Blue and Orange #2 - Original Still Life in Oils

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

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

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

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

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

Ms.Glowing beak - Original Bird Portrait in Oils

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

Ms.Glowing Beak
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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Black Beauty! - Original Palette Knife Painting in Oils

A few days back, I received an email from someone asking if I had ever thought about doing palette knife paintings of animals, rabbits in particular. It gave me a spark and made me think "why not?". After all, animals with their furry bodies are perfect for directional strokes with the knife. They will look lovely when textured. So I went ahead and gave this a shot. It was good fun, painting a predominantly black subject without using any black. I used a little more colour in the lighter areas and generally had fun. It was good to experiment since it is the first time I am doing an animal portrait of any sort. 

Black Beauty
Oil on board, 18 by 24 cms (7 by 9.5 inches)
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Rooster #1 - Original Palette Knife Bird Painting

I have been meaning to paint roosters for as long as I can remember, I love their personalities and colorful bodies. And what more, I know they would make perfect subjects for palette knife painting. So here it is, finally my first rooster. And let's just call him Rooster #1, as I know for a fact that there will be more to follow. Soon. :-)

Rooster #1
Oil on board, 5 by 7 inches
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SOLD - Saffron Toucanet - Original Palette Knife Bird Painting

This little bird was yet another challenge in the group Paint Colorful Birds for Fun, on Facebook. What a lovely bird with such bright colors. I prefer to do them with the palette knife. 

This painting is also my entry to the Premix Color challenge on DPW. So I mixed all the colors beforehand and my palette was fully ready before even touching the canvas. It is completely opposite to how I normally work, I mix colors as I go. This was a great learning, different experience and saved so much time in the painting process itself!

Saffron Toucanet
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
SOLD

Here's an image of my palette before starting painting. This is the neatest my palette has been, ever! 

One thing the premixing process ensures is that we think well beforehand about the values and colors, and don't discover midway that they are way off. I might give it a shot again!

SOLD - Angry Bird - Original Palette Knife Oil Painting

I follow watercolour artist Sharon on facebook, and every month she holds a challenge where artists get to paint from a photo. The last couple of challenges were all animals and I loved looking at various interpretations though I did not participate in them. As I have mentioned a few times earlier, I am not very fond of painting animals. When she posted this eagle for the February challenge, I had made a mental note to take part. I had totally forgotten about it until it popped up again on my Facebook feed. 

I totally loved the reference and at first sight it just screamed "Palette Knife"! So of course, knife it had to be! Also, I have been neglecting my knives for a while now and thought this would be a good opportunity to warm up the knife painting muscle a bit.:-)

Angry Bird
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
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I loved the reference, which is by wildlife photographer Gary Jones. The fire in the bird's eyes begged to be painted and I hope I have done justice to it. Do take a look at the various entries here, they are all amazing! Thank you so much for hosting the challenge, Sharon. It was a blast. 

Tufted Coquette - SOLD

Recently, I came across this group called "Paint colorful birds for fun" on Facebook. A new bird is selected every week and artists have a go at painting it. When you are stuck on deciding what to paint, something like this is a great time saver. It helps me dive right in instead of wasting hours looking at all my references and trying to come up with something "perfect". 

Tufted Coquette
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
SOLD

Go after it - original oil painting of children

The little boy chasing his football again. I painted this one as a companion piece to my earlier painting "Kick off". The colours are a bit more muted in this one I think. I don't think I'll ever get enough of painting kids, one of my absolute favourite subjects to paint. 

Go after it
Oil on board, 7 by 5 inches
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This is my 5th painting in the 30 in 30 days challenge. Unfortunately, my vacation ends today and I hope I can get some painting done even amidst my work week starting tomorrow. Oh well! 

"Say cheese" - 30 in 30, #4

I happened to spot these kids at a popular tourist attraction a couple of years ago. While I wanted to capture the girl taking a picture of one of the boys, I was pleasantly surprised to find the onlooker boy also in my reference. I have used a mix of the brush and the palette knife for this painting. The girl is one using the palette knife, and I have also used the knife for the foreground. The farther steps and the two boys are all done with the brush. They were two tricky for the knife and I could not risk messing up the painting. 

Say Cheese
Oil on board, 7 by 5 inches
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If you like my work, make sure to "like" my page on Facebook and subscribe to my blog by mail so that you don't miss a post. Have a good Sunday!

My cozy corner - 30 in 30, #3

Took on another larger one today, this one too is a 12 by 6 inch piece. And managed to complete it from sketching to signing all in about 4 hours. Looks like all isn't lost yet.:-) 

Long ago, I got one of Carol Marine's short art tutorials on DPW, one where she explains about color mixing and saturation. Though I got the tutorial quite a while back, I did not get to do a full fledged painting from what I learnt. I tried to make use of it here, this piece does not use any tube of green paint. All the green is mixed from the primaries. This whole piece uses 2 types of yellow, 2 types of blue and 1 red. That's all about it. 

As a self taught artist who has not yet had the opportunity to attend a workshop with anyone, the tutorial was so informative and useful. It is of course common knowledge that one can paint only with the primaries, but Carol's demo videos get the point across very well. I loved it. There is still a long way to go for me with respect to handling edges and stuff, but I am immensely enjoying the process and learning a lot. 

My cozy corner
Oil on Canvas, 12 by 6 inches
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This piece is from a reference I caught at one of the city parks. They are one of my favourite places to watch people. A perfect sunny summer day, lost in a book. Such ideal settings are stuff that I can only dream of right now, considering my 1 year old just doesn't give me the time. So dream I do, and paint my dreams.:) 

I have also painted it entirely with the palette knife. I find the knife my ideal tool for trees and foliage. Had a lot of fun with this one.

Spring blossom - Textured floral painting in Oils

The magnolia is one flower that I never painted before. For the amount of florals that I do, it is quite something. I do have some nice references though, and when I look for the next painting, I just skim through them and never bothered to get to them. This time however, I was struggling with another painting, I do not remember which one, and then took out a fresh board and started this little piece on a whim. 

Spring blossom
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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It was a great break from the figures that I was painting. Before I realized I had made good progress with it and it kind of painted itself! :) I splurged at the art store recently and among my purchases were a couple of lovely shades of pink. They were promptly put to use here. Love them pinks! :)

Let me know what you think.

Mommy's girl - Textured paintings of children in summer

Tagging along with mommy. This painting is textured, it has been painted with the palette knife. I loved doing the little girl's dress with the knife, it was just perfect for it. Let me know what you think.

Mommy's girl
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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Daisies - thinking of spring..

The temperatures here dropped to record lows a couple of weeks ago and I was freezing.. This winter has actually been so mild and this sudden drop made me paranoid that spring might be delayed.. So I wanted to paint something while I wait for spring :) Rather impatiently at that!

Daisies
Oil on board, 6 by 6 inches
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If you noticed the last few paintings were all done with the brushes only, and one reason to do a flower again was the urge to pick up my knives as well. So liberating painting with the knife, as always. I did not like it initially, but almost a week after it was painted, looks quite decent to me now.

A mock-framed pic to give you an idea. :-)

Busy bee - Original Textured painting of children in summer

Busy Bee
Oil on Canvas, 5 by 7 inches
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Coneflower #3 - Textured floral palette knife painting

Coneflower #3
Acrylics on board, 5 by 7 inches
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Click here to bid.

Coneflower #2 - Textured palette knife floral painting, 5 by 7 inches

Coneflower #2
Acrylics on board, 5 by 7 inches
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Click here to bid.

Day Dreamer - Original Textured Floral by Nithya Swaminathan, 5 by 7 inches

The coneflower is one flower I just can't get enough of. They are one of my absolute favorite flowers to paint, more so because the shape renders itself beautifully to be painted with the palette knife. Swaying in the wind, lost in thoughts like a day dreamer!

Day Dreamer
Acrylics on board, 5 by 7 inches
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Evening glow - textured floral oil painting by Nithya Swaminathan, 6 by 6 inches

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

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

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