SOLD - Prep time! - Original Figurative Painting in Oils, 6 by 6 inches

As the warmer temperatures set in, all I want to go to the beach :-) Well for the time being virtually, and then hopefully in real.

Prep Time
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
SOLD

SOLD - Soaking in the Sun - Original beach painting in oils

I love doing beach paintings, more so in winter. I keep dreaming about abundant sunshine and taking off to the beaches.:-) 

Soaking in the sun
Oil on Canvas, 12 by 4 inches
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SOLD - Finishing Touches - Original Oil Painting of Children

A companion piece to the previous beach paintings -

Finishing Touches
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
SOLD

My beach paintings would make a great display when combined, a collage like below.

Beach Paintings by Nithya Swaminathan

SOLD - Team Work - Original Oil Painting of Children

I love scenes of children building sand castles. Watching them go about the process with all the seriousness gives me so much joy and the perfect opportunity for a lot of nice paintings. I have quite a few nice references and will be doing a couple of more pieces on this theme. They would make for a great collaged display too. 

Team Work
Oil on Board, 6 by 6 inches
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I find capturing wet sand extremely challenging, struggling to match the color and value every time I mixed it. Accommodating all the figures into the small canvas with the right proportions was a huge challenge too and I had fun! And I am quite happy with how this one turned out. 

Sunshine stroll - Figurative beach painting in Oils

This is one of those references that made me wish I was transported right there. With the gorgeous sun, lapping waters and a stroll all alone with nothing on the mind. Ha! I wish! 

It is also my favorite painting of the week, I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

Sunshine Stroll
Oil on Canvas, 4 by 12 inches
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Click here to bid.

"Face off!" - Original Oil beach painting by Nithya Swaminathan

When I did two kid paintings on the beach, all my other beach references came gushing back to me and I will be continuing with them one by one. 

I started this painting originally with both the figures seen in full, and a bit of the sky too in the background. I had stopped it at a stage where there was an hour's work needed. When I looked at it the next day though, I did not like it and felt the figures weren't interesting enough. Then I sketched them out again in a closer crop and felt it worked a little better. So went ahead and wiped off the painting and started afresh.

Face off!
Oil on Canvas, 8 by 8 inches
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Click here to bid

I did not take a picture of the initial version of this painting, so that it would have been nice to look at them side by side. Oh well, but I am glad that I went ahead and changed it instead of trying to "fix" it. Let me know how you like it.

Who's that? - Beach painting of children in summer

This is the same little girl from the previous painting, I loved painting her all over again!

Who's that?
Oil on board, 5 by 7 inches
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Click here to bid

What's that? - Oil painting of children in Summer

I have a thing for kids with curly hair. I find them irresistible! And that's what caught my attention first about this little girl too, that big bush on her head.:)

What's that!
Oil on Canvas, 5 by 7 inches
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Click here to bid

Splashing Around - Sun, sands and some kids!

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

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.

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.

News Update - Original Oil Painting of people at the Beach

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!

A walk on the beach - New Beach painting in Oils

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.

Catching up - New Beach Painting in Oils

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

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!

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.