from the US and I am waiting for the shipment which by their estimate will arrive by end of Feb. Sucks I tell you! Anyway, I digress.

Golden Path
Oil on Canvas, 5 by 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$100 and ships FREE, Click here to Buy

The aim of this study, as the title says is just to explore light and color. I believe landscapes are the most effective when it comes to studying light. That's quite obvious isn't it?! I hope to do more of these and one of my focus areas this year is to infuse more light and thereby life into my work. I am also looking at whether my weaknesses are irrespective of medium, or whether my approach to a painting is significantly different with Acrylics vis a vis Oils, so on and so forth. Let's see where this takes me.

I have also mixed the palette knife and the brush in this one. The background is entirely done with the brush. I picked up the knife for the brightest foliage though. It gives a nice effect and looks infinitely better in person.

Catching up - New Beach Painting in Oils

2011-01-19T06:03:00.000-08:00

This painting too started off pretty much similar to Blue and Yellow, where I started it textured with Acrylics. If you know me well enough, you would of course figure that they weren't just started "similar", but simultaneously. The other day, a friend was asking me on facebook about how many works I have in progress at a time. I guess 3 right now by the last count.

Catching up
Oil on board, 18 by 24 cms (7.1 by 9.4 inches)
© Nithya Swaminathan
$120 + shipping, Click here to Buy

With this one, my palette is quite limited - Ijust have French Ultramarine blue, Naples Yellow, Cadmium Orange and Burnt Sienna. And then some Titanium white. I wanted to leverage the beauty of the complementary colors next to each other and like the outcome. With the summer paintings, that's my main motive - to get it as bright and colorful as possible. All my focus is on color. I have gone in for very loose strokes in this painting, not at all bothering about details. The figures have more personality that way I think. And as usual, I would request you to click on the store link to check out closer shots, to see what I mean.

Hope you are enjoying the series as much as I am, let me know what you think.

Get in - New Oil Painting

2011-01-17T16:16:00.000-08:00

Back to the lake, shall we go? This painting was a super quickie. I had done the previous beach painting and had some blue left on my palette. Since I just wanted to use it up, started this one. And it was painted in about 20 minutes. I did not want to overwork it, so kept everything to a very skeletal level. Just about 2-3 different values and it was done. Let me know what you think!

Get In
Oil on Board, 18 by 24 cms (7.1 by 9.4 inches)
© Nithya Swaminathan
$120 + shipping, Click here to Buy

Blue and Yellow - To the beach, after the lake!

2011-01-16T16:04:00.000-08:00

I am a HUGE fan of Karin Jurick's work, specifically her beach paintings. Though people generally go gaga over her "People in front of artwork" paintings, which are of course freaking awesome, I like her beach paintings a tad more. And I've been meaning to do some for quite some time. And now that I am in the summer mode, it was a perfect time to continue from the lakeside to the golden sands.

We are not done with the lakeside paintings yet, but I just felt like doing this one from a beach trip last summer. I was just going through my photos and it looks like I have enough material for the next month at least. I hope to milk as much more as possible from the lakeside refs, and I guess this would go on side by side. :)

Blue and Yellow
Oil on Canvas, 18 by 24 cms (7.1 by 9.4 inches)
© Nithya Swaminathan
$120 + shipping, Click here to Buy

I started this one with Acrylics, and with the palette knife. So there is a little bit of texture in the sands. But did not feel satisfied and switched to oils. Since I am in the groove for doing oil paintings now, I kind of went with the flow :) Hope you like this one. Your feedback is welcome.

And, a reminder that my "make an offer" painting for the month, "An Afternoon in Venice" is available for bidding. Do drop me a mail if you are interested. Please feel free to share this with anyone who would be interested.

Too Deep? - Impressions of a European Summer

2011-01-16T04:30:00.000-08:00

This lady is one of my favorite references in this series. I loved her pose, how she was treading carefully and slowly into the water. And the light and shade of course. While the dancers are mostly people with figures to die for, this series is more about "normal" people. If I were to paint myself, this is how I would look, quite out of shape. That's what makes this series appeal to me as a viewer, and as a painter approaching each image. If every woman I painted had an hourglass figure, I am sure I'd get bored too soon!

Too Deep?
Oils on board, 18 by 24 cms (7.1 by 9.4 inches)
© Nithya Swaminathan
$120 + shipping, Click here to Buy

This is one of my favorite paintings from the series. :) Let me know what you think.

Cursory Glances - New Oil Painting

2011-01-15T03:41:00.000-08:00

I am having a ball of a time with all these figures, the human figure is indeed the most exciting thing to paint. I get the feeling that my sketching is getting a little better as well and I am not struggling with proportions. And after all the textured work, this is a nice break with just the brushes, just enjoying the flow of the brush on canvas. Hope you like it!

Cursory Glances
Oil on board, 18 by 24 cms (7.1 by 9.4 inches)
© Nithya Swaminathan
$120 + shipping, Click here to Buy

To take the plunge or not? :-)

2011-01-14T06:28:00.000-08:00

Continuing with my series of summer observations, I tried switching to oils for a change. I have bought a set of ready made gessoed hardboard panels from my last trip to the store, and they are a little too smooth. Kind of plasticky and I did not quite like Acrylic paints on them. Had a feeling that oils might work better and gave it a shot. And yes, I was right. These are extremely smooth and the oil paints just flow, painting themselves in the process :-)

To take the plunge or not?
Oil on board, 18 by 24 cms (7.1 by 9.4 inches)
© Nithya Swaminathan
$120 + shipping, Click here to Buy

I wanted to get a little bright with the colors and have used a lot of cadmium yellow on her skin tones. I did not mix flesh tone but went with a very warm palette in general. I like it and would love to know what you think. This painting has no texture, zero! It is completely done with the brush. :) Let me know what you think.

Orientation Program - New Textured Acrylic Painting

2011-01-13T05:47:00.000-08:00

This painting too is one that I did not click but just "discovered" in the process of sorting out images. Is that a treasure trove or what! And I just LOVED this reference. This is probably the first lesson in swimming for this little child. Or maybe not the first, as I have seen mothers with kids even younger getting into the water :-)

Orientation Program
Acrylics on Board, 18 by 24 cms (7.1 by 9.4 inches)
© Nithya Swaminathan
$120 + shipping, Click here to Buy

The whole image interested me at several levels. For one, this is not a sight that I have seen in India. I don't think an Indian mother would be as forthcoming to let such a young toddler into the water. But here, it is a common sight. I think it has to do with our own comfort levels with the water. I for instance, did not learn swimming as a child. I learnt it only about 4 years ago and so will never ever get into any water other than a closed swimming pool with known depth. So me having the confidence of teaching my little one to swim is out of the question. Here on the other hand, skills like swimming, skiing etc are passed on so easily from parent to child when the kids are really young. And they kind of grow up doing all these fun things. Oh boy during my ski vacation, while I was struggling to even stand up with the skis on, kids younger than my daughter were skiing like seasoned pros!

I wanted to capture that lovely moment of bonding between the mom and the child, of having fun together. I like the outcome. Let me know what you think of it!

Counting the stars - New Textured Acrylic Painting

2011-01-13T04:19:00.000-08:00

I am sure this figure would be familiar to most of you, it is the same lady who was in my first summer series painting "Reading by the Lake I". I think this was clicked within a few minutes this way that way within that reference. I kind of loved this reference a lot more as she was so chilled out, just doing umm nothing at all! Just lying down, probably after a swim in the lake, completely relaxed and taking in the surroundings. I LOVED the mood of it and had to paint it.

In my store, I have uploaded quite a few closer shots of the painting, which will clearly show the texture and the strokes. Whether or not you are interested in buying the painting, I'd request you to check out the close up views, they are quite interesting even if I say so myself! Let me know what you think! :)

Getting Ready - New Textured Acrylic Painting

2011-01-12T04:55:00.000-08:00

I was not entirely happy with the last 2 Tango paintings. Also, a couple of days back, I screwed up a new belly dancer painting big time that it will take some time to correct and post it. So I thought it was good to take a little break from the dancers and do something else. Maybe a little fatigue was setting in, I am not sure. I wasn't fatigued with figures as such though, so went back to my summer series.

Getting Ready
Acrylics on Board, 18 by 24 cms (7.1 by 9.4 inches approx)
© Nithya Swaminathan
$120 + shipping, Click here to Buy

It is awesome how after a day's cycling trip for a few hours, I came back with a couple of dozen photos and how many painting possibilities are there in those. I honestly did not expect this many paintings to come out of that trip. The little girl in this painting for instance, was not even my object of focus in the photo. I was clicking someone else and she just happened to be there in the frame. And later on when I was checking out the snaps, she called out to be painted. I am sure I have enough material for at least a dozen more paintings in this series.

I like this painting, the initial sketch was to my liking the first time itself and so painting was easy. When the initial sketch goes haywire, it screws up everything else that follows, needless to say. I hope you like it, let me know your comments.

Dancing feet #21 - New Tango Painting

2011-01-09T16:43:00.000-08:00

The original image which I painted this from had the woman's dress in silvery grey. Very shiny and lovely. But I decided to change it to red anyway. If I do an entire painting without red, something feels amiss :-) The first image that Tango brings to my mind is a figurine in red. So there!

After doing my 300 to 30 project last year, I have got so used to the 5 by 7 size that I am planning to work a lot more in that size. I love my big paintings but there is something very convenient about this size and its proportions. So I raided the art store last week and stocked up on a lot of supplies. From buying in tubes, I have graduated to buying paints in cans now! That alone is sufficient to see the quantum leap in my output. Besides, palette knife painting always consumed more paint :) So going forward, you will be seeing a lot of 5 by 7s interspersed with bigger pieces. Doubt if I'll be painting smaller than 5 by 7, but I cannot talk about that now.

Your comments are welcome as always!

Dancing feet #20 - Original Tango Painting

2011-01-09T07:07:00.000-08:00

Even before I realize, the Tango dancer paintings are 20 already! This is one of my most favorite series, on par with the irises and poppies maybe. :) I love both those series. I like most of the paintings in this series, though I must say there are a couple that are downright embarrassing. Do you have a favorite amongst the tango dancers? Do let me know :)

Dancing feet #19 - New Tango Painting

2011-01-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

In all the Tango paintings, I add a little hint of copper or silver in the foreground. Just to bring in a little bit of shine and I like the effect it gives. Especially against the dark background. Your feedback is welcome!

Let Loose - Textured Acrylic Painting of a Belly dancer

2011-01-06T06:14:00.000-08:00

This one was the toughest of the belly dancers, without a doubt! I had such a tough time painting the woman's body that I felt for a couple of times that I should gesso it and start all over. I am not so convinced with it now either, but I think the proportions are at least fine now. The angle of her head and that stretched neck was quite the challenge. When I first sketched it, it was like the neck was too long. And then it seems short. The head looked minuscule for the body when I later realized it was the body that was too big and not the head that was too small. And that hand, don't even get me started on that one. It was so unbelievably tricky and just not convincing enough. Neither is it now. Too many mistakes that had to be fixed one by one! Phew! I painted this over three days and it is currently in a position where I am relatively satisfied though not thrilled with it.

I have kept the palette very close to Show Stopper. I just thought they would be good hung together. This painting too is heavily textured, I had a great time doing her dress highlighting each fold with the knife. These kind of patterns are just tailor-made for the palette knife. There is infact texture everywhere excepting the hair and the face.

Let me know what you think.

Dancing feet #18 - Original Textured Acrylic Painting

2011-01-05T06:16:00.000-08:00

This reference is one of my absolute favorites. Just could not let it pass. :-) Let me know what you think!

May the fever begin!

2011-01-04T06:57:00.000-08:00

The Flamenco fever I mean. Whenever I take a look at a collection of my work, what strikes me and I think what will most obviously strike anyone is the amount of red in it. While my palette is predominantly warm most of the time, red seems to be the most common hue that I use. I am I love cadmium red and cadmium deep red. And cannot live without burnt sienna. Reds and browns give me an unparalleled high. So it isn't any rocket science that I chose to paint Flamenco now, as an extension to my dancer series.

This painting is very heavy in texture, much more than all my other work. Almost as much as "The world ahead" I could say. And this, is partly by design and partly by accident. After I did "Treasure Hunt" last year, I began another abstract and brought about a lot of texture on this canvas. It did not turn out true to what I had in mind, that I scraped the idea and just left it. Now I picked up the same canvas and started from scratch by applying black gesso over it. Something liberating about scraping a piece of art that has reached a dead end. The texture still stayed and has formed a nice backdrop to this painting.

I did not want to do the kind of background that I did for all my belly dancers. There, I always did the background as a hazy mix of warm colors, to suggest movement. In this painting though, I was looking for something that would accentuate the texture and create more drama. I have thus used a combination of copper and black in the background, suggesting some metallic hues. It was terrific doing the background, more fun than the actual painting itself.

The dancer too is entirely done with the palette knife. The gorgeous frills in her dress were a real treat to work with the knife. This is one dancer painting where the background actually has more texture, though the entire painting is quite three dimensional in nature. I stopped short of adding details to her hands and face as I wanted it to remain a little hazy, a bit in movement. In the flow of the dance.

Let me know what you think of this one. Of course, there are more flamenco pieces to follow, while the belly dancers too will continue on one end. And the Tango too! :-) So which dancers do you like the most? In my paintings I mean. Let me know.:)

I would request you to share my links, blog posts, artworks with anyone who might be interested. I am looking to grow my subscriber and client base and would greatly appreciate any sharing of links from your side. Thank you so much.

Dancing feet #17 - Textured Acrylic Painting

2011-01-03T02:12:00.000-08:00

Some more Tango. While I am working on the Belly dancers, I have also started a piece with a Flamenco dancer. Their red dresses scream of passion and I find red in any form simply irresistible. So I guess the next few pieces are going to be Flamenco. And while I am at it, I plan to start working on the Indian dance forms quite soon.

Just as is the case with everything Indian, the dance forms are also innumerable in their diversity and each one is beautiful in it's own way. A friend gave me an idea/suggestion in my facebook fan page last week and that has got me seriously thinking about the Indian classical dances. I am right now researching, going through images and doing some preliminary work. As I have zero knowledge of dance of any kind whatsoever, it is quite challenging. So yeah, you could expect something Indian from me sooner than later.

For now, just enjoy the sizzling Tango :-) Let me know what you think.

Dutch Damsels #11 - SOLD

2011-01-02T06:05:00.000-08:00

I am so thrilled to let you know that one of my tulip paintings sold earlier in the day today. This also happened to be my first client outside the US. That was no doubt the best way to start my New Year. And I hope this is a sign of things to come this year. :)

Dutch Damsels #11
Acrylics on board, 5 by 7 inches
SOLD

Dancing feet #16 - Acrylic Palette Knife painting

2011-01-02T04:44:00.000-08:00

It was only yesterday that I was talking about the Tango series all being non-textured. Though I like the outcome of these pieces, I am not very happy that they were not done with the knife. When I am trying to bring in a coherent style across pieces and subjects, I want to lessen the use of the brush as much as possible. So this was something bothering me. Well, not any more. Am I thrilled or what?!

This tango painting is done with the knife entirely, including the woman's legs, skin and all. What I love about the Tango pieces is that they hardly take any time at all. They are all done in an hour or less. Since I hardly do any work on the background, it is very less time consuming but quite effective. Let me know what you think!

You can find my Make-an-offer painting for January right here in my sidebar. Check it out and mail me if you are interested. Please do share with anyone who would be interested. Thank you!

And the winners are...

2011-01-01T04:23:00.000-08:00

First of all, my heartfelt thanks to all those who shared a link to my painting giveaway on various networking websites. My blog received a lot more page views and my facebook fan count grew by about 10 people over the last week. Thank you to each one of you.

I did draw out three names using a random number generator and the winners are:

Juhi Jairath Chawla

Sasmita Maurya

Nithya Vasudevan

Congratulations to the three of you. I hope you like the little paintings that you receive. There is a minor glitch though. Both Juhi Jairath Chawla and Sasmita Maurya had wanted the Bird of Paradise. But since Juhi's name was drawn first, she gets to receive the Bird of Paradise. I would request Sasmita to let me know of another painting that she would like to receive.

Thank you so much once again for playing along. This was great fun and I would like to run another giveaway around my birthday. Let's see. And giveaway or not, I would request you to share links to my blog/website/work with your friends. I deeply appreciate it.

Dancing into the New Year with some more Tango

2011-01-01T04:09:00.000-08:00

I thought I was done with the dancing feet series as I could not find any new references for a while. I wasn't looking actually. And then I remembered that I had gotten permission from quite a few photographers on flickr to paint with their images as refs. This is from one such photographer who was generous enough to give me permission. You can see the original photo here.

I have gone back to using the brush for the dancing feet, as I was not very happy with the knife results for these paintings. I might try them again with a knife later, with a little more patience perhaps. For now, this one has no texture though.:) Let me know how you like this one.

A peek into new things in store in 2011

2011-01-01T03:53:00.000-08:00

A very Happy New Year to all of you. May the year be filled with everything that you could wish for.

"Make an offer" painting

I was thinking for a while about what new to venture into this year, and this was one of the first ideas to strike me. This year, I am going to be offering a painting every month as a "Make an offer" painting. I will put this up on the first of every month and you can bid on the painting for the whole month. What is interesting is that the starting bid value is discounted than the actual value of the painting. So you do have the chance to buy art at an extremely affordable price from me.

How does it work?

If you are interested in this painting that is on offer, send me a mail or message me on Facebook or whatever, with your offer price. I will update my website and blog with the current highest offer every time I receive a new offer. So all you have to do is drop by my site and check out the current highest bid and place your bid higher. Simple! By the month end if it is not yet sold because there has been no bidder, then I will list it in my store at the actual price. Which means, during the time when bidding is on, I will NOT be listing it in my store and it will be available only directly from me.

A new painting will be on offer in the following month, no matter whether or not the previous month's is sold. And so on. I am quite excited about this initiative and I hope you are too. I would request you to share this with your friends and anyone else who would be interested.

Jan 2011 Make an offer

This painting is a cityscape from Venice from my last visit there. Though Venice is all water, the islands too are beautiful with colorful houses and charming buildings. This is one such view from one of the islands. Venice has been on my "to-paint" list for ages now and I hope this is a sign of things to come.

An afternoon in Venice
Oil on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
Bidding starts at $60, Mail me to place a bid

With this painting, once again I have ventured into oils with the palette knife. My comfort levels are just getting better. This one was good fun. I spent more time in deciding between oils and acrylics, than the actual painting time itself. Phew! This painting is done on gallery wrapped canvas and the sides are painted. You can therefore hang it even without a frame, though I must say it looks awesome with a good frame.

I hope you like it. Let me know your comments.

A year in paintings - a video

2010-12-31T06:49:00.000-08:00

Most of my work this year was of course in the 5 by 7 size. 280 of them to be precise. But, I did paint in a lot of bigger sizes too. The dancers are all 16 by 20 inches, the summer observations are about 10 by 12 inches and so on.

The bigger pieces I believe would be a better indication of my style of work, as compared to the smaller ones. The whole year, I have experimented quite a lot with subjects, style, colors and so on. I tried my hand at multi panel pieces and I am quite confident with them now. For someone who painted her first ever floral on the 1st of Jan 2010, they are now my most favorite subject by a mile. I almost completely became a palette knife painter. So many things that happened this year.

Paintings 2010 by Nithya Swaminathan

I have added the paintings in the precise order in which they were done. Hence I would love to hear from you if you see a growth in my work over the course of the year. Do you honestly think that these pieces, when seen together, are coherent in style? Do you see "me" in these pieces? In all of them? Are there pieces that stick out like a sore thumb? I'd love to hear any comments from you, all feedback is most welcome.

And for the record, from the first painting to the last one, I personally feel things have changed for the better. There is some hope after all! Feel free to share this video to anyone who might be interested.:)

And finally, one last and final reminder for my painting giveaway. I am giving away three original paintings as a New Year's gift, to 3 lucky people who have shared my link and left me a comment. And the giveaway ends today. Don't worry too much about the deadline based on your time zone, this is anyway not the first thing that I am going to do in the morning. So you are still most welcome to enter. I also noticed that some people have shared a link but have not left a comment. If you are not interested in receiving a painting but have shared just like that, thank you so much anyway. If you have missed leaving a comment but intended to, please do right away. Thank you so much. Have a fantastic New Year everyone. See you next year!

Up in the air - New Acrylic Tango painting and reflecting on 2010

2010-12-31T05:57:00.000-08:00

I wanted to squeeze in one more painting for the year. I was having a huge quadtych of Irises that has been pending from quite some time. And my husband had given me a deadline till the year end to complete it, and since I too had the same idea, I was working on it the whole of today. But then, Mr. Murphy had to have his say and it was just not turning out right. It was somewhere between real and abstract and everything in between, and nothing related to what I had in mind. So I ditched it, left it aside for later. That's one baggage I carry with me into 2011.

But then, I was not at peace with this at all and had this nagging feeling eating my brains out. And then in a flash, it occurred to me that I do a quick small one and yet manage to squeeze in a new painting for the year. And I spent no time in deciding what to paint and stuff. And this was completed in about 15 minutes. Or a little less. I was mighty pleased with myself at having got the better of Murphy.

Thinking back, it was just the perfect way to finish the year, as 2010 has precisely been that kind of year for me. A year where I could find time from the most unsuspecting corners. A year when I managed to create over 300 pieces of art, a lot of family and work commitments notwithstanding. A year that I could look back to, and beam with pride at all the art that was created in an hour or less, as opposed to feeling guilty about all the hours wasted. A year when I developed a unique style and am closer to the day when my paintings could be identified as mine without seeing my name on them. A year when I had a lot of people write to me that they loved my work. A year when I proved a lot to myself about what I was capable of. A year when my distant dreams became a bit more tangible and real. A year that had a lot of growth for me as a person and artist. Certainly a year to cherish, and a new benchmark to better next year.

I will not be publishing a goals post, I am sure you're already deluged with such. I did not post one last year either, and ended up with 313 paintings, the largest of which is 32 by 32 inches. I daresay I do not believe in publishing and publicizing what you plan to do. That's not to say I do not have a plan in the first place. Far from it.

A very happy New Year to everyone. May 2011 be better in every which way!

Vineyard Panorama - New Textured Triptych with Acrylics

2010-12-29T04:22:00.000-08:00

I had promised a couple of days back that I have at least 3 more paintings coming up. This is the 3rd one, as promised. But then, this is technically three paintings into one. :)

The autumn season here is very beautiful in the wine growing regions along the Rhine. One of my very first paintings this year, "Evening sun at Assmannhausen" was also based on an early autumn view of the Rhine valley taken last year. This one is from one of our day trips this autumn. We had gone on a picnic to a little village called Edenkoben, in the Rheinland Pfalz or the Palatinate region in Germany. It was perfect timing for the harvest that we could pluck grapes and munch on them throughout the day. And I absolutely love the fresh new wine that you get in this season, just after the harvest.

This was quite an ambitious triptych as it is based on different photos. I cropped and played around with a few images to get a reference with a panoramic view. This was our view from atop a little castle in Edenkoben, just overlooking the vineyards. The painting is also entirely textured. For the first time, I have done even the skies with the knife. Vineyards are a super subject to paint with the knife, it gives that really nice look of rows and rows of grapes. It was great fun! This time with the triptych, I also made sure that the paintings work decently as stand alone pieces. I think I succeeded reasonably well with that. Let me know what you think.

This is probably my last painting of 2010, unless I get wildly ambitious tomorrow. :) I have a lot more pending things to complete with regards to updating the blog/website and the likes and probably put up a year end review post. I might just not get the time to paint, but let's see.

And finally, yet another reminder - I have my painting giveaway going on this week where 3 paintings of your choice are up for grabs. Please share the link and leave me a comment. Thank you for participating! :)

Flying Flames - A belly dancer in oils now

2010-12-29T03:48:00.000-08:00

I fell in love with this reference at first sight and this time I have kept it really close to the reference. I did not want to change a thing, it was so perfect as it is! As is the case with all my belly dancers, this one too is based on a reference photo from Flickr photographer Adelita Chohfi.

After doing all the belly dancers with Acrylics, I wanted to do one with oils for a change. The flowy fabric was great to work with oils as I wanted it really smooth and silky without any texture. I hope you like it! Let me know what you think!

The world ahead - Commissioned Acrylic Painting

2010-12-28T06:51:00.000-08:00

As it is the year end and just as I am completing pending paintings, I was also skimming through my drafts only to realize how many paintings I have not blogged. Well! I will try and post some of these drafts, but not sure if I will be able to post all of them. This one I just had to, as it is one of my favorite pieces from the year.

This was a private commission from a friend that was completed earlier this year. The seed of thought for this one came from my friend who wanted an image that will be very South Indian. This child is her little girl, dressed up in a Pattu paavadai, the traditional Tamilian attire which is a long silk skirt. When it comes to a backdrop that is distinctly South Indian, nothing beats a temple really.

I decided on a monochromatic look because I did not want the temple to compete for attention with the child, which was definitely the focal point of the painting. But then, the temple had to be prominent too, so I have incorporated a lot of texture into this painting. This was my first time experimenting with structuring elements like pastes. The temple was carved out with heavy gel medium and then painted with Acrylics. And since black and white was too bland for my liking, I gave it a light sepia tone.

The temple reference is based on the Somnathpur Temple nearby Mysore, which is one of the most stunning temples I have been to, a symphony in stone. The temple is full of exquisite carvings from the Hindu mythology, done in intricate detail. The temple in real is monochromatic and doesn't have a colored Gopuram (tower) like temples in Tamil Nadu. So the minute I thought about a b/w background, the Somnathpur temple was the first thing on my mind. And fortunately, I had some nice photos based on which I could do a sketch.

With a commissioned piece, that's how I work. I will give a preliminary sketch which has to be to the complete satisfaction of the client, only after which I will start working on the actual piece. It is much easier to make any changes at the sketch level itself. I will be sending across work in progress images regularly as often as I could too, and there is always room for last minute changes, but still.

The main challenge was that the child had to be the focus of the image, though she occupies about 10% of the canvas. And the child had to resemble the little girl in the reference, though her face was hardly seen. Now this is a real challenge I tell you, to convincingly get the resemblance in the profile. This piece is huge and the biggest problem was in shipping it. When shipping smaller pieces itself makes me very anxious and stuff, shipping something of this size is a lot of tension. I can never trust my painting with anyone else, not even my husband :-D So definitely not the shipping guys and it makes me really paranoid. Anyway!

Your comments are welcome!

Reminder:

I am sure you now know pretty well that I have a painting give away going on this week. Don't miss it, it is a great chance to receive a piece of original art. My post about the giveaway. Do share it with your friends/anyone who might be interested. Thank you!

Show Stopper - New Textured Acrylic Painting

2010-12-27T05:57:00.000-08:00

Got back to another belly dancer after a long long time. I had started with this one more than 9 months back, as soon I completed Break Free and Ecstasy. With the background done and some initial sketching done, I had just put it off one day as the face wasn't just turning out right. The angle was very tricky and the proportions between the face and the body were always haywire. I never got back to it till a couple of days ago, and I am glad that I did not in a way.

Now when I picked it up, I was completely fresh with the subject, new perspective. After correcting the errors with the face and the initial sketch, my first thought was where to use the knife and get in some texture. Of course, these belly dancers have highly ornate dresses with beads and mirrors, so it is ideal to play around with the knife. I have painted her dress completely with the knife, have also used a little bit of metallic silver paint. I like the effect it gives.

The belly dancer series is all about capturing movement. With the hazy background, flowy dresses etc, it is my attempt to capture the carefree attitude and movement. This one was entirely the opposite though. There is nothing about movement here, it is all about a moment of silence. A pause in between a performance. And the anticipation of "what next". The dancer's grace and attitude had to be there without an iota of movement. I loved that challenge and it was great painting this one.

Looking back at the entire year, my most favorite paintings are all of dancers. Or at least people. This is definitely one of my focus areas for next year, to paint the figure as often as possible.

I am very satisfied with the outcome of this one. Very very. Thrilled in fact. I love the impact it gives. You comments are of course most welcome!

A reminder:

My year end painting give away is on this week, please do participate. You get to win an original piece of art :) Check out my post here. Please pass on the word and get as many people as possible to take part. Thank you so much!

My first painting give away - Welcome 2011!

2010-12-26T19:56:00.000-08:00

Why a give away?

Just because I am happy :) If you thought you had enough of giving and sharing with Christmas, how about extending that a wee bit longer? Isn't that exciting? I have wanted to run a painting give away for sometime now, and after mulling over the idea, I decided that the New Years is the perfect time for it. I think it would be great for you too, to start the New Year by receiving a special gift. Isn't it?

2010 has been a great year for me on many counts, and I would love to look back at it fondly. 2009 ended on a lousy note and I was SO looking forward to this year. And it has been a real blessing. At the end of the year, when I look back at all that has happened Artwise and otherwise, I am a very happy and contented person than what I was a year before. And I would love to share that happiness with you, my dear readers. Yes, even if that is just a single digit number of people :P And what better way than sharing a piece of art.

The other reason that I want to do a give away is of course to get more readers and blog subscribers. I share my work on facebook and/or twitter almost every other day, and my blog feed is published on facebook as well, but I am not quite sure how many actually read it. I could get more people to read now, hopefully.

I have had people on my facebook friend list send me mails asking if I sell anywhere online, if I take up private commissions, if there is a portfolio where they can see all my work together under one roof etc etc. The list is endless. The answer to all these questions is always a "Yes", and it is all right there if you take a moment to drop by my website. Actually you know what, you could buy my art right on Facebook, on my fan page! How cool is that! So when I have published all information and people are still not aware, then I am obviously not networking right and promoting myself well enough. So I hope this is a baby step in that direction, to get more people to be aware of what I do and what I could do for you.

When?

This whole week, till Dec 31st 2010, I will be running a give away and you could participate no matter where in the world you are. On the 1st of Jan 2011, I will draw out 3 names using a random number generator and each of them gets to win a painting of his/her choice. So yes, not only do you have the chance to own an original piece of art, you also get to choose which one. :) So here we go!

Which paintings could you choose from?

Now this is very important isn't it. Though I do paint in sizes upto 3 ft by 3ft (largest so far), for the give away, you get to choose work that measures 5 by 7 inches only. Don't worry, you have nearly 300 paintings to choose from, remember my 300 to 30 project earlier this year? That would include my pears, snowscapes, waterlilies, the million irises, gazillion tulips, poppies, poppy fields, lilies, coneflowers, the Tango dancers and what not! And don't worry, not all of them are trash, I am sure you will find one or two that you like :) In my sidebar here, you will find links to my facebook albums too having all these paintings.

A word about these paintings. Most of them are textured, done with the palette knife, and look three dimensional. All of them are Acrylic paintings and will be shipped varnished, ready to frame. And they will fit into a standard store bought frame. The work will tempt you to touch and feel it, which is very exciting I can assure you. There are non textured pieces as well, the water lilies for instance.

How to participate?

All you have to do is this:

Share a link to my blog/website on Facebook/Twitter/elsewhere. (I wonder if anyone uses any other network other than the two, but still). Maybe even on your blog.

It would be awesome if you could share the link to this post itself, so that more people could participate in the give away.

Come back and leave a comment here on this post, with the link. If you have tweeted, leave me a link to your tweet so that I count you in for the draw.

And while you leave a comment, also let me know which painting you would like to receive, if you were to win. And why. As in, why do you like that particular piece. The last point is important, otherwise I will choose your art for you :P

If you share separately say on Facebook and Twitter, feel free to leave two links and I will enter your name twice. :)

Was that simple? Thank you so much for your patronage, as always!

This is not the last post for the year by the way, I have at least 3 more paintings coming up. So stay tuned.

Christmas Penguins - New Oil Painting

2010-12-24T21:35:00.000-08:00

One more still life capturing the spirit of the season. I am having great fun with these little pieces. Last year, I tried doing an aerial view of a big Christmas Market, but I trashed that piece as I did not like it. These pieces are much more fun, they are focused on just 1 or 2 objects and still capture the spirit well. If I have to buy all of these, I'd run out of space at home, so painting them is the least I could do. Most of the Christmas markets have a lot of things in common, and superficially they look alike. But these decorative pieces in the shops are generally based on the regional specialties. Like in Michelstadt, there were a lot of wood carvings and work made out of wood. They were of course very expensive too :)

Did I mention already that these Christmas pieces ship for free? Oh yes, ABSOLUTELY FREE WORLDWIDE! Just because I am quite happy and wanted to offer something nice to my collectors. This is only for the Christmas pieces though. I will add the normal shipping rates from the New Year, so this is only for the next 1 week.

I hope you like this one! Feedback and comments are most welcome :)

"Moo"rry Christmas!

2010-12-24T17:47:00.000-08:00

This is yet another still life from one of the Christmas Markets here in Germany. We visited 4 different markets over the 4 weeks of advent and it was great fun. This set of dolls is from the market in Michelstadt, Odenwald. It was my favorite market this year, thanks to a great suggestion by a friend. We had an awesome time, the atmosphere was terrific and the Glühwein, phenomenal! I'd love to go back there next year.

We had such a tedious drive with quite a few detours due to some road work and accidents. But it was all worth it in the end. Hope you like this one.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T16:05:00.000-08:00

I'd like to wish all my collectors, readers and everyone else a very Merry Christmas. May you be blessed with a lot of peace and happiness in life. This is a new still life that I painted yesterday. I hope you like it. :)

Now on YouTube - bookmark it my dear readers!

2010-12-24T07:40:00.000-08:00

This was looooong due, and am I mighty glad that I finally overcame my laziness! Since videos are *hugely* popular, maintaining an active YouTube channel has been on my to-do list for so long! And everytime I started working on it, I realized it was very time consuming and would so something else instead. Today somehow I decided that I had to complete it.

A year in paintings, Originals by Nithya Swaminathan, 2010

I am a complete novice with iMovie, and was figuring out things with the help of some how-to videos and stuff. I must say of course that Apple makes it child's play with iMovie, to create videos, add music etc etc. I am yet to explore it fully. I have also wanted to do some demo videos of how exactly I paint. I think it is quite interesting to see an artist at work, coz each one of us is so different from the others. I hope to get that done during the holidays as well. A simple short demo of my working with the palette knife. Let's see.

I have right now uploaded two videos, both only of my floral paintings. It does not contain all the florals done this year though. I have omitted more than 50 of them as they were downright embarrassing. However good or bad the work looks, it is I must say extremely gratifying to see all of them together. And to actually think that I have painted quite a lot during the course of the year.

Original Floral Paintings by Nithya Swaminathan, 2010

Looking at the videos, I think the transition time between pictures is too less, kind of changing in a hurry. Let me know what you think. Any feedback is greatly appreciated as I am a complete beginner. Even feedback about the background music, do you think a voice over would make more sense, and so on! Thanks so much for viewing, and please feel free to share! :)

"Ablaze" - New Oil Painting

2010-12-23T05:45:00.000-08:00

Last night I was working on a Christmas still life with Acrylics. And painted this one with oils, for a break from my Acrylic paints. Working on multiple pieces at once is great fun but is maddening. And if you throw in a mix of oil and acrylics into this, it is drama of the highest order. New set of paints, new set of brushes, new palette and everything else! Thats's kinda how I work.

I have all my materials, oils and acrylics within reach, within sight. Pick up a different canvas and brushes depending on my mood and just take off from where I left.

My method of working might leave anyone else completely dazed, but it works like a charm for me. I am disorganized as disorganized can be. I paint sitting down, with at least 5 panels around me. So yesterday, as my paint was drying a bit, I was waiting. If I did not have this other canvas within sight, I'd have probably spent the waiting time browsing facebook or some other crap. What I did instead, was pick up this long canvas, pick up my oil paints and palette and stuff, and started painting. Voila! It was completed in half an hour. Or 45 mins at the max.

This was great fun. And after a long long time, this painting is done entirely with a brush. It is not textured. I still love it. Actually love how all the three long canvasses turned out. I think I should work in this format a little more. It has a lot of scope for interesting compositions.

Please click on the image for a larger view. Thank you!

Reading by the Lake V - New Oil Painting

2010-12-23T05:31:00.000-08:00

Continuing with the reading series of paintings, this one is done with Oils though. Oil paints are much more fun when used with the palette knife, they are much easier to work with than Acrylics. The drawback of course is that they take ages to dry. What with oil paints "normally" taking so long, the paint is so thick with the knife and drying is a never ending process.

There are some areas that I am not happy with in this painting. Some that I really like too. I am pleased with the overall figure, but the contrast between the guy's nose and the background is very minimal and it is kinda lost somewhere. The background and foreground turned out much better than the Acrylic pieces. I am planning to buy some smaller canvasses and go berserk with oils for a while. I love love love them!

Do you like this one? Better than the ones done with Acrylics? Any comments/feedback? Thank you!

Neck Out - New Textured Acrylic Painting

2010-12-18T06:19:00.000-08:00

During my birthday in July, we had gone on a short beach vacation in the Netherlands. But as Murphy would have it, it was too windy and rainy on the day that we could not even walk on to the beach. In an instinct, like my husband and I make a lot of decisions, we drove to Amsterdam. We went on this awesomely romantic "Amsterdam by Night" cruise through the lovely canals at around sundown. This picture was clicked during that cruise.

Amsterdam doesn't have many tall buildings, hardly any. The guide was telling that this is the tallest building in the city or something to that effect, but I was busy watching the gorgeous light fall on the building and tried to get the best possible picture of it. I knew I would paint it, that very instant. I clicked to paint it infact. Now after some googling, Wiki tells me that this is the Westertoren, the tallest church in Amsterdam at a height of 85m. I clicked this almost lying on my back in the boat, which is why the extremely unique angle.

Click on the image for a larger view. I had a blast painting this one. Great fun! Let me know what you think.