Testing the waters

Testing the Waters
Mixed Media on Canvas, 6 * 9 inches.
copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Karin Jurick, one of my favorite blogging artists runs a blog "Different Strokes from Different Folks" that hosts a challenge every week. She uploads an image and any artist is welcome to submit their interpretation of the image. Any medium is fine.

I love this blog and enjoy seeing the close to hundred different versions of an image every week. While I have wanted to participate in this, I have not quite found the time. Infact I have 2-3 of the previous challenges in a half done state! This time I loved this image and simply could not let it go. I have significantly modified the reference, but the essence is not changed.

The focus is on the shadows and the various colors in them. This one is done with mixed media, a little bit of watercolors, some acrylics and some CPs. It was fun. I did a rough sketch and then closed the reference. I wanted to give it a shot without seeing the colors in the photo. I followed a very loose approach, wanted to try something very different from what I usually do. I will get back to this image after a while and try to evaluate myself, though now I can say it looks decent.

Since the image is a late night image under lights, it does not reflect the true colors as they are in person. I will upload a better image in the morning. And do not forget to check out all the entries, they look awesome!

Monet's gardens at Giverny

This is a painting I started and posted as a WIP 6 months ago, but it never took off coz what I had in mind was simply not getting translated onto the canvas. I was getting frustrated to the core! I would touch the painting every now and then, correct something that I felt was not okay, but as a whole it never looked right. The lighting was all screwed up and it lacked any kind of atmosphere.

Now I have got back to the painting, and I gave up on acrylics as my skills were very limited, and decided to proceed with oils. I must say its been more of a relief than anything else. Relief because of two reasons - one is I am able to see some redemption for this painting, which I so dearly loved. I love the image that I have in my mind and I am striving to get it down, and I am relieved that I don't have to ditch it. Secondly, my oil painting abilities are as good as they were and I am absolutely at ease with them even though I am getting back to oils after almost 5 years! Its almost like a love affair, I could just take off where I left. I hope to strike a balance between oil and acrylics henceforth and not totally concentrate on one forgetting the other. I love oils for its flexibility and ease of painting. And I like acrylics for their quickness. And I would like to do a bit of both, going forward.

Untitled as yet.
Mixed media on Canvas, 20 * 24 inches.

So coming back to my painting. Here is how it is now. So what have I done since the last time is I have changed the dress color of the woman, coz I felt it was an overdoze of cool colors. I wanted the woman to stand out in the painting. Most of Monet's paintings of Giverny do not have any human figures in them. They are beautiful depictions of nature and light, but I wanted the human figure here and decided to go ahead with it even though I wasn't sure initially.

My focal point is the lady, coz this painting is very 'personal' in a lot of ways. Monet being one of my all time favorites, this painting is how I would feel if I were at his gardens. It is like cumulative inspiration, one from the gardens themselves, and even more from the art that was generated from the gardens. And what inspires more, Nature or the Art! The woman obviously represents me, though I don't look like that :-) I have got some great suggestions from WetCanvas to take this forward, and I hope to bring this to completion soon.