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
Click to bid

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)
Click to bid

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

"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
Click here to bid

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
Click here to bid

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.

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

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

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

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. 

Bleeding Blue! - Stuff of a billion dreams!

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. 

Welcome Spring! - Textured Oil painting of a daffodil

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

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

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.

Make an offer for March 2011 and some updates!

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.

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.

Autumn Woods - an update

I was absolutely dissatisfied with the leaves that I had begun in this painting. I had only done the initial layer and there was still a long way to go, but the first step itself was not in the right direction I felt. Being the oil painter that I am, I had this urge to pick up my palette knife and paint to my heart's content. And yeah, thats exactly what I did.

Autumn Woods - Stage 5
(c) Nithya Swaminathan

I have no clue if acrylic painters actually use the palette knife, this was the first time I did. I have used it with oil paintings, and I love the textures the knife generates. My leaves now have got that texture too and I am liking it. The end result is satisfying, though they look like gulmohars and not maples, LOL! The reference image has no clear direction of light, which I wanted to change. Hence I introduced some light from the right side and pushed the darks in the shadows with a lot of blue. Also, I introduced some flesh tint and mild yellows in the barks that face the sunlight, to bring in the sunlit effect. Wonder if I have succeeded fully.

Autumn Woods - detail close up
(c) Nithya Swaminathan

What you see above is a little close up of the leaves, how haphazardly they are done without any actual leaf shapes. I love doing that. I simply picked up some scarlett red, orange and lemon yellow in my knife and went about it without a thought. The dark bluish black lines behind are shadows of the leaves and branches on the trees behind. I introduced these sharp shadows also to accentuate the sunlit effect that I was trying for.

Autumn Woods - stage 6
(c) Nithya Swaminathan

I think I would call the top half of the painting done, excepting the ferns in the front. They need some more highlights on them and I am half way with them. I have just begun working on the reflection, have loosely laid in the barks. When I started with the reflections, I felt like adding some wet rocks along the banks. Some rocks with a coating of algae on them. Wonder if it would go along well with the painting or work against it. You will probably get to know that tomorrow.:-)